Corndogs + Avocados

Hooray! After more than 2,000 miles and three and a half days of driving, Liz and Darin were reunited. I’m sure others could have made the trip in less time, but I am “stay awake” challenged and terrified of using any artificial stimulant to keep me awake for fear that it will wear off and I’ll konk out on the steering wheel going 75 in Minnesota and crash into a tractor.

The scenery changes subtly along I-90 across the northern states, but at this time of year it is all green, and the yellow and purple wildflowers keep you company the whole way. The altitude gains and losses are perhaps the most notable change. Our little car worked good and hard to get up and down the mountains in Idaho and western Montana. Craggier peaks slowly gave way to hills and plateaus which turned into a rolling landscape which eventually lay flat.

Can anyone explain these horns? I don?t remember where I was when I saw them.

I liked the signs in Montana (I think it was Montana) along the highway announcing what was growing in that particular spot. Potatoes! Sweet corn! It seemed that under every overpass in Minnesota there were dozens of swallow nests with the birds darting madly about in the fading light. In Minnesota and Wisconsin I noticed the red-winged blackbirds, with impossibly bright red patches on their shoulders, that will always remind me of my dad who pointed them out to us years ago all over Mt. Diablo. Farm land for miles.

The rest stop highlights were definitely Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, and the Spam Museum.

Mom and I were laughing just the other day about when we (my siblings and I) were all in grade school and she and Dad would haul us all over the west to incredible natural phenomena, and all we could say was, “Where’s the gift shop?” We could spend hours at the gift shops. Grand Canyon shmand canyon. Well, Wall Drug is the mother of all gift shops. And it is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Signs line the highway for hundreds of miles until you just have to stop and see what it’s all about. I won’t say more and spoil the surprise.

The Spam Museum was pretty awesome, I highly recommend it, especially since it is free. I got so excited and sucked into the hype that I bought a t-shirt. $16 for a t-shirt and the only time I’ve ever actually had Spam was when Nancy cooked a casserole with it and I didn’t know it until I asked her, “This is amazing! What’s in it?” “Spam.”

Another highlight was staying with Wendy’s mom, Jo Lea and her husband Len in Sioux Falls. Thank you!

The highlight-imus maximus, however, was finding Darin-Darin-Darin at the end of my long drive! (Photo taken in a water taxi on Chicago River.)