Chicago, The Dells, Minnesota, and on to North Dakota
(posted from Caribou Coffee, Fargo, ND)
(this post covers 22-23 June, 2008)
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Monday, 23 June-
This morning we awoke early (because of the time change) and were underway by 0800. An hour later we stopped in a small town along I-94 to mail some letters and have a breakfast sandwich. We had perfect weather and perfect scenery for the drive from the Dells to Minneapolis and beyond. We had a cool, sunny morning and mile upon mile of deer-hunting countryside to enjoy. Every sign seemed to have antlers on it or some reference to the far North.
We made Minnesota and the Twin Cities around lunch time and zoomed right through the middle of the cities with no problem. On the outskirts, we saw a Cabelas and a Camping World and stopped for a couple of small items we’ve thought of during the drive—a spotlight, a cupholder, things like that. For some reason the clerk thought I have an accent and denied (in her strong Norwegian accent) she has one.
By Osakis, we were ready for a short break and stopped briefly for an ice-cream. Then it was on to the North Dakota line and our target for overnight—the Wal-Mart at Fargo. We made the last few miles into Fargo with the gas gauge below the empty mark but our 35-gallon tank took only 30 gallons of fuel—a nice number to know for the future. Gas in the Dells was about $4.02 ($3.99 at our casino) but was $3.79 in Fargo.
We spent the evening at Elmwood Park, a nice little city park/ballfields complex in West Fargo, not far from the Wal-mart. After supper we walked the park as we watched two women’s softball games going on and we wandered out into the nearby neighborhood for a look-round. Then we spent the evening blogging and reading until dark and our return to the Wal-mart for the night.
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Sunday, 22 June-
This morning we left for our long, long trip to Alaska. We drove southwest across Michigan via I-94 to Chicago and thought, well, it’s Sunday so why not take the inside route, the ‘Skyway’, through the city? What a mistake. I can’t say for sure the outer route would have been better but soon wished we had taken that one. We came upon six lanes of stand-still traffic right at a split between Express Lanes and Local Lanes just as we came in sight of the city’s high-rise buildings. I managed to dodge off to the Local Lanes in time to pass at least a thousand cars across the six lanes, all trying to merge into two lanes and backed up for a good two miles. That part went swimmingly for us but soon ended. Traffic for the airport joined us and we were forced to join back into the main lanes. We moved along at five to ten miles per hour for about 45 minutes. Then, as we turned away from the city, things slowly opened up and we were once again free. As with many of these situations, it seemed worse upon first seeing it than it really turned out to be. When you can see all lanes jammed with traffic ahead of you for miles it seems like you’ll be stuck forever. But we slowly, steadily worked through it and then were surprised it had only been 45 minutes.
The remainder of Illinois consisted of toll booths on I-94 to the Wisconsin line—at least a dozen of them. At one we paid $1.25 and then went only a mile before having to pay another $3.00. But once we crossed the Wisconsin line, the trip looked much better. The toll booths were gone and the land changed from dead-flat to rolling hills and pretty little farms. The scenery looked a lot like our beloved Pennsylvania--- green, green, and more green, all freshly grown out. We had big sky, big clouds, a brief rain, then a rainbow and sunny skies.
That evening we reached the Wisconsin Dells area. We checked the local Wal-mart and saw ‘No Overnight Parking!’ signs but asked inside anyway. The greeter guy told us we were welcome to stay the night—nobody ever did anything about the signs and it was common for RVs and trucks to stay overnight. But we later noticed there was bad news too. The lot was quite busy and noisy with trucks and too close to the interstate. We had seen signs to a casino at the previous exit so checked through our Wisconsin pages from freecampgrounds.com and there it was—the Ho-Chunk Nation casino allows free overnighting. We drove there in less than ten minutes and found it to be a wonderful spot for us. We took our walk through the very modern, new casino and resort hotel and talked with the security guard. He not only welcomed us for an overnight stay but also went out of his way to direct us to the quieter back lot and gave us tips on where to find a cheap breakfast, where to dump our trash, and where to get gas and ice. By dark we were well-settled in and we had a wonderfully-quiet night.
