We started out Sunday morning (Mother’s Day) from Pierre, South Dakota to Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a bit longer in the car than we thought it would be, but it was good. At least there’s no traffic on the roads we take! 😊

We arrived in Lincoln just in time to have a nice talk with Carly! Sam was on his way to Australia for business so we missed him. Then after dinner we were able to talk with Cameron and Maddie! It was a great Mother’s Day catching up with the kids.

The next morning was as forecasted… sunny, hazy, windy and a record breaking 90°! We feel like we went from winter to summer in one day!

We went to the capitol building and were able to go to the observation deck on the 14th floor, so that was cool. Then we went to the University of Nebraska campus to check that out too!

When we were planning this trip we had decided that there were places that we didn’t need to go to because we have been there before. Sometimes more than once. Mount Rushmore and the Badlands were in that category.

But without those two big stops, there wasn’t much to see. We drove through the whole state north to south. We saw lots of prairies which were pretty scenery, but not a lot to take pictures of.

We spent the night in the state capital, Pierre. It is the second smallest state capital by population. We were easily able to get pictures of the capitol!

As I was driving in the afternoon, Larry googled restaurants in Pierre to get dinner ideas. There was a highly rated, reasonably priced steakhouse with sawdust on the floor. It sounded perfect! According to reviews “it’s worth the wait”, so being a Saturday night, and having had a light lunch, we thought we’d head over there around 5:00 when they opened.

The timing was good, we got to the hotel, checked in, and hauled all of our stuff to our room. It was 4:40 and it was only going to take about 10 minutes to get there, but we thought we might as well head over there, we can wait in the car or whatever until they open. Picturing being the only people there right at 5:00 seemed mildly embarrassing but really, who cares?

When we arrived at the restaurant the car before us and after us both turned in to the parking lot, which was quickly filling up. And there was a line snaking into the parking lot of people waiting for the doors to open! We quickly joined the line laughing to ourselves about thinking we were early!

They were clearly used to this rush and quickly and efficiently seated everyone and took food orders. The food was delicious, the service was good, and it was a fun experience.

We left Prince and Minnesota and headed west to North Dakota. Our next stop, Fargo! We didn’t have a lot of time in Fargo, but we did get a few pictures.

The next morning we were going to Rugby, North Dakota, but we had a few side trips planned along the way. The first was a TV mast near Fargo, that was the tallest structure in the world when it was completed in 1963. It was down a dirt road, but we found it! We think the last time we went down a sketchy dirt road we ended up with a nail in our tire so we were trying to be very careful. Seems ok so far!

Next we went up to the International Peace Garden that’s on the North Dakota/ Manitoba border. Unfortunately nothing was in bloom yet and they were doing a lot of work and cleaning up to get ready for the summer. So it was a bust, there wasn’t anything to see there. Funny story, although we were in Canada for a short time in the garden, we didn’t go through Canadian customs. But to return to the highway and go south to Rugby we had to go through US customs. He asked a lot of questions, but after asking where we were from and what we were doing he said, I hope you didn’t drive all the way from Seattle for the garden! 😅

On our way again we had heard of a turtle made of wheel rims, we had to stop and check that out! Then on to our stop for the night in Rugby, which is the geographical center of North America. Those of you who know Larry will know why THIS was where we stopped for the night. 🙂

As I mentioned in the last post we had a 9:20 am tour scheduled at Paisley Park, Prince’s home and recording studio.

The security was very tight, they made us turn off our phones and watches and even locked them away! We did get them back at the very end so Larry could take a few pictures, but there’s not many!

We learned a lot about Prince and his music. He wrote so many songs and had so many recorded before his death in 2016 that they could release about 100 more albums of his music.

He was eccentric and even changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol for a time, but there’s no denying his talent! It was cool to see where he recorded and worked. We did not get to see the rooms where he lived, and yes, there was lots of purple. 😊

We had been getting a low tire pressure notice for the last couple of days, and when we came out of Paisley Park we could see why! There was a nail in the left rear tire! We googled a tire place and while there were no Les Schwabs around (darn!) there was a place nearby called Brown’s Tire and Auto.

They did not run out to meet us, but a very efficient guy came out and pulled the nail out and patched the tire right there in the parking lot! He filled it up with air and sent us on our way.

That’s been our only unexpected car issue so far, hopefully it’ll be the only one!

.

We changed up another night on our trip, and unfortunately Wisconsin got the short end of the stick! Our spreadsheet had us spending the night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We saw that Prince has a museum and studio called Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota, near Minneapolis. We thought it would be fun to see it but the only tour time available was 9:20 am.

Ok! Let’s see if we can switch hotels, cancel Eau Claire and reserve one in Chanhassen. We could and we did! But that meant Wisconsin was going to be a quick trip.

Road work made it even shorter! We had planned to cross over the Mississippi River from Iowa into Wisconsin and follow it for about 100 miles before crossing back over the river into Minnesota. But when we stopped at the Wisconsin welcome center, we found out that the road was closed in 30 miles.

We went ahead and went as far as we could, and when the road closure signs started, we went back over the river to Iowa. Road work season has started though, because when we started back to Iowa, we got stopped for a paving project.

Just another day on the road! We haven’t made too many changes or have been delayed or stuck, so we’ve been lucky. But also we’re very flexible. We’re just enjoying the ride.

