9:00 a.m departure
6343 Kms.end of today
1 degree at departure, 10 degrees at arrival

Today was major in the distance we covered but because we are not on interstate highways, it seems easier. We feel comfortable with the undulating hills, the prairie gold, the farmland quilts that are tufted with cattle, dairy cows, horses and sheep and guess what we saw, two young camels and an Alpaca Farm. Because it was a travelling day I would like to catch-up.

I would be disappointed in myself if I did not mention a bit about Missouri and Iowa.

Missouri is known as the “Show Me State”, this began in 1899 when Congressman Duncan said, “I’m from Missouri and you have got to show ME”, in 1912 the first successful parachute jump from a moving airplane happened here in St. Louis, what 1912, you crazy people! Soybeans for oil is the States most important crop, along with cotton, hay and wheat, cattle, hogs and dairy products. There are over 100,000 farms, ranking second to Texas.

Iowa does not calm down in the hill department they roll, with cornfields on your left and right. The state sits between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. From the water, land arises known as some of the worlds most fertile soil. The state harvests so much corn, hence the name “the corn state” and the “land where tall corn grows”. Oak trees are reaching for the sky, the almighty oak is obvious, healthy and the trunks are huge.

A side note: everyone has a twin “they” say, today we met our friend Tom Hughes’ twin, Steve the owner of the B&B, a silver fox, casually dressed with a tea towel over his shoulder, made us the most beautiful breakfast, waffles, whip cream, syrup, strawberries, sausages. They are very similar in appearance give or take a few inches in every direction but, when he said, can I get you anything else, I saw in his eyes, my friend Tom. A great host, who truly cared.

We arrived in Wisconsin. Also in the Midwest with coastlines on two of our shared Great Lakes, Michigan and Superior. We took a side drive off our country roads and went into Madison the Capital, because we could, and it was worth the one way streets. It is fabulous, the convention center was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Capital domed building, impressive. Wisconsin is known as “America’s Dairyland”, everyone knows about its cheese! The Green Bay Packers of course we have known about for awhile but now support because Kelly, our nephew Daniels love, has showed us the way!

This is Kelly’s home state, Wisconsin, and we look forward to embracing it as she does. It is our third trip here, en route to Chicago with Carrie and Rob a few years back we stopped in Green Bay, and with Jim and Donna we again followed Frank Lloyd Wright and visited East Taliesin. Both great trips.

Tonight we arrived in Sturgeon Bay, the gateway to the Door Peninsula, which pierces 75 miles into Lake Michigan like a sword. We had a lovely dinner at Donny's Glidden Lodge, (thanks Kelly for the tip) a family owned restaurant located right on the shores of the lake. Our roast beef was perfect, the horseradish hot as hot can be, our waitress very sweet. Cooking with local ingredients and everything was homemade.

It is obvious all over this state that Wisconsinites appreciate their farmers. We saw many blue barns stating just that.

As I sat in the corner window of the lodge like construction I was reminded of Keystone in the good old days. In dusk the pine needles on paths caught my eye, waves were thundering in as they met the shore. When we left, the full moonlight caught each curl of the waves and the bubbling water shimmered like diamonds. A beautiful sight. We are both feeling good about being near water.