Indiana- My home and native land

Fort Wayne- our Eastern most destination and first stop in Indiana. I was born there and much of my mom’s family still lives there, so we stopped in for a few days to visit. We got to see my nearly 95 year old grandpa (and his naked cat and collection of naked statues), and lots more relatives. We had dinner, at Casa of course, with my grandpa and his wife, my uncle Jimmy and Aunt Maureen, Aunt Nancy (previously featured in Ranching adventures), cousin Katie and her husband and kids. And we stayed with my Uncle Pat and Deann and had dinner on other nights with my cousin Emily and her fiancé Joel and my cousin Sean. We also stopped by the old Fort (Wayne). I've never been, at least that I can remember. It wasn't open, so we looked around, confirmed it did indeed appear to be a fort, and left before the humidity killed us.

Highlights of Fort Wayne were obviously the abundance of naked statues and my Uncle Pat’s house. He has an indoor pool- which we enjoyed while floating in pool lounge chairs and watching TV. But the best part of his house is the brand new Jet bathtub. I’m not usually a big bath taker, but this tub was so deep and impressive I decided it try it out while Mitch caught up on sleep. I figured I’d put a little of the cheap $2 Suave body wash I had picked up at a drugstore along the trip in the water. Best decision ever. I filled the tub and the body wash did exactly what I expected- almost nothing. Then I turned on the jets. I did not anticipate that the jets would agitate the body wash into bubbles. But it did. And oh, the bubbles. Mariah Carey has nothing on these bubbles. If you’ve ever wondered how movie bathtub scenes always have tons of bubbles the key is jets. There was at least a 10-12 inch layer of bubbles covering the entire tub. I even woke Mitch up to come see the bubbles (he was thrilled…)

We topped off our Fort Wayne time with dinner, drinks, and Karaoke at “The Office Tavern”. Which is obviously a brilliant name for a bar! The secret to getting Mitch to sing karaoke is giving him several drams of good scotch before hand. In this case Johnnie Walker Platinum. The Office was nearly empty and we each got up for several songs before calling it a night. Sidetone: There are a lot of words to Men in Black.

Then we headed south to the Indianapolis area. We had lunch with Mitch’s friend Jenny from Purdue and browsed Indy Reads Books, the non-profit used bookstore she manages that promotes and benefits literacy education in Indianapolis (very worth a stop if you find yourself in Indy). Then went up to Fishers to have dinner and crash with my cousins Tony and Aleka and their kids- Giovanna and Josephine. Mitch was of course a big hit with Josephine (because every kid loves him) and he made a new friend- their cockatiel PeeWee. Giovanna assisted him with taking a “What Bird Is Right For Me” quiz, because he continues to insist he wants a bird (we have 9 chickens- those are birds, I have informed him), and his results were “Pigeon or Dove”, so if you have a pigeon needing a home, Mitch is your man. 

Then we headed to southern Indiana for lunch and an evening with another rowing buddy, Alex. We stayed with Alex last year but he has since moved to a small town and two acres of beautiful land and a darling house with his dogs- Scotty and Watson. Mitch learned to chop wood and is now ready to become a farmer and/or lumberjack. We also got some sweet corn from the side of the road, but since no one was working the trailer of corn, we stuck a dollar bill in the box of bags and grabbed a few ears. Small towns have their pros for sure. 

We capped off the evening by grilling some brats, eating our fresh corn, watching the fireflys and marveling at how weird daylight savings time is since it was still light out after 9pm. 

 Seriously, look at those bubbles!

 We took in a movie... any guesses on which one?

 Dinner with Grandpa

Maureen, Jimmy, and Nancy as well

 Some giant painted balls floating on the St Mary's River

 My first trip to the Fort! 

 Very fort like. 

 He knows ALL of the words to Cabaret. 

 Pretty sure this is a groundhog/woodchuck. 

 Peewee liked Mitch's head a lot. He has a thing for brunettes apparently. 

The Many Places and Faces of Chicago

Before we officially left Wisconsin, we had one last stop to make- The Norske Nook. Excellent Scandinavian food and the BEST pie ever. I used to go there on days off when I worked at camp, and oh the pie, the amazing pie. We got curds as well- because Wisconsin. And Strawberry Sour Cream Pie- to go. 

