Today's weather was a lot better than what I encountered in Chicago - sunny and low humidity. We left he city around 8am and headed northwest towards Wisconsin, the Great Kingdom of Cheese and largest water park in the world. It didn't take long to find ourselves in rural Illinois once we left. It was full of beautiful rolling hills and farmland. I couldn't identify what they were growing on these farms because the plants were just beginning to sprout. My best guesses were corn or wheat to be harvested in the Autumn. These hills I encountered on the route also surprised me since this was supposed to be the great plains. Wasn't it supposed to be flat? I ended up concluding that they were formed by the last ice age and were just glacial moraine.
Once we got into Wisconsin, I expected to see a lot of dairy farms. Curiously there were only a few off the interstate. Most of the farms looked like they had crops. Then again, maybe they kept the cows indoors or on the blind side of the barn. Nevertheless, I was ready to get myself some of this state's famous cheese. I ordered my dad to take a quick detour into downtown Madison where I stopped at a small shop named "House of Wisconsin Cheese". When I entered the first thing I noticed was a map of the United States full of pins in it. A sign overhead instructed visitors to mark where they came from. I then proudly marked Rhode Island with a pin and asked the cashier what kind of cheese to get. After a 2 minute crash course on cheeses I ended up going with a Wisconsin cheddar that was aged for 4 years. It was delicious!
Back on the road now, we continued northwest until the border with Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes and let me tell you, they weren't kidding. After we drove through the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and seeing the famous Saint Paul Cathedral and Mississippi River, we had dinner with 2 college friends on Lake Minnetonka. I continued my exploration of local delicacies and today I tried Minnesota's Wild Rice Soup and a local freshwater fish called a Walleye. Both were very tasty.
After dinner we went to the Mall of America. It was huge! In some cases, they had the same store on either side of this place. Oh and if that doesn't give you a sense of how big it is then how about that they have a freakin amusement park inside this complex! this was a great finally for the day. We left and headed south to find a cheap motel outside the cities. Tomorrow will be our longest drive yet and we gotta make sure we get enough rest. Everything is going well so far. we are ahead of schedule to my surprise!
Tomorrow: Badlands National Park, South Dakota!
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