The Long Drive Home

We were checked out and on the road by 7am. We were losing another hour of time, which didn't help, and turned out 17 hour drive into 18 hours. I'm not sure how we did it. We stopped as little as possible. Only to change drivers about halfway through. I got to be the lucky person to drive the many, many toll routes (8 tolls in all) through Chicago. These tolls are stupid. There was one that cost us $0.30.... WHY BOTHER? The majority cost $0.80. It was silly. I think it took us about 3 hours just to get through Chicago. The traffic wasn't bad, it was just so big and we were bopping from one highway to the next, thus having to pay different tolls.

It was a very, very long drive. When we got to Port Huron, Michigan, it marked our border stop as well as the halfway point. We stopped at a White Castle for supper. Andre's always wanted to try it. We each got 3 mini burgers, fries and a drink for $2.99 each. This White Castle was a tiny little stop, not much bigger than a chip truck (no sit down room at all, primarily used as a drive-through). We were attended to by a frightening looking lady with thinning dyed red hair and missing teeth. Behind her in the kitchen was a large black girl who talked like she was from inner city Detroit. She talked like Precious... it was kind of funny to meet a real live American who actually talked like that. The "red"-haired woman didn't have much of an accent, although she kind of whistled through her teeth holes as she talked.

The food was disgusting. The burgers were soggy and the meet was grey... Andre said he loved his, but I think it's just because he was getting his hopes up. The fries were cardboard and I only ate about 2 before throwing them out (yes, *I* actually threw out fries).

We stopped at the duty free on the way to the border (the whole reason for coming back through the states!). We bought Andre's 2 bottles of scotch. Getting through the border was a breeze, although Andre felt he needed to complicate things by stuttering and explaining exactly which kind of scotch we were taking back and exactly how many litres the bottles were. The border guard doesn't care, she just cares about "2 bottles of alcohol". So that's how I interrupted Andre's monologue, and she answered "have a good day", as Andre was still going. I have practice with the border... Andre obviously does not, lol.

The drive from there on was pretty uneventful. It was all along the 401, which Andre is very familiar with, so it was smooth sailing from there on in. We got home at 3:30am and were greeted by Dan and Bella. Dan had agreed to pick Bella up from the sitter's before they went to bed, since it was a last minute decision to drive home in 1 day.

And here we are, home sweet home. I look back to our time in Sudbury or Winnipeg and feel like it was ages ago. I'm sort of thrown off to think that it was all part of the same trip from which I'm just returning home.

Mall of America

Our plans for the next day were to visit Mall of America, so we got up early to beat the rush of people.

For a huge mall, I must say that the parking system is very well organized. Each area of the parking garage is organized by the name of a state. We parked in Hawaii. The mall is pretty huge, although it wasn't that much more impressive than other malls. It was very neat looking. I kind of reminded me of those narrow alleyways in New York where you might find laundry hanging from apartment to apartment. The stores were kind of like that with their "balconies" being the walkway for shoppers. There are 4 major department stores in Mall of America: Bloomingdales, Macy's, Sears and Nordstrom. We didn't end up going to all of them, just Macy's. We went to all of the little stores, however. We didn't go on the roller coasters, though. I really wanted to. :-(

We stopped for lunch at one of the many sit-down restaurants in the mall -- Another BBQ place called Famous Dave's. From the looks of it, it's a pretty big chain down there. It was pretty good, although not as good as Dickeys, and about twice the price. Which is still pretty darn cheap.

We were about to leave empty handed (me? leave a mall empty handed? I think not) and I popped into a store and found a lovely crocheted sweater for $15. It looks nice on me, I think. So I bought that. We also stopped at Macy's because they were having a huge kitchen sale. We bought a cast iron pan and a non-stick skillet. This is a fancy-pants skillet. It was originally $100, but they had put the wrong tag on it, so we got it for $40. Woot woot!

We stopped at Chili's for supper on the way home. It was close to our hotel. It was pretty good. Andre said his burger was excellent and I had the fajitas.

We decided that we were going to do the 17 hour drive and go home the next day. We hadn't yet booked a hotel on the way home and we were starting to feel homesick. We went to bed really early in preparation for our long drive.

En route to Minneapolis

As I write this, a week later, I can't really remember anything spectacular about the drive to Minneapolis. The scenery changed from desert to a little bit more green. It was still prairie, though and reminded me a lot of Winnipeg. Which, I guess makes sense since Minnesota is just underneath Manitoba.

