Posts Tagged “wisconsin”

The straight line we drove today between Wausau, Wis., and St. Paul, Minn., was interrupted only briefly by a minor detour down to the city of Eau Claire. Wisconsin’s highways seem to be curve-challenged. Here’s the route log:

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No wonder today was boring.

Today was mostly a driving day. I have to keep it real and let you know that this part of Wisconsin wasn’t all that interesting. I did, however, get my wish for cows:

We tried going to both Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire to find something interesting, but alas, there just wasn’t much for us. We didn’t do much research ahead of time to find anything awesome in this part of Wisconsin, so there may be great stuff around that we just don’t know about near where we were, but… another time, perhaps, Wisconsin. One interesting note is that we tried really hard to find a place where we could eat some Wisconsin cheese, but we were unsuccessful. It’s surprisingly challenging to find Wisconsin cheese in Wisconsin, apparently.

So anyway, now we’re in Minnesota!

We had a little housekeeping day today. I did laundry at a laundromat in St. Paul while Brian attempted to get Pearl’s oil changed (alas, that didn’t work out). Driving through Wisconsin all day, then doing laundry in some dubious neighborhood and driving around in search of Jiffy Lube in the rain (lots of crazy rain today, by the way) made us both kind of cranky and tired, so we found our Super 8 in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the Mall of America, pretty early and are in for the evening already (and already feeling better). Tomorrow we should have more fun adventures to share!

We spent most of the day driving across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (there are many worse ways to spend your day… check out the posts below; the UP is beauteous). Right now we’re in the middle of Wisconsin. We’re hoping to get to Minneapolis tomorrow afternoon-ish. We had initially planned a few more exciting adventures in Wisconsin, but logistics changed our minds. Sorry, Wisconsin.

For those following along at home, here’s today’s path:

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We woke up in Mackinaw City, ate fudge, and enjoyed the charming “downtown” for a bit this morning. Then it was time to drive over the crazy Mackinac Bridge — our second XL Big Mac of the trip –- that would be Michigan’s nickname for the bridge, not mine!!

Then we were in the UP!

The Upper Peninsula is a whole different scene. It was kind of like being transported back in time to like… the 50s, I think. Or the 70s. I don’t know. It was weird. Anyway:

“Pasties” (they appear to be a savory pie involving root veggies and meat in a pie crust and folded over like a turnover) and smoked fish jerky are both a really big deal on the UP. We didn’t partake of the local cuisine, but we saw pasties signs every few feet in the more populated areas. We did, however, go to this:

At the Mystery Spot, we got to experience unexplained physics-defying optical illusions, and Brian climbed the wall:

We had a beautiful, scenic drive along Lake Michigan:

Oh, would you like a closer look at that lighthouse? We wanted one, too, and we weren’t deterred by this:

Or even this:

Hooray:

It’s the Manistique Lighthouse, by the way.

Anyway, we drove and drove and then we were in Wisconsin!

And I’m sorry to report that the rest of the day was pretty visually uninteresting. Sorry, Wisconsin. To be fair, a lot of the Wisconsin driving happened in the dark, so I’m hoping to get a couple more photos tomorrow, and they better involve cows. We’re in Wausau, Wisconsin, at the Super 8. Tomorrow the goal is to get to Minneapolis (not far, so shouldn’t be an issue) and regroup for a day or two before moving on to leg 2: South Dakota. Whee!