But then we crossed into Illinois and the Chicagoland. There is a lot to that. All the suburbs are interesting- they’re small towns that were swallowed by the mass that is Chicago, so most of them have their own downtowns, city councils, etc. We stayed in Elmhurst. It was adorable. And home to my cousin Stephan, his wife, Leslie, and their three super adorable kids- Kendall (6), James (3 1/2), and Adelynn (1).

Within mere moments of arriving, James eagerly grabbed Mitch by the hand and led him to the basement to play. The basement is kid heaven- legos, barbies, trucks, cards, you name it. Mitch agreed and got to see the pillow fort and assist in Lego castle building. The next day the kids showed us around the Museum of Science and Industry.

MSI is amazing! First off, that place is huge. We were there for about 5 hours and saw less than a quarter of it. We explored the coal mine, stumbled through the mirror maze (I got separated and lost and Mitch tried to go in after me, but I made it out without seeing him. Mirrors are tricky), ventured underwater in a German U-Boat from World War II (ok, it wasn’t actually underwater, but it was underground, and the water table is high that close to the lake, so practically underwater), and Lego exhibit. We also looked at all the farm stuff, drove a tractor and combine, and saw real life baby chickens! Chicks! Clearly the best part. They have an incubator, so we got to see a few chicks pipping and working on hatching and a few more who just hatched as well as lots that were a couple of days old. The Schlesinger crew are pros and have made more than a few visits, so we were lucky to have such knowledgeable and eager guides to hold our hands and show us around.

We topped off the day with a visit to Mitch’s great-uncle and cousin, popcorn from Garrett’s, and a walk along the Michigan avenue to admire the stores we will never shop in. But we had popcorn, so who needs fancy bags? 

The rest of our weekend continued to be jam packed with people, places, and things. We saw an old friend of Mitch’s, Sonia, and her fiancé, Jeff, and ate at Portillos. Midwesterners pronounce it Port- Til- Oh’s. I don’t understand it either. It clearly should be pronounced Por- Tea-yo’s. But they had delicious chocolate cake, so I’ll let it slide. 

We started one of our days with adventures in public transportation. I’m pretty good at navigating public transit, but commuter train, to subway, to park, involved a lot more walking than I anticipated. We managed, found our trains, and walked, a lot, to get to the destination. But we finally made it and saw an old rowing buddy of Mitch’s, Tara, and watched some sprint races in the park. Then we wandered to the free Lincoln Park Zoo. The best exhibit, by far, was the macaques. They have a new habitat that incorporates interactive technology allowing them to request things and communicate with their trainers. They also had two tiny babies and a 1 year old baby. Baby monkeys are the best! They run, they jump, they climb on top of their mamas. They melt all hearts. We also saw the harbor seals doing their daily wellness activities with their trainers, and a variety of other creatures. 

Then it was off to meet and spend time with his cousins, Debbie and Stephanie, and Stephanie’s husband Brian, and more of their friends. We checked out the SquareRoots festival, took in some live music, drank out of a pineapple, and got a great dinner and margaritas. We are good at this “visit people and hang in the city” thing. Mitch’s cousins were fantastic and so friendly. It was easy to spend the entire afternoon and evening with them.

We ate the classics: Chicago style pizza, more than one ice cream stop, popcorn, and hotdogs. We got some much needed sleep (in a super fun bunkbed! Thanks James). And loved all the time spent with friends and family. Chicago did us well. And I got pictures with about half of the people we saw... improvement? 

 Museum of Science and Industry

 Just a quick trip to St Louis, Lego style

 James and the Pully

James and Kendall getting to participate in a lego demonstration

 Adelynn loves selfies

 Oh hey, Space Needle.

 Kendall the Clown

 Everyone loves a Caroselfie! 

 Me and my bear

 Pineapple drinks are the best drinks

 Brian, Debbie, and Stephanie

 James is ready for ice cream- goggles always help.

Wisconsin, eh?

We continued our tour of the midwest with a trip to Wisconsin. Because no American road trip is complete without cheese. So much cheese. 

We started the trip with a visit to House on the Rock. There was so much more there than I ever expected. We opted for the full self guided tour- estimated to take 3-31/2 hours. They were not kidding, we spent nearly 3 hours exploring things and could have easily spent several more if we stopped to look at every single thing. The tour is divided into three sections- the actual house, and two different galleries. 