We stopped somewhere along the way to eat at a Cracker Barrel. Andre said that this was a staple for him when he and the guys drove down to Florida, so we tried it out. I loved it. It was all home cookin'. I ordered the Chicken fried Chicken. It sounded pretty American and I was all for American experiences. It was just a piece of breaded, fried chicken breast. A huge piece at that. I had it with green beans, carrots and mashed potatoes. There was a white chicken gravy on top. It was also served with a corn muffin and a buttermilk biscuit. I really want to make it sometime. It's not that it was really all that good. The chicken was a bit tough, the veggies were canned and overcooked, but it tasted like a grandma from the south would make. They also had a little gift store attached to the restaurant, an "old country store". Well, food and gift shops are my two favourite things, so I was in heaven. Andre ordered the catfish skewers. He said they were very good.

As we drove into Minneapolis, we were assaulted by a huge thunderstorm. It started out with seeing a lovely rainbow at the side of the road. And then black clouds, and a ridiculous amount of lightening. The sky was sparkling like a Christmas tree. It was very hard to see through the rain, but Andre was a trooper and did very well.

We finally arrived at our hotel, another surprise hotwire purchase. This one was a Sheraton. Again, we got a room with 2 beds, but oh well. Our room was actually very interesting. It was what they called a "Cabana" and it was on the 2nd floor, overlooking the pool area... and as a result, there was no window to the outside world. The room was very, very humid and smelled strongly of chlorine. Andre put a towel underneath the door that lead to the balcony so that the smell wouldn't be so bad. We could have lived with that, but there's more horrible things about this hotel... I thought maybe I'd like to make a phone call using my calling card. I looked at the phone to figure out how to dial out, and it said it would charge me $2, plus $0.10 per minute for the privilege of using their phone (to dial a toll free number). Local calls were $1.50. That made me mad. But it didn't end there... I decided to load up the internet to post a blog posting... it wanted me to give a credit card to log into the internet and informed me that it would charge me $5 per hour of internet usage. Rediculous. At one point on our trip, I really really wanted to order room service, just for fun. But the continental breakfast cost $19 per person.... I think not. Does a muffin and a bowl of fruit really need to cost that much? Oh, and the bottle of water in our room cost $4. I had half a mind to drink the water, and then fill it up with tap water and put it back... just out of spite.

So we decided to get out of there. The chlorine smell was bad, and there was a TGI Friday's in front, so we went there for a late night snack. We ordered an appetizer platter. Andre ordered a beer and actually got carded. This is very weird, because at this point, his vacation beard was huuuge. But, I guess his baby face is visible, even under all of that fur.

We headed back to the hotel and went to bed. The chlorine smell had dissipated a bit after Andre blocked the door. But, since the pool was still open, it was still very, very, loud with kids screaming and splashing. The pool was supposed to close at 11, but there were still people in there at 11:30.

Mount Rushmore

We slept in a little bit the next morning, just because we could, and then leisurely headed out to see Mount Rushmore. It was about 20 minutes away from our hotel. As we got into the actual town around Mount Rushmore, it was so strange looking! It almost reminded me of Clifton Hill at Niagara falls. Tons of bright lights, big signs, souvenir shops. You can tell this town survives solely on tourism income. As we were driving up to Mount Rushmore, you could actually see the mountain, but we decided to do the whole thing and park and walk around the park. I was so shocked at how SMALL it actually is. In movies and shows, they picture the carvings to be the size of the actual mountain but in reality, it's only about 1/8 the side of the mountain. In the top corner. Yeah, it was pretty cool, but I was disappointed about the size. Also, I've seen it so many times in movies that I felt like I had already been there. Either way, if you're American, it definitely something you need to see, because it's a very patriotic thing. As a Canadian, though, I didn't think it was that great, mostly because I didn't get the significance of it.

So we been there'd and done'd that ... and yes, I got a T-Shirt for my quilt and we pushed off. We weren't there more than an hour and a half. That's my kind of tourism! On the way back, we stopped at this drive-though animal park that we saw on the way in called Bear Country USA. We didn't know how much it cost, but we decided if it was under $20, we'd go, but no more than $20. It looked so neat. So we drove up, and after the girl at the gate told us it'd be $30, Andre glanced at me and promptly handed the girl $30. I know how much Andre loves bears, so it was probably worth it. The drive-through took about 30 minutes. We saw huge moose, wolves, buffalo, deer of all kinds, lynx, bobcats, fox,... I'm sure I'm missing something. It was a lot of animals. Towards the end, though, there were lots of bears. TONS of them. They were just walking alongside the car. One even decided to cross the street in front of us at a very leisurely pace, so we actually had a huge lineup of cars behind us as we waited for him to cross. They were very cute.