============= end of post ===============
(posted from Caribou Coffee, Fargo, ND)
(this post covers 22-23 June, 2008)
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 23 June-
This morning we awoke early (because of the time change) and were underway by 0800. An hour later we stopped in a small town along I-94 to mail some letters and have a breakfast sandwich. We had perfect weather and perfect scenery for the drive from the Dells to Minneapolis and beyond. We had a cool, sunny morning and mile upon mile of deer-hunting countryside to enjoy. Every sign seemed to have antlers on it or some reference to the far North.
We made Minnesota and the Twin Cities around lunch time and zoomed right through the middle of the cities with no problem. On the outskirts, we saw a Cabelas and a Camping World and stopped for a couple of small items we’ve thought of during the drive—a spotlight, a cupholder, things like that. For some reason the clerk thought I have an accent and denied (in her strong Norwegian accent) she has one.
By Osakis, we were ready for a short break and stopped briefly for an ice-cream. Then it was on to the North Dakota line and our target for overnight—the Wal-Mart at Fargo. We made the last few miles into Fargo with the gas gauge below the empty mark but our 35-gallon tank took only 30 gallons of fuel—a nice number to know for the future. Gas in the Dells was about $4.02 ($3.99 at our casino) but was $3.79 in Fargo.
We spent the evening at Elmwood Park, a nice little city park/ballfields complex in West Fargo, not far from the Wal-mart. After supper we walked the park as we watched two women’s softball games going on and we wandered out into the nearby neighborhood for a look-round. Then we spent the evening blogging and reading until dark and our return to the Wal-mart for the night.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 22 June-
This morning we left for our long, long trip to Alaska. We drove southwest across Michigan via I-94 to Chicago and thought, well, it’s Sunday so why not take the inside route, the ‘Skyway’, through the city? What a mistake. I can’t say for sure the outer route would have been better but soon wished we had taken that one. We came upon six lanes of stand-still traffic right at a split between Express Lanes and Local Lanes just as we came in sight of the city’s high-rise buildings. I managed to dodge off to the Local Lanes in time to pass at least a thousand cars across the six lanes, all trying to merge into two lanes and backed up for a good two miles. That part went swimmingly for us but soon ended. Traffic for the airport joined us and we were forced to join back into the main lanes. We moved along at five to ten miles per hour for about 45 minutes. Then, as we turned away from the city, things slowly opened up and we were once again free. As with many of these situations, it seemed worse upon first seeing it than it really turned out to be. When you can see all lanes jammed with traffic ahead of you for miles it seems like you’ll be stuck forever. But we slowly, steadily worked through it and then were surprised it had only been 45 minutes.
The remainder of Illinois consisted of toll booths on I-94 to the Wisconsin line—at least a dozen of them. At one we paid $1.25 and then went only a mile before having to pay another $3.00. But once we crossed the Wisconsin line, the trip looked much better. The toll booths were gone and the land changed from dead-flat to rolling hills and pretty little farms. The scenery looked a lot like our beloved Pennsylvania--- green, green, and more green, all freshly grown out. We had big sky, big clouds, a brief rain, then a rainbow and sunny skies.
That evening we reached the Wisconsin Dells area. We checked the local Wal-mart and saw ‘No Overnight Parking!’ signs but asked inside anyway. The greeter guy told us we were welcome to stay the night—nobody ever did anything about the signs and it was common for RVs and trucks to stay overnight. But we later noticed there was bad news too. The lot was quite busy and noisy with trucks and too close to the interstate. We had seen signs to a casino at the previous exit so checked through our Wisconsin pages from freecampgrounds.com and there it was—the Ho-Chunk Nation casino allows free overnighting. We drove there in less than ten minutes and found it to be a wonderful spot for us. We took our walk through the very modern, new casino and resort hotel and talked with the security guard. He not only welcomed us for an overnight stay but also went out of his way to direct us to the quieter back lot and gave us tips on where to find a cheap breakfast, where to dump our trash, and where to get gas and ice. By dark we were well-settled in and we had a wonderfully-quiet night.
============= end of post ===============
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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