Truly On the Road

Hello, faithful readers!

Today was the first day that we truly felt like we were on the road.  We're currently blogging from a KOA campground in Mitchell, SD, which is currently packed with tourists eager to visit the Corn Palace (discussed below).  Today was a pretty eventful day for us on the trip.

We began the morning by saying goodbye to our dear friend, Drew.  After beating him in a classic game of Golden Eye on N64, we were on our way from Milwaukee to Madison.

In Madison, we visited Steve's friend from law school, Neha.  Having spent the past 2 months pent up in respective libraries, it was nice getting to catch up with such a close friend for a while.  Neha's mom and grandma joined us for our chat, and provided us with some of the most delicious food you could ever imagine.  The snack made the perfect lunch for us as we headed out of Madison, and returned to the never-ending stretch of road affectionately known as I-90W.

One of the coolest parts of I-90W around the Wisconsin area is the carpool lane.  For those unfamiliar with the concept, to use the carpool lane you need at least 2 people in the car.  This led Tammy to wonder how many people who were on the road generally (in all lanes) had more than one passenger in the car while driving to work.  The conversation went something like this:

Tammy:  "What percentage of cars on the road do you think have only one driver?"
(a few seconds pause)
Tammy: "100%.  What percentage of cars on the road do you think have only one person in the car?"

We also got to see a lot of cool things on the road:

Mooses was on a farm!

Waterparks at the Wisconsin Dells.

A family who had clearly made it to Niagra, Pennsylvania, and DC, and were now heading home to "Minnesota or bust!"

For those of you who are wondering: this. is. SPARTA.

And, of course, Mitchell's Corn Palace.  This place is AMAZING.  Basically, every year some artist comes and strips the building decorations.  Then he takes multi-colored corn, husks it, and makes a brand new design.  It is amazing.  Both the inside and outside are decorated with these murals made entirely of corn.

Here's the inside gym.  ALL CORN!

Here's a close-up of one of the murals.  Once again, it is ALL CORN!

Pretty cool.

Now, it's time for Tammy's Fun Fact of the Day!  Tammy's parents gave us this awesome book before we left called "Let's Go Road Tripping USA."  We discovered a section inside of it discussing the different dialects and phrases from across the United States.  Some of our favorites were:

(1) Make dodo- meaning "to sleep," in New Orleans
(2) Whipping shitties - meaning "to do donuts," in Milwaukee
(3) Bubbler - meaning "water fountain" in Wisconsin

Tomorrow we're off to Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands!  Talk to you then!!!