After the drive through, there is a little zoo that you can get out and look at. They call it Babyland because it's where they keep all of the baby animals. They were so adorable. The best part is that we saw a little baby black bear climbing a tree and then he had a rough time trying to figure out how to get back down. He tried going bum first, head first, but no matter what he did, he couldn't figure it out. His tree was sort of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree because he had chewed so many of the leaves and branches off of it, which left very little to help him climb. It was so adorable.

When we got back to the hotel, I decided to go relax on the sun deck in my bathing suit while Andre went to get the oil changed on the car. Of course, when I decided to do this, Mother Nature decided that she'd let the clouds make a special appearance. This was our first experience with American clouds. Seriously, not one thus far (the fog over the ocean doesn't count, I've decided). Needless to say, I didn't get a tan.

When Andre got back, we went out for supper. We were going to try out a Chili's, but stopped short when we saw a place called "Dickey's BBQ Pit". That was what we were in the mood for.

So we went in, and the place was packed... good sign. They had a special on, $1 pulled pork sandwich. So we did that, and each added a side dish. I had potato salad and Andre had the fried okra. We're starting to realize that Americans by default eat A LOT. Not only were our side dishes served in huge cups, but the drink (we asked for a "regular") came in a 32oz cup! Also, some people (average looking people) were getting 2 or 3 sandwiches. Also, a "meal" came with a sandwich and 2 sides (not just one), so the Americans were adding 2 side dishes on top of their 2 sandwiches. If that wasn't enough, if you ate in the restaurant (you could take out, it was like a fast food place), you got to serve yourself to a gigantic pickle (more like a cucumber) and ice cream for dessert. So we got 2 sandwiches, potato salad, fried okra, 2 large pickles, a drink and 2 servings of ice cream... all for $8. It's a good deal to me! Not only was it cheap, but it was really tasty too!

We waddled back to our hotel. I decided I wanted to see if there was my favourite dollar store, Dollar Tree in Rapid City. Sure enough, one had just opened in May. So Andre, being the good sport that he is, humoured me and we punched the address into the GPS. This address took us on a wild goose chase because there was no Dollar Tree when Susan said we had reached our destination. Andre was determined to find it, because he had seen a map on the computer when I was looking up the address. After stopping at 2 malls, we finally went back to where Susan told us to go and looked around some more. Sure enough, it was there. I stocked up on dollar store medicine to re-stock my pharmacy at home. Things like Aleve, Rub A-5-3-5, Polysporin, Expectorant, etc. You can't get these for $1 in Canada!

After we were done at the dollar store, we went back to our lovely hotel to pack it in for the evening. We had a long drive ahead of us.

South Dakota - Day 1

Our stay at the Super 8 came with what they call a "Super Start Breakfast", which was served from 6-9am. We must have been jet lagged, because we didn't wake up until 8:45 and had to boot it to the main building (yes, we were in an offshoot building at the Super 9) for our Super Start. This breakfast lacked a bit of imagination. It consisted of a counter with a couple of bags of no name cereal (looked like cheerios and cornflakes), a dish of some dried-out looking pastry, a bag of bread and a toaster. No fruit or anything. There was also juice and coffee. Now, when they say a "Super Start", I was thinking something a little more substantial. Oh well, we had our breakfast, and packed up the car and were once again on our way. It was a long drive, but with speed limits of 75mph (that's 120kmph!), it didn't seem so slow.

The scenery was similar to that of Manitoba, but more desert. It was pretty flat, but very brown and very dry looking. In fact, we haven't seen a cloud in the sky since we left Canada. And I'm not exaggerating... not one cloud. It was perfect blue sky the whole way through.

The road was flat and straight, but along with the lightening-speed limit came a couple of problems. As we were driving through, we saw a crumpled up Porsche on the other side of the highway that was being cleared off. It looked like it took quite a tumble into the ditch. Also we saw an older RV that was burnt to a crisp. Nothing but its wire frame and charred upholstery were left. There were tons of emergency vehicles and lots of ambulances. I hope no one was hurt. The RV had been pulled to the side of the road, so I assume the driver had enough time to get out.

As creepy as that was, we also saw a lot of really neat things. Like dust devils. I don't think I've ever actually seen those before, but they're big whirlwinds in the middle of a farmer's field. They look like tornadoes, but they don't reach the sky. We saw as many as 5 in the same field. It looked really cool!

