Day 17 (July 5th) – Jackson, Minnesota to Black Hills, South Dakota

Wow! What a day this was. This was packed from the minute we got up to the time that we went to bed. It is not the amount of driving that we did, and we did quite a bit of it. We saw lots of fun things and not so fun things. Who am I kidding, it was all good today, unless your name is Lisa. She was tired and is starting to want to be back at home.

We got going a little after 8 AM and started down Interstate 90 heading west. It didn’t take us long to come to another physics experiment. This gentleman decided to try to see what would happened when you go off the road with a trailer. The result is what you might expect. The truck is upright and the trailer is on its side still attached to the truck. The only good news here is that the gentleman was kind enough to do his physics experiments on a Sunday morning. There was no traffic backup due to this one fact. Lisa tried to take a picture of the trailer, but didn’t get the shot.

Our first stop of the day was the Corn Palace. As soon as we entered South Dakota we started seeing signs for this little gem. The Corn Palace is a little place in Mitchell, South Dakota. Its claim to fame is that it is decorated with murals made out of corn. They change the murals each year, and they are done by different artists. I don’t think any of these will ever be displayed at the Getty, but they are interesting. They also have a mascot that is an ear of corn. Lisa says it looks a little creepy, so we had the kids get a hug from the ear of corn and had a picture taken with them and the ear of corn. Thanks to DW who alerted me to this little gem. It was a nice diversion.

We crossed the Missouri River on to our next stop, which is the Minuteman National Monument. As we pulled up to the visitor center, there were lots of people looking around. We soon found out why they we outside the center. It is closed on Sundays, as well as the Minuteman Missile Silo a little further down the road. Don’t you feel good that the National Park Service doesn’t work on Sunday? This made me a little mad, because I really wanted to see the missile silo. We did get to see some information displays that were outside the visitor center. I’m just glad the military doesn’t take Sundays off.

Since we struck out with Minuteman National Monument, we decided to take the Badlands National Park loop. The Badlands is an area in South Dakota that the weather has worn away layers of sediment to produce some unique rock formations. This area is also very hot in the summer time. The loop itself is about 35 miles long. During this little detour, we stopped at the visitor center and looked at the exhibits and watched a film about the Badlands. The kids did what they needed to do for the Junior Ranger program. This is badge number two for the trip. Not long after we left the visitor center, we came across a field that was full of prairie dogs. And no, it wasn’t people in cubicles who would pop their head up every now and then to see what’s going on around them. These are the real live furry little creatures. Samantha wanted to take one home with her because she thought that they were nice and cute. They are until they start digging holes in your lawn and floor bed then it is good-bye rose bushes hello mounds.

Our next stop was just outside the Badlands National Park in a town called Wall. Just like the Corn Palace, we started to see signs for Wall Drug as we entered South Dakota. They were even kind enough to let you know that you had some 300+ miles to go to get there. I never knew that Wall Drug was “the” destination of our trip. I am so glad that they let me know, because I would have hated to miss it. They had signs all along I-90. It seemed that there was one almost every two miles. The signs ranged from free ice water and five cent coffee to a T-Rex out back. With all these signs it was kind of hard not to get excited along the way. It got to a point that we pulled a map out to make sure that if we did the Badlands loop that we wouldn’t miss Wall Drug.

As we got close to Wall Drug, you started to sense that we weren’t the only ones that were whipped into a frenzy. The place was packed. We are talking about Saturday afternoon Costco. There was no reason for anyone to go to Wall, South Dakota, except to see Wall Drug, which as it turns out is a drug store. It is also a souvenir shop, restaurant, soda fountain, bakery, doughnut shop, a keeper of a T-Rex and much more. The place kind of reminded me of a National Park. The employees were from all over the globe. I really didn’t expect that. We did buy some homemade ice cream and doughnuts. Lisa didn’t want to wait for her five cent coffee, but I did get my free cup of ice water. A man has to have principles, besides the ice cream made me thirsty.