This was a big day for us, one that we had been looking forward to for almost a year. Larry had found out that the Field of Dreams farmhouse is available to rent and stay in overnight. Now the day had come that we not only got to see the field but spend the night in the house!

But first we had to get to Iowa from Springfield, Illinois. We decided to make Burlington our entrance point to Iowa. This also enabled us to go back to Mt. Pleasant where our nephew got married last summer. It was a fun little side trip to see the town and winery where they got married again. Burlington also has a rival to San Francisco’s Lombard Street, called Snake Alley. We had to check that out too.

When we arrived at the Field of Dreams house, the first thing we did was go on a tour of the house, which anyone can sign up for. It was fun to go through the house and have the guide point out how scenes were filmed. We found out that they filmed all the house scenes and field scenes there in Dyersville on the farm. None of it was done in a studio.

Our host showed us how to turn on the field lights, where to order pizza delivery if we didn’t want to leave the house, and how to make the shower work. All the important things. Then everyone was gone, and it was just Larry and I in the house. I had thought that maybe it would be a little spooky or weird, but it really wasn’t at all. It was just very cool. There we were, in the house and on the porch swing just like in the movie. We turned the field lights on when the sun was setting and sat outside. Once it got too cold and dark, we went in to watch the movie on the TV inside. They have it conveniently cued up and ready to go if you want to watch it. It was pretty fun to match up scenes to where we were sitting and hanging out.

We have been lucky to have stayed in some pretty amazing places on this trip. My thanks to Larry for planning ahead enough to make it all happen. It will be hard to pick favorites. But maybe they will each hold a special memory for me for different reasons. Picking a favorite would be too difficult!

We arrived in Springfield, Illinois too late on Sunday afternoon to do much more than check in to our hotel and have dinner. We did figure out that Lincoln’s house and the Lincoln Museum were a few blocks apart, not in the same complex. After checking the weather for the next day, we formulated a plan.

It was sunny the next morning as forecasted, so we made our way to Lincoln’s house, took the tour, and wandered around the small visitors center and other historic buildings.

Next we went to the Lincoln Presidential Museum. There were exhibits from when he was born and his early life, his time in Springfield, and his time as President in the White House. He had tragedy strike twice with the death of two of his sons. One in Springfield and one while he was president. Of course what a tumultuous time to be president!

The Lincoln experience would not be complete until we visited his tomb. We ended our Lincoln tour with a visit to Oak Ridge Cemetery where he is buried with his wife Mary, and sons Edward, William and Thomas.

The next stop on our trip was Springfield, Illinois. To get to Springfield from Dayton, Ohio, we drove across Indiana. One fun thing Indiana boasts is the home to the gym where Hoosiers was filmed. Unfortunately for us, it is open for tours everyday but Sunday. And yes, Sunday was our only available day. But we thought we’ll go check it out anyway, it wasn’t too far off our route.

The gym is in a small town called Knightstown. We went to the gym and tried to look through the windows in the doors but as advertised, it was closed. Larry walked around the gym and a neighbor came out and talked to him about it, and what it was like when they filmed the movie there. Obviously lots of activity and excitement, and yes he got to shake hands with Gene Hackman.

He also told Larry that the gym was going to be demolished. But people came forward and said hey, why don’t we save it? They did and it is now a cool gym for the community along with a tourist attraction. They also hold some high school basketball tournaments there, and they just had one the previous day.

I checked on Zillow and a small but decent house was valued about $150,000 – $200,000. That was right across the street from the Hoosier gym. Knightstown is a very small town, so when I looked up a grocery store to buy some picnic items, there wasn’t much to choose from. We went to the one place that was open, and it was like stepping back in time. There were a few grocery items and some clothing too. The prices were really low, and marked with an old-school red sticker.

I felt pretty conspicuous in our Patagonia jackets buying Evian water (to be fair there was only Evian and Fiji water to choose from), and a few other items. We stood in line to purchase our groceries and the guy in front of us talked to us about the sun coming out and he was so happy to be able to ride his scooter, etc. He was a local and everyone knew him, the cashier called him by name. When it was our turn she was very nice to us too, joking about our healthy food but then also our one Twinkie.

What a friendly town! From the neighbor Hoosier guy Larry talked to, to the grocery store experience. I was impressed. I thought people might not like us outsiders. But I guess that’s a lesson for me. I was judging them, thinking they would be judging me.

So after our picnic, we got back on the road and headed to Springfield, Illinois and the land of Lincoln.

I’m sure you remember, two weeks ago Larry and I spent the weekend in Louisville, Kentucky with Carly and Sam! It was great, but we didn’t have the MINI with us, so we needed to go back. We really felt like we had seen Louisville and were looking around at other options. We decided to stay in Dayton, Ohio for 3 nights, instead of 1, explore Dayton and Cincinnati, and just take a little trip over the river to Kentucky with the MINI and call it good.

Saturday afternoon we headed over the Ohio river into Kentucky. We needed gas, so Larry filled the tank while I ran into the little mini mart and bought some water.

But the most exciting part was that we took a ferry! I’m serious, it was fun! And you know, we haven’t been on a ferry in 4 months! It was a very short ride across the Ohio river, back to Ohio from Kentucky. It was a short Kentucky visit this time, but it was fun, plus I took a wrong turn and ended up at the Cincinnati airport, which is in Kentucky. So that was interesting, and unintentional added bonus, it added more miles to our Kentucky mile total. 🙂