Goodbye Minnesota, Hello Wisconsin

Before we left Rochester, Minnesota this morning, we drove into town and saw the famous Mayo Clinic. Wow, what an impressive place that is. It was almost reverant being in the shadow of such an important and powerful place. There is lots of life saving and valuable research work that goes on there. It was a compound of sorts actually. There is not just one building, it consists of several buildings around the main skyscraper clinic. It sits in a very pretty part of Rochester. There are hotels and motels all over the place. Just about everything you have ever heard of is there. I would suppose they stay busy all the time too, with people coming from all over the world to get help there.

After getting a few pictures, which I will pick out a couple for here, we left town on I-90 again and headed for Wisconsin.

Minnesota and Wisconsin are separated by the Mississippi River. How great is that? We saw the Mississippi River and boy is it beautiful. We got a few pictures there too (surprise!) We stopped at a rest stop that was also an information place and it was a beautiful little park. We walked down by the river's edge and got some pictures. We were completely alone on the pathway and it was so peaceful and beautiful. There we were, just the two of us on the banks of the mighty Mississip'.

We noticed