Our goal today was to get to the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is where Mount Rushmore is located. Lisa had mentioned that my dad was anxious to get to Mount Rushmore, so as we left Wall Drug I took the shortest route to Mount Rushmore, which at this point was still about 90 miles away. As you can probably guess about now, things are starting to go awry. I start to make a turn and Lisa and I notice my dad wants to go straight. As I am turning, Lisa turns to me and asks “Are we going to the camp site?” I am now puzzled by this because I thought everyone want to see Mount Rushmore first. As soon as I can, I pull over to talk to my dad who wants to go to the campsite first. He has it programmed in his GPS so I tell him that I will follow him. The only problem is that we are on the road to the monument, so what happens next? You remember that I told you about the time we were in New York and my dad points out the Statue of Liberty as we drive out of town? History has a funny way of repeating itself. We drive by Mount Rushmore and point it out to Miles and Samantha. They both commented that it doesn’t look that big. My dad mentions the Statue of Liberty incident to me after dinner and the resemblance of driving by Mount Rushmore. I laughed and told him the only difference is that we will be going back to see it closer.

We do finally make it to the campsite, and I ask the person working the desk about the hours for Mount Rushmore. She mentions that they have a lighting ceremony at 9 PM. The current time is 6:30, so I start to calculate in my head that we can make the lighting ceremony. Yippee!!! After we unhook the trailers and eat dinner, it is back in the car to Mount Rushmore, which is only about eight miles away. If you go see Mount Rushmore, you need to stay for the Lighting Ceremony. It really is incredible and moving. Lisa shed a tear or two. Before we left Mount Rushmore, the kids got there third Junior Ranger badge of the trip and the second of the day. Miles and Samantha said that they weren’t impressed. Miles also states it is just a mountain, and the best part was that he was able to get another Junior Ranger badge. Samantha expected it to be bigger. I was impressed and this is my second time seeing it. I was impressed the first time. It was a long and incredible day, so at 10 PM we made our way back to the campsite to go to bed.

We drove a total of 495 miles to day. We have driven a total of 5024 miles for the entire trip. We spent $145 on the purchase of gas today.

Day 16 (July 4th) – Minneapolis, Minnesota to Jackson, Minnesota

We have had all types of weather on this trip. We have gone through thunderstorms in New Mexico and Texas, sweltering heat in Missouri and Illinois, great weather in Ohio, high winds in Indiana and Chicago, cold and drizzly in Chicago, cold and gloomy in Wisconsin and now rainy in Minnesota. I only hope snow and hail, which both are unlikely, will stay away. Last night, it started to rain a little and as we were hooking up the trailers it started to poor. Anyone who has camped and packed up in the rain can tell you that it is the worst. Camping in the rain is no fun and can turn people off to camping. When I was a kid we actually camped in the snow, and even when there was a snow storm. I have no plans to ever do that again.

As I stated, we were planning to go from Tomahawk, Wisconsin to Sioux Falls, South Dakota today. My dad didn’t want to go that far originally, so we changed it to Jackson, Minnesota. But as I explained before, we changed are plans so that my dad could take a look at a book in a museum that was closed. This meant that we are only traveling about 180 miles today, which is a short two and half-hour ride. We got to Jackson, Minnesota without any trouble. Most people are at home celebrating the 4th of July, so there weren’t many cars on the road. We got to Jackson at 12:30 PM, and at least it has stopped raining so we could unhook the trailers.

The day is wet and gloom. There have been a few sprinkles this afternoon and a light breeze, so it has put a damper on any 4th of July celebrations. The kids were able to go into the pool, but Samantha could only stay in it for a short period, since the water was cold and the outside temperature isn’t much warmer.

We did go into town, because we need some milk, and Lisa wanted some salad for dinner. On our way back, we decided to check out “Historic Fort Belmont.” This is their words, not mine. The museum was closed, but I was able to take a couple of pictures of the one building fort. It wasn’t used by the military from what I can gather, but by traders.

In the late evening, the clouds parted and the sun came out, so this meant that we would be able to see fireworks. The unfortunate thing was that the town of Jackson doesn’t have a fireworks display. They do have a race track that decided to do fireworks after the races were done. I’m not into car racing and really didn’t want to wait until the races where done. This meant that I need to find an alternative. The campground office said that Spirit Lake has a display and was about 20 miles away. I found out that the display was going to start at 10:07 PM. I’m not sure why 10:07 and not 10:00 or 10:15. I do know that it starts that late because that is when dusk is.

On the way to Spirit Lake, we saw a movie drive-in. I can’t tell you the last time that I saw a drive-in. They were playing the new Transformers movie. The movie started at 10:00 and not 10:07. I saw the “Kum & Go” convenience store and gas station prior to this, but didn’t take a picture of the sign. There is a chain of these stores. The Wisconsin scuba diving billboard was funny, but this is the funniest business name that I have seen so far.

