Day 3: Green Acres Is The Place To Be

Another long day of basically nothing but driving. With still one more day to go.

We had such a good time in downtown Madison, we went back this morning. Back to The Old Fashioned, too, for breakfast, and probably the best pancakes I've had since Linda Jeans in Martha's Vineyard. Pancake perfection, I'm telling you. Perfectly light and fluffy, with a side of thick cut bacon. We almost didn't stop for lunch.

And because we were so impressed with the exterior of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, we went inside to explore. 

Words can't describe just how beautiful this place is. Built in the 00s, it underwent a major restoration just a few years ago. We even got to climb all the way up to the observation deck that surrounds the dome. Again, we were so impressed by how all of downtown spokes out from the Capitol.

People always associate the South with farms, but I'm here to tell you that there are PLENTY of farms north of the Mason-Dixon Line. All through Wisconsin and Minnesota, we drove through miles and miles and miles of rolling green farmland to go with the miles and miles we'd already seen in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Saw plenty of corn, cattle, and an amazing number of windmills in Minnesota, as far as the eye can see. Madison commented that for the Land of 10,000 Lakes, she never saw the first one.

Thought for a bit this morning about taking a detour up to Minneapolis, since I used to work for MTS, which has their HQ there. Would love to show Marsha and Madison the Mall of America (and MTS, of course), but it was just too far out of the way.

We finally crossed the state line into South Dakota (and 75 mph speed limit!) and pulled into Sioux Falls right on schedule. Have to admit, billed as "South Dakota's largest city," it didn't really overwhelm us. That all changed, though, when we went downtown for dinner at Minerva's (which is a chain out here). The food and service were great, but the downtown was even better. There were a lot of revitalized old buildings, plus a "Sculpture Walk" featuring tons of commissioned sculptures by local and out-of-state artists all up and down the sidewalks. We had a great time exploring downtown, checking out all of the shops and sculptures. Another perfect ending to our day.

We've done so much already (not to mention how far we've traveled), it feels like we've been gone a week already. But it's only been a weekend!

Day 2: Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary

Today was the first of a couple of days where we just drive. We hit the road at about 10:30, drove through the rest of Ohio and across Indiana.

As soon as we saw a sign for Gary, Marsha immediately thought of Michael Jackson, while I thought of The Music Man. Marsha did some impromptu research (thank you iPhone) and since we had no set schedule, we made a quick detour to see the Jackson house at 2300 Jackson Street. Marsha was surprised that I knew the address. I told her that the Jacksons wrote a song with that as the name.

About the time we got to Gary, a warning message came on in the car that the oil was low. We've traveled once before to Massachusetts and back with a tire that needed air every few days, so I wasn't too worried. We pulled over at a service area and found it right on the minimum mark. Since we'd just had the car serviced, I hope that didn't mean we had a leak.

Marsha found a Jiffy Lube in Gary, but we only had ten minutes to get there before they closed. And, of course, we hit just about every stop light on the way. Luckily, we made it just in the nick of time. The super-nice gentlemen there topped us off for no charge, and no complaints for us driving in as they were closing up. Superior customer service!

Then it was over to the Jackson house. We had no trouble finding it thanks to all the neighbors selling T-shirts in their front yards. Love the entrepreneurial spirit! The real shock was how incredibly small the house is! We just couldn't believe that such a large family lived there. It's tiny!

Thankfully, it's also very well kept. A black metal fence surrounds the property, the house and lawn are pristine, and there's an impressive black marble monument in the front yard memorializing Michael.

The bigger surprise, though, was the rest of the neighborhood and all of Gary itself. Most of what we saw looks like an apocalyptic landscape. Just like the sadder parts of Cleveland, much of Gary is boarded up or falling down. Again, we saw a lot of buildings that were once nice. Gary, too, could really use a revitalization. Joe Jackson was a cruel taskmaster the way he pushed his kids, but we can certainly understand his reasons behind it.

Not long afterwards, we crossed into Illinois and hit our first major traffic jam on the expressway through Chicago. Hated not being able to stop (though, technically, and ironically, we stopped a lot on the expressway).

Finally, after much debate on what time we would actually arrive due to the time zone change and whether or not our GPS updated automatically, we made it to our final destination, downtown Madison, WI. What a beautiful downtown! We just love how all of it spokes out from around the Capitol building, which is modeled after the US Capitol in DC. We had a great dinner at The Old Fashioned Tavern which, true to form for us, we had seen on Food Network. Perfect way to end a long day spent (mostly) in the car.