560 Miles, 4 States & A Giant!

Today was our longest day so far, and even though I expected it to be a bit boring it turned out to be pretty interesting. We were on the road by 7:30am and hit our first bad traffic around Gary, IN. Luckily, it was due to a breakdown and cleared up quickly, but what a depressing place! Terrible "skyline" full of smokestacks, high-tension lines and steel plants.

Then it was on to Chicago where we hit rush hour traffic that makes Boston's look easy!

We were lucky to be heading out of the city so we were through quickly and by 9:15 were back among the corn fields! Next up was Wisconson. Very pretty state with lots of different terrain...From flat farmland and corn fields to hills to wooded areas...reminded us of Maine in many ways. Sadly, at about this point we ate the last of the Cowboy Cookies that Nana made for us!

We even saw some buffalo, but they were on a farm and obviously being raised for market. Then it was on to Minnesota. Just after the state line the road crosses the upper Mississippi River - just gorgeous! No photos due to some technical difficulties, but more on that later.

Minnesota was amazing...acre after acre after acre of corn and soybean fields. Our camera just couldn't do them justice, but it was literally like looking at an ocean of corn!

We drove through an area that had a wind farm with miles of windmills towering over the fields. Very cool!

We also drove on some of the longest, straightest roads we've ever seen! Now back to the technical difficulties...our camera has been giving us trouble and we missed out on some great photos today! We decided not to play around with it anymore, so we took a detour to Target and bought a nice, new camera. I'm very excited!! We finally made it to our hotel at 6:00, tired and a bit sore, but we had a good day!

Oh, I can't forget the giant! On the side of the highway in Blue Earth, MN is a sign that the next exit is for the Jolly Green Giant Statue...we couldn't resist!

Sure, enough, there really IS a staue...in the middle of nowhere...of the Jolly Green Giant! Very strange...and VERY large! There's even a stairway to the platform for a photo op! Only in America!

Tomorrow we're off to South Dakota. We're going to slow things down from this point and really begin to enjoy ourselves. I guess 1,500 miles in 3 days is pushing it a little!