The House: The guy who built this was obviously short, because Mitch and I were about as tall as you could be to comfortably navigate the place. It was full of dark corners and seating areas. I have no idea how big the house actually is, but it felt enormous as we twisted and turned around corners and through narrow hallways. Probably the most interesting part of the house, and definitely Mitch’s favorite part, was the infinity room. It was designed to look like it never ended, and the effect lands. It is fashioned as a huge spire sticking out of the house with windows on both sides at an angle. As it goes further into the abyss, and off the rock, it gets narrower, until it gets to the point that a smaller turret comes off of it at an angle. Total its well over 100 feet sticking straight out and off the rock, with no supports under it. Unique doesn't begin to describe it, but that really describes the entire place.

The Galleries: This guy collected EVERYTHING. So many dolls- all over the place. Circus dioramas. Model trains. Organs and Organ pipes. He also had many instruments that were wired to play themselves with the help of various electric parts. The instruments played a specific tune and were scattered throughout- sometimes as a solo unit, sometimes with up to 30 others, arranged like an orchestra. Sometimes they were accompanied by mannequins dressed like dancers, other times they were in a tucked away corner.

And then there was the whale. I’m not sure what the whale was doing there, but it was. And it was being attacked by a giant squid. These enormous sculptures (papier mache wonders?) were over two stories high. And surrounded by large models of ships and various nautical memorabilia. Each room was like this- a theme present, and then the most insane collection of items collected and displayed.

My favorite was the carousels. The world’s largest carousel is apparently there- it was defiantly very big, and at least 3 levels, filled with dozens of different animals and a wide variety of chimeras- but no horses. The walls in the room were also covered in carousel animals and horses. And multiple smaller carousels were around the gallery, one of which had tiny horses and held only dolls. The only downside was that you cant’ ride the carousels- so no caroselfie this time.

After the House on the Rock, we drove up to the Wisconsin Dells- home to the most waterparks in one area. We stayed at Mount Olympus, in an older motel they had bought and painted blue and white to indicate it was part of Mount Olympus. Our room was decorated with a lovely, wall sized, portrait of Poseidon on his horse, emerging from the sea. So that was a plus. Our stay included admission to the water park as well. 

The highlight of the Dells was the relaxation and recharge time, however. But there was time spent in waterpark. They had 3 lazy rivers and I tried them all, several times. There were also two wave pools, a bunch of slides, both tube and body, I tried a few of the smaller slides, designed for the elementary school set, and then returned to my river. Mitch tried a few more slides, reaching up to the middle school level and reporting back on what I could handle without injuring my back further. Our day in the water was topped off with delivery Italian food consumed while sitting in bed. Not a bad way to unwind.

The House on the Rock was not terribly well lit, so my attempt at photos is not great, but here are some to give you a sliver of an idea of all the weird things it had.

The first of so, so many carousel animals

 The Infinity Room! 

 This is what it looks like from outside

 the roof of the infinity room

 For your pill needs...

 There were dozens of these type machines around. Mitch is apparently an uncontrollable lover.

 I'm hot stuff.

 Thats a giant squid (or octopus? it's debatable) 

 Confirmed: Out of Control

 Still sexy. 

 

Carousels everywhere. So many horses. Literally hundreds adorned the walls. 

Magical musical displays.  

 These were all over the grounds and I want one. A giant pot covered in dragons! 

Minnesota, don't cha know

After our attempt at sleeping on the side of the road, we finally made it to the great city of Minneapolis. Let’s get this out of the way upfront: we did not go to the Mall of America. I am completely ok with this- been there, done that, not terribly interested in returning. And lets be honest, we cannot fit another thing in our car at this point.

We did however do some other fun things and saw a LOT of people in just a few days. We stayed with college friends, and former roommate, of Mitch’s: Brent and Sarah. They were fantastic hosts. Sarah may have missed her calling as a tour guide, because she was full of interesting local history and tidbits. We saw the Stone Bridge, historic Flour Mills, including Gold Medal (you know, the kind you probably have in your cabinet now- assuming you found the name brand on sale or were feeling spending that one day at the grocery). 

We also saw a bunch of Mitch’s family- two uncles, two aunts, two cousins, and grandparents (also in a pair!). We got to see his grandparents new apartment and had dinner with the whole group followed by lunch the following day with just his grandparents. Everyone was lovely and we got to eat at the very exotic “Perkins”. 

