Welcome to our “Yellowstone Trip”. We started out on Friday morning - a bit later than planned - with the car packed to its 850 lb limit. Everyone and their brother seemed to be on the road today as traffic was heavy from the time we got on I-90 in Boston until we got off in Batavia, NY. It was uneventful except for the 20-30 minutes when the heavens opened and we drove through a deluge of rain. We had dinner with Rose's sister, Liz, & family in Corfu, NY and then drove on to her other sister, Louise, to stay til Sunday morning.

On Saturday, Rose & her sisters went to lunch with friends they have known since childhood. And after breakfast with Louise on Sunday, we set out on our way west. (pix) Sometime after Cleveland, OH, the land became very flat. (pix) We stayed in South Bend, IN and even drove by Notre Dame when we exited I80-90.

Monday morning we left South Bend and continued West along I-90. This brought us through Chicago (pix), into Wisconsin and into Minnesota. Wisconsin has lots of interesting geology and in a few places Hoodoos can be seen from the road.(pix) The border between WI and MN is the Missisippi river (pix). (The picture of the Mississippi River has Minnesota in the foreground and Wisconsin the background. The dam is about 1/2 mile North of I-90.

As soon as we were west of the Missisippi the road started climbing. The first few miles of climb were on a chunk of I-90 that was original 1950's construction. It seemed that for the next 100 miles we went uphill! The terrain is no longer a flat plain! Then the wind picked up. The Prius needed a lot of help staying in the lane in that cross wind.

We stayed in a small town called Rochester, MN noted for the Mayo Clinic. We found a local restaurant called Whiskey Creek & enjoyed barbequed pork for supper. The next morning we headed to Sioux Falls, SD.

Created ... August 18, 2009
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