Interesting Interstate

We're not the only fuel efficient vehicle on the highway. We saw this cool looking motorcycle somewhere in Indiana. The guy was moving. I had to run the Prius up to 83 mph to catch up to him. We left the Toledo area this morning and made it to Wisconsin Dells before we refueled with just a bit over 10 gallons. And that included a quick side trip to Buchanan, Michigan and another side trip to Elgin, Illinois.

Michigan was AJ's idea. He didn't want to pass up a state that he's never been to. I haven't been there either, but it's not really along the direct route to Wyoming. We played around with the idea of taking a ferry across the big water, but paid vacation time has its limits, so we made a much shorter foray into Michigan. We detoured about 5 miles across the Michigan state line in search of a wondrous cave that AJ found in the AAA guide book. Bear Cave turned out to be a very unassuming campground. The cave apparently wasn't much of a going concern, as the property was now a private "resort", and cave tours weren't on the agenda. No biggie. We turned around and headed back down to route 90 for the next major attraction. And now AJ may honestly claim that he's been to Michigan.

Our next stop was Elgin, Illinois. Why bother with Chicago when Elgin is just up the road? AJ is a collector of watches and owns a few Elgin watches. Another AAA guidebook tip told of the Elgin Historical Society Museum. After a little electric wandering around town, we found the beautiful old school house which is now the home of this little museum. The historical society volunteer greeted us warmly, and on hearing of AJ's watch attraction, he escorted us upstairs to see their exhibit on Elgin watches. It was very interesting, and the watches on display were beautiful. I enjoyed remembering my father wearing his Elgin wristwatch, which I gave to AJ not so very long ago. We enjoyed stretching our legs at the historical society and asked the frienedly volunteer to recommend a good lunch spot. He told us about the Elgin Public House and even googled directions and a map for us. What a little gem! We enjoyed an excellent meal. The garlic potato salad was especially good.

The rest of our road trip today was all about making miles. I know that many people think that such a lengthy car trip is excruciatingly dull. I suppose it depends on the attitudes of the occupants of the car. Listening to "All Things Considered" on NPR from Chicago to the Wisconsin state line prompted some stimulating conversation between mother and son. We marveled at the beauty of the countryside, and took some silly videos as we drove, interviewing each other and wondering who would ever want to watch our amateur productions. We did see some evidence of the recent flooding. Low lying farmlands were still swampy in areas. We saw quite a few dead deer on the side of the road, likely forced up onto the highway by the water.

We stopped somewhere past Wisconsin Dells and filled the Prius and decided to look for a place to stay for the night. We made it to the Minnesota border and still the Prius is registering a full tank. How cool is that? I can feel myself falling in love with this car. In fact, I don't even think that it's ugly anymore! Tomorrow will probably be a camping night for us, and it looks like it snowed about 4 inches in Yellowstone again. there's still much more to come, and I can't wait for the next leg of our adventure.