We closed out the weekend with a celebration on the 4th of July at the St Paul Saints, minor league baseball, game. The Saints know how to entertain- they have a giant fuzzy, pink pig that walks around as well as a live pig as their mascot. I’m not sure why, it just is, some questions are better left unasked. They also do various activities between each inning including races, tire pushing, and quadcopter flying. They also had the best selection of food and beer I’ve ever seen at a ballpark. Way to go, St Paul, you know how to draw a crowd. The evening was of course topped off with fireworks that we watched from the field. And in true Minnesota fashion, we had to ask for the lights to be turned off by shouting in union "Excuse me, can you please turn off the lights?" (as promoted by the announcers). Thank you, oh so polite, Minnesotans. Happy Birthday America- I ate a lot in your honor.

Lunch with the Grandparents

Not real beer, but oh so delicious

 For the first time this trip, I actually got a picture of everyone! Brent is not dressed patriotically, you may draw your own conclusions as to why...

The Floating heads of Mount Rushmore

We left Wyoming, and continued the drive East- to South Dakota! The goal of South Dakota was to see Mt Rushmore. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but what else are you going to see when you’re driving through South Dakota? So Rushmore it was.

It was a few hours from where we stayed, but we figured we’d stop there and then trek to Minneapolis, our next destination. We under estimated (or rather Siri underestimated) the amount of time it takes to drive across South Dakota. It’s a big state!

We saw the rolling hills, what signs told me were the badlands, and we got to see a small herd of Big Horn Sheep- the high light of the driving portion of the day for sure! They were just hanging out next to the road, which seems unwise to me, but they didn’t seem to be worried. 

We also hit a bird. It literally flew into the grill. That brings the kill count to 3- this car is insatiable! 

We finally made it to Rushmore. It is indeed a large rock with heads carved into it. Smaller than I imagined. We walked the Presidential trail which warned it was “Very Strenuous” but since we saw a lot of old people walking it, figured it wouldn't be that bad. Apparently Very Strenuous is just code for “A Whole Lot of Stairs”. It did allow some better views of the floating heads, and they seemed a bit more impressive the closer we got. We also got to see some of the original models they used and some other fun history. 

We made it back to the top, up the approximately 1 million uneven stone steps, did the obligatory gift shop scan, found a great magnet, and then bid adieu to our past Presidents and got back on the road.

Shortly after leaving Rushmore we saw signs for the "Cosmos Mystery Area". Since we're basically pros after the Oregon Mystery House, we decided a stop was in order. It was very similar! They did a lot of the same demonstrations- showing a level area and then showing people appearing to get taller or shorter. We even did one where we each stood at the end of a cement slab. I walked to Mitch and the tip of my nose was even with his lips. I walked back and he walked to me and now the bridge of my nose touched his lips. I can't explain it, but it's weird and fun. Apparently there are about a dozen of these around the country, so we're on the look out for them now. Then back to the car...

As we drove, there were roughly 500 signs for Wall Drug along the way, so I decided we had to stop. I had no idea what Wall Drug was other than famous. It’s a huge store! Easily 1 full city block. It sells junk, fudge, souvenirs, and even has a restaurant in it. There was an apothecary, but I don’t think it is currently in use, and I did not notice any sort of actual pharmacy services. Weird, since it is billed as a “Drug Store”… 

We wondered a bit, saw an animatronic Dr talk about his tonic, got some food from the restaurant, Mitch got a mystery chicken egg with prize inside, and then we got back on the road.

And more driving. We decided that, even though we were likely going to get to Minneapolis around 4am, it was silly to get a hotel for a few hours. Especially since it was a holiday weekend and even the cheap motels were expensive. So we pulled over to a rest area and attempted to sleep for a few hours, in part to actually sleep, and in part to not wake up our kind hosts at 4am.

This was not our best idea. The car is packed so full the seats only recline about 2 inches. Not ideal for sleeping. And the rest area had a lot of street lights. Good for safety, bad for sleeping. But we made do, and said so long o South Dakota and hello to Minnesota in the wee hours of the morning. 

 Big Horns!

 Rushmore Selfie- more floating heads.

 Oh hey guys. 

 We found a Mystery Area!

Mitch is short.

 But getting taller. 

 Wall Drug- no drugs to be found. 

 But there are some cowboys.

 And Annie Oakley! All Annies are redheads- fact. 

 It's a golden coin! Win!

 This lovely shop is across the street. Draw your own conclusions...