On The Road Again...

TRAVEL DAY! How lucky are we? And this wasn't a mere 2-hour romp from city to city in Wisconsin or anything...this was hard-core, 8-hour, state-to-state travel starting in South Dakota - touching Minnesota - spanning most of Iowa. Our ending point tonight was Davenport, Iowa...and then tomorrow, we will get up (LATE...because we get to sleep in) and drive the additional 2 or 3 hours to Joliet, Illinois. (We couldn't do it all in one day...Equity rules or something silly like that!)

Just LOOK how much fun everyone was having in the van today!

So what does one report on a travel day that doesn't include 'rode in van...listened to some music...slept a bit...and then we ate....'? Ummmmmm...dang. I was hoping to have something witty and new to put in there, but that really is about it! Well, that's not completely true. We DID have some weather fun today, which consisted of snow flurries, and then some, pretty much all day. The most exciting part of it started in the latter part of the drive (Cedar Rapids, I think) when Elisa (playing Navigator in the passenger seat) and I (driver) started noticing a LARGE number of cars off the side of the road. So we decided for the last 70 miles, we would count the cars.
Well, we did it...and the numbers are staggering! Ready for this? Brace yourselves. In the 70 miles to Davenport, we saw 83 cars that had slid off the road, and 5 semi-trucks. (And yes, Elisa...1 guard rail. But I'm pretty sure it was there before....) THESE ARE REAL NUMBERS, PEOPLE. Pretty amazing, actually. And it made us even more happy to arrive!

Just some on-the-go shots of the sun somewhere in Iowa. the crazy part is that it was shining like this as it was SNOW FLURRYING! Zany, right? These beautiful shots were done by Elisa Rupert out the van window.

After an initial hotel foul-up (reservations were for tomorrow night...so Elisa did some magic calls and got us set up down the street at the La Quinta. That is Spanish for 'A bed is a bed at this point, people.') We all settled in to do our own things, and you'll be THRILLED to know that we found, right down the road, an OLD CHICAGO! And just because I wanted it on the blog, I got their original cheesecake that I grew to love in Boise so much. Picture and rating below.

I just love Old Chicago. And this regular cheesecake is DELISH! I give it a solid 9.5 Perfect crust...great flavor...wanted it to be a bit more creamy. But it is just simply amazing.

OH! And congrats to EVERYONE who has been reading the blog! Today, I got my 10,000th hit! And, although I can't tell you EXACTLY who it was, here are the details of the hit. If it's you, let me know! I'd love to give credit where credit is due! And HAPPY 10,000th HIT TO EVERYONE!
Details:
-IP Address was registered to RCN Corportation
-Hit came from Rockville, Maryland
-Hit was on December 8th, at 8:54pm
-Guest visited 2 pages
-User was using Microsoft Windows 98 and Netscape 7.2 for a browser
LET THE HUNT BEGIN!
Other than that, this guy is going to bed. I'm tired from all that tense snow-driving today. Have a GREAT Friday, where ever you all may be, and have an even BETTER weekend!
CIAO!
G



We stopped in some RANDOM middle-of-nowhere place in Iowa for lunch, and as we were talking into this Bar & Grille, so was Santa. You know how he gets at this time of year. Chris and Jill sidle up to him for a photo opportunity.

Eric and Jackie kickin' it at lunch. That's what they do best. Kickin'. Oh - and lunchin'.