Andre would also like me to inform you that he saw a badger at the side of the road. Yes, he pulled over, but as he got out of the car, the badger ran away. I didn't actually see the badger, so I couldn't tell you whether it was real or not, but if Andre says it, then it must be real.

When we got to our hotel, we were surprised. We had booked it on Hotwire, so we didn't actually get to choose the place, but we got a Holiday Inn -- our favourite. This Holiday Inn was unlike any I've ever seen. Not only was it huge, but it was so elegant! It was round, with an atrium in the middle that extended to the ceiling where there were skylights (10 stories up). In the atrium was a lounge and a restaurant and the reception area. The elevators had twinkle lights and exposed glass that looked into the atrium and there was a waterfall that ran all along the side of the elevator that trickled from the roof to the ground, into a different bowl at each floor.

Our room was just outside the elevator doors on the 4th floor where the fountain bowl was. It was also next door to the ice machine. I can see why it was the hotwire room... it had to be pretty noisy. We got into our room and were astounded at the size of it. Of course, because we booked on hotwire, we didn't get to choose what kind of room we got -- so we ended up with 2 beds, but it didn't matter. It was a huuuge room and very pretty!

We settled into our room and decided to go for a late night snack. It was 10:30pm at that point. We decided to hit up a place near our hotel called "Taco John's". We got there late enough at night that they had their late night special of 3 tacos for $2, so that's what we did. We were starving so we each got 3 tacos. Cheap dinner! They were pretty good tacos... reminiscent of Taco Bell.

We headed back to the hotel to take a dip in the pool and hot tub, which closed at midnight. This is the only hotel that I've seen that has a pool open that late, which is nice. Usually the pool is packed with kids until closing time.

Washington to Montana

I assume I somehow deleted the post below because I specifically remember writing it... I'm going to try to remember it now.

We left our cozy motel in Washington at 9am, said our goodbyes to to the Korean lady and set off. She sent us off with lots of breakfast... muffins, danishes and fruit again. It was very interesting driving through Washington. From my perspective, there were two parts of Washington: the lush, dense forests and the desert (once you pass the mountains). It was just a sudden change of scenery. In Canada, I noticed that this kind of change in scenery was actually denoted by the seemingly arbitrary province lines. Ontario which is hilly and rocky (Canadian Shield) gives way to Manitoba, which is pretty flat, which gives way to Saskatchewan which is really flat, then there's Alberta which is desert-y, and BC which is foresty and mountainy. I think these province lines were drawn with thought and consideration.

The American lines are a different story. So when I saw the change of scenery, I immediately thought we were in Idaho, but as it turns out, we were not. Once we did get to Idaho, we stopped for lunch. We really wanted to try out Sonic, because we see it so much on TV, so we punched it into our GPS. There was a Sonic in some little town that I don't even know the name of in Idaho. Now, let me explain Sonic to you. We thought it was just an ordinary, super cheap fast food burger place. But it's not. It's an old-school car-hop drive in. You pull into a parking spot which is equipped with a drive-through menu on both sides. You push a button on the menu, and a person answers the speaker and you place your order. A few minutes later, someone comes out with your meal... and yes... they are on ROLLER SKATES! How cool is that? Andre and I weren't sure if you should tip them, but the guy was sort of lingering and kept asking us if we needed anything else, so Andre quickly went into his pocket and grabbed whatever was inside and gave it to the guy. Turns out it was a $1 bill... but thankfully American money all looks the same and I don't think the guy noticed that we shafted him right away. We felt a little sheepish, so we quickly ate our gigantic burgers and got on the road. We didn't have lunch until 2pm, so we were good until we reached our motel in Montana.

We got to our motel in Missoula, Montana around 9pm. We stayed at a Super 8 this time, because our booking of hotels in the states turned into a frantic "oh my god, there's nothing left" exercise. After a quick check to see if the local KMart was open for a T-Shirt (it was not), we went to Safeway to pick up a couple of groceries for the next day.

We headed back to the hotel for the night, watching HBO. I'm glad that most of our motels had HBO for free.

For some reason, I had high hopes for Montana. I had these images of myself and Andre going into a little western diner filled with locals eating their pie and them recognizing that "yer not from 'round here". And then they would proceed to make fun of us Canadians and then tell us old Cowboy and Indian stories...

I think I watch too many movies. No such luck.

Our Super 8 was dank and dingy, although it was actually quite clean. It was a half-basement room with the window high up on the wall which I think made it feel that way.