The fireworks display was on Lake Okoboji, Iowa. A certain native of Iowa, SL, told me before the trip that I should stop in the Spirit Lake area. They said it was really nice. We weren’t there that long, but from what we saw, they were right. Iowa wasn’t a state that we intended to visit either, but fate has a funny way of making things happen. Before the main event, many people had their own fireworks and they were letting them off like crazy. These aren’t the safe and sane ones either. Some had shells whilet others had purchased a large amount of fireworks. The main display over the lake was really well done, and the number of boats on the lake lit the lake up. The worst part of this little detour was the bugs. They would kamikaze you. Overall, we were in Iowa for only two hours.

I hope everyone had a great fourth of July, and got to see plenty of fireworks.

We drove a total of 227 miles to day. We have driven a total of 4529 miles for the entire trip. We didn’t purchase any gas today.

Day 15 (July 3rd) – Tomahawk, Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota

When we set out to plan this trip, we were going to stay two whole days in Tomahawk, but my dad wanted to go to a Museum in Minneapolis, so we decided to stay only one hole day since the 4th of July is on Saturday. My dad set out about 12 to 15 years ago to create the family tree. He has since then made stops at different Museums, Genealogical Societies, and cemeteries to reconstruct the family tree. On this trip he wanted to stop at a research museum in Minneapolis. This is his third attempt at going to this museum. The first time that he tried to visit it he was unable to find the place. A bad snow storm prevented him from visiting it last year. And this year, it was closed for the holiday. After we made plans to stay in Minneapolis, he called to find out the hours of the research institution of the museum, and promptly found out that it was closed on Friday. Three strikes and you’re out, but he is going to try a fourth time on some future trip. You can do that when you are retired, because I wouldn't call Minneapolis a must visit city. I doubt it is in the top 200 cities to visit.

The trip today was going to be short and sweet. We left Tomahawk just after 8 AM. There wasn't much to see between Tomahawk and Minneapolis, unless you want to visit any number of cheese factories. They love their cheese curds up here. They seem to be right up there with bratwursts. We arrived at the campground around 12:30 PM.

After unhooking the trailers and a quick bite to eat for lunch, it was time to see some sights. This meant going to the Mall of America. We have traveled 4300 miles just to go to a mall. Miles wanted to go to see the Mall of America, because Robert Irvine once was there. Who is Robert Irvine? Well, Lisa's second favorite channel is the Food Network. If there were only two TV channels available and they were HGTV and the Food Network, she would be completely happy. She would be equally happy if there wasn't ESPN, which I like to watch. On the Food Network, is a show called Dinner Impossible where Robert Irvine must make a dinner for a certain number of people for an event within 8 hours or something like that. Lisa and Miles enjoy watching this show. Robert Irvine had to cook up a meal for the 15th anniversary celebration for the Mall of America. This episode aired last May, which is why Miles wanted to go there when he learned we were going to Minneapolis. As for the rest of us, we could have skipped this and still considered the trip a success.

We arrived at the mall, which is huge. Parking wasn't bad since they have to large garages on opposite sides. The mall has just about every mall store you can think of. It also has some that you might find in the outlet centers, such as a Bose store. The place has lots of restaurants and the usual fast food places. The mall was also just packed with people. Think of how packed your local mall is during the Christmas Season, and this is how busy this mall is.

Lisa found a gourmet chef store that she and my mom decided to look around in. While they looked around the gourmet chef store, Mile, my dad and I ventured off to the Lego store, since Miles wanted to buy some Legos. He wants to build the Sears Tower, oops, the Willis Tower, with Legos. After we got some Legos and met up with Lisa, my mom and Samantha, we headed over to check out the America Girl store at the mall. Samantha wanted to go looking through this store. I only wished there was an ESPN or golf store to look through. Who every came up with the idea for American Girl and the marketing for it is just amazing. The dolls cost hundreds of dollars and the accessories and clothes cost additional coin. This was my first time in an American Girl store, and had to start to laugh when I saw the Salon in the store. You can have your dolls hair and makeup done for you. I would think that doing a dolls hair would be easy, but people pay to have their dolls hair done right in the store. I was told there is a hospital in the stores, which makes since if the doll needs repair. If you are going to pay over $100 for a doll and the arm comes off, you would want to get it fixed. This particular store doesn't have the hospital, but I am told that the one in Los Angeles does have the hospital. Anyway, Samantha was happy looking around at the many dolls and accessories. She owns one of the dolls that she bought with her own money. She has various accessories as well that she has bought with her money or was given as gifts. This time around she didn't buy anything.

After looking around the mall, we really didn't look that much. It is a mall after all. We let the kids ride a couple of rides at the Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park in the mall. Nickelodeon is one of their favorite channels, and would be happy if HGTV, Food Network and ESPN didn't exist at all. The Nickelodeon Universe is in the middle of the mall. They both decided to ride different roller coasters, of course, just to make us wait around longer. The Theme Park is a lot like a local carnival. You purchase a number of tickets and the rides cost a various number tickets to ride. The only difference is that you get a single ticket with a barcode and a computer keeps track of the number of tickets that you use. So we had only a single ticket for the two of them and couldn't have Lisa go with one and I go with the other. The only saving grace is that they both wanted to ride the bumper cars for their second ride, which made things easier. Oh, if things were only that easy and they are not, the bumper cars line was long and they only had eight cars, so waiting for this ride alone was about the same length of time as waiting for both roller coasters.

The day ended with us going to a Costco to pick up some provisions. I knew where one was since I have had to come to Eden Prairie, which is a town outside of Minneapolis. I don’t come to Eden Prairie because I think it’s a great town. I go there for work. There is a vendor that my company uses in this town. I avoid going during the winter. Only a crazy man would go during winter.

We drove a total of 283 miles to day. We have driven a total of 4302 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $58 dollars worth of gas today.

Day 14 (July 2nd) – Tomahawk, Wisconsin

I would say today was a very good day as we spent the day with my Aunt and Uncle at their cabin on Lake Nokomis. My only wish is that it was sunny and warm. What we got was cool and cloudy, but we still had fun.

The kids played with my Cousin Tom’s kids. He has two teenagers and 3 smaller ones. Samantha was entertaining the two little girls. Either that or they just attached themselves to her. Miles and the youngest son played together all day. The picked wild blue berries and feed the chipmunks that aren’t afraid of anyone. Samantha found a frog and caught it for everyone to see. She did release the frog after everyone got a good look at him or her.

For lunch, my Uncle cooked up some hot dogs and bratwursts. You see bratwursts are big in these parts. If you have a barbecue, you better have some bratwursts on the grill. I think it’s a law or a cardinal rule. You could make the case the brats, which is used here to refer to bratwursts, are eaten more than hotdogs and hamburgers. And if you have brats, you must have sauerkraut to go on the brats. When I was younger, my mom used to make sauerkraut all the time, so much so that I actually hate it. My tastes buds just revolted and refused to eat anymore sauerkraut. So what do I do, I have a brat with sauerkraut on it. Remember that I told you that Samantha eats just about a few things. Well, Lisa and I to our distaste have been eating foods that we don’t like to set an example for her. Not for Miles who will eat and/or try anything at least once. So I ate the sauerkraut, and to my surprise it wasn’t as bad as I remembered it. My Aunt says she adds something to it. Well, it was pretty good. I’m still not going to eat it unless I really have too. Samantha doesn’t eat brats and I mentioned earlier that she gave up hotdogs out of the blue. So the lunch that we had was totally dreadful for her. Even the side dishes were not on her list of things she will eat. Lisa and I didn’t give her any options, which made her grumpy. She is used to people catering to her culinary palate. She reluctantly ate a hot dog. It was either that or go hungry. Dinner wasn’t much better. It was a repeat of lunch. There wasn’t anything that she really eats. The only saving grace for her was that you eat stroganoff with noodles, so she ate plan noodles. If you are asking yourself, what about putting butter on the noodles, she won’t eat noodles that way. Overall, this day was the culinary torture for Samantha.

After lunch, my Uncle wanted to take us on a boat ride around the lake. We rode in the boat as he pointed out different things and homes along the way. We saw a couple of Loons in the water. One had a baby riding on the back of its parent. We also saw three or four eagles flying overhead. They were looking for dinner. During the three-hour tour, the sun would come out and tease us. When it was out, it was nice, but it was only for a minute before it went back into hiding and it got cool again. My mom who can be cold in 80 degree weather was wrapped up in a blanket. She was telling us that it was absolutely fridge out. I was expecting her to turn blue and get frost bite. You may think that I am exaggerating, but she was definitely acting that way. My Uncle let Miles and Samantha pilot the boat a couple of times. They really enjoyed this. As Miles was settling into the pilot’s seat for the first time, Lisa and I both stated that he shouldn’t touch the throttle. The first time that Miles got to pilot a boat he almost threw his Aunt out of the boat. Lisa’s brother and sister-in-law had the kids for a night, and were going to take them fishing the next day. When they were done fishing, Lisa’s brother decided to let the kids pilot the boat. Miles went first. His Aunt was standing at the back of the boat. Miles hit the throttle full speed and his Aunt almost went flying out the back of the boat. She was able to grasp a chair in time before she went overboard. We don’t need to say such things to Samantha.

Before we ate lunch, Lisa mentioned that I like to play golf. My cousin Tom, who also likes to play golf, got all excited. At first he was talking out going out and hit some balls on an airstrip down the road. He then decided why hit balls when you can actually go play. He was able to get a 4:30 PM tee time at the local course, so he and I went off to play some golf. As we left, he told everyone we were going to play nine holes. The course wasn’t bad. It was very forgiving, but the greens were slow and almost miniature golfish. We really weren’t playing all that well. It may have been the beers or the rental clubs, but we stunk up the place. As we finished nine holes, he turns to me and says, “What you think? You want to play another nine?” I told him that I am game, but I am sure to hear about it from Lisa. I then told him that I just blame him, since he is the one who drove to the course. We took off to play the front nine. This was a good idea, since we started to play really well. I ended up paring three of the last four holes. We kept going back and forth on whose wife would call first. I won. Lisa called as we were finishing up and asked if we got lost.

After dinner, we went to a place known around Tomahawk as the Windmill. I would guess they call it that since the place has a windmill out front. The Windmill sells ice cream, and we are told it is very busy most nights with lines out the door. When we got there, the line was winding around inside but not quite out the door. The ice cream is really good and they give you a very generous helping for very little coin. We were all happy with our choices and the deal.

After ice cream we headed back to my Aunt and Uncles for a little more discussion and pictures before we said good-bye. We were leaving very early in the morning and wouldn’t see them so we just said good-bye now.

We drove a total of 0 miles to day. I didn’t drive to the golf course, so I am not going to count it. We have driven a total of 4019 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $0 worth of gas today.

Day 13 (July 1st) – Chicago, Illinois to Tomahawk, Wisconsin

This day did not start out that great. It rained on and off all night, and in an RV that means listening to it hit the roof and make a sound that sounds like someone tapping their fingernails. I would have preferred it if it rained all night. At least that way it would have been more rhythmic and put me to sleep.

Since I couldn’t sleep, I got up and got things ready for our drive to Wisconsin. I got to a point and had to wake sleeping beauty. Miles and Lisa woke up on their own. As I went to wake her, I noticed a spider dangling very close to where she was sleeping. I contemplated about using it to wake her up, but if I did that it meant that the entire camp would wake to a screeching shrill that would rip the paint off the side of a house. It also meant that I would have to go without hearing for the day. I choice to hear the rest of the day and placed the spider outside. On second thought, I wouldn’t have had to hear the kids argue in the car for a day. That may have been worth the hearing loss.

As we were making our way up the middle of Wisconsin, I saw a sign that said Scuba Diving. I had to do a double take. I wouldn’t call Wisconsin a mecca for scuba diving. I’m not sure there is anyone who would actually want to go to Wisconsin to scuba dive, except maybe some Canadians. I wish that I had gotten a picture of the billboard. It was the funniest billboard that I have seen on this trip. So the next time that you are planning your next scuba diving vacation think about Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Its just an hour south of Wausau, Wisconsin.

The kids must be getting tired of watching movies. They usually start the day fighting on who gets to pick the first movie. Today, they didn’t even turn on the DVD player the first couple of hours. When we were kids, we didn’t have the nice entertainment system. We had to make up games to pass time in the car. My favorite was Out of State. When you see a car with a license plate that is not from the state you are in, you call “Out of State”. At this point, you get to pick which person you are going to hit. This is the only time that my parents allowed us to hit one another. And when you are packed in the back of the car for hours at a time, you have some pent up anger towards your siblings. You got to hit the person a number of times. It depended on the last number are letter in the license plate. If you were lucky, you got a plate with a “Z”, which meant 26 hits.

The trip up to the Tomahawk was uneventful. There also wasn’t anything worth stopping and seeing along the way, so we made great time and reached are destination by mid afternoon. We made it to my Uncle and Aunt’s place and they were surprised to see my parents. My Uncle thought that only Lisa, the kids and I were coming to visit them. This is where things get good. My Aunt suggested to my Uncle that he call and see if we were going to make it in today. He didn’t want to call because he didn’t think it was necessary. My mom wanted my dad to call my Uncle to let him know that we were on our way. I even told him that we should probably let him know when we might arrive. He also didn’t think that it was necessary. Can you tell that they are brothers? Somewhere the message got mixed up and my Uncle wasn’t expecting my parents. I was cool because they were expecting Lisa and I. My dad and Uncle really saw no problem in the mix up, but my mom and Aunt were a little miffed by this. Lisa wasn’t at all that amused by this as well, but I didn’t care because they were expecting me. Besides the views of the lake are really nice.

We drove a total of 278 miles to day. We have driven a total of 4019 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $50 dollars worth of gas today.

All caught up

I finally have caught up with all the posts. Lisa's Aunt Lil and my Aunt Jerry don't have Internet access, which has made it really difficult to post an entry each night. I finally had the time to get all caught up today. We actually didn't do a lot today as opposed to most days so far. We all commented on how nice it was to have dinner at a normal hour and have a chance to unwind before going to bed. I should be able to regularly post each night going forward, or I hope to. The only problem may be when we go up to visit my Uncle in Wisconsin tomorrow. He does not own a computer, so it may be rough.

Over the last couple of days I have posted about 6 days of happenings, so make sure you get yourself all caught up.

Day 12 (June 29th) – Chicago, Illinois

Today we went to downtown Chicago. We wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible, so this meant that we would only have a few hours to see some sights.

We made into downtown without incident which was a nice surprise. We decided to head down towards Millennium Park and Navy Pier. As we got there, they were holding a Taste of Chicago Event in the park. I thought this was a great thing, since we could go there and eat. The problem was that it made parking difficult and the traffic getting around the park very difficult. We did find some parking and headed out. Now, I wanted to get some eats at the Taste of Chicago, and I was the only one. Everyone seemed to ignore me, or wasn’t ready to eat. We walked to the shore of Lake Michigan and towards Navy Pier. When we got to the pier, everyone got hungry. I was not amused by this. We could have had better eats and at a lower cost at the Taste of Chicago. After eating, we walked the pier which is a lot like the Santa Monica Pier.

The next stop was the Sears Tower. The name has now been changed to the Willis Tower. I wonder if this is going to stick. Everyone in the United States knows the building as the Sears Tower. I guess if you purchase naming rights you can change the name, but that doesn’t mean the name will change for everyone else. To get to the Sears Tower, we decided to take the water taxi, which went from the Navy Pier to the Sears Tower via the Chicago River. This was the favorite part of the day for Lisa. She enjoyed the view of the buildings and skyline that you get from the river.

We went up to the observation deck on the Sears Tower, scratch that Willis Tower. Before you get to ride the evaluator up to the top, you have to watch a little film about the tower. We went into the theater and sat down on one of the bench seats. The theater isn’t really all that big and doesn’t look like a theater. I made a joke about hearing how fast this elevator moves. Samantha thought I was serious and said this is a really big elevator. I told her that it was a joke. The real elevator takes you to the top in a minute. The tower is 1,450 tall. You ears pop as you go up. The view at the top wasn’t all that great. The weather all day long has been cloudy and on the way over to the tower it was drizzling.

Once we got back down to ground level, we walked over to Millennium Park and walked along Michigan Avenue. There were your usual street entertainers and lots of people walking around and enjoying themselves in the park. Since we wanted to leave before rush hour really got started, we headed to the car and headed back to the campground by 3:30 PM.

I did want to head over to the United Center and take a picture next to the Michael Jordon statue with a Kobe Bryant jersey. There is a certain someone who loves Jordon and hates Kobe. I thought it would have been funny to have the picture taken, but we ran out of time. I did see a billboard for the Michael Jordon IMAX film. I guess people still love Jordon here in Chicago.

We drove a total of 116 miles to day. We have driven a total of 3741 miles for the entire trip. We purchased $38 dollars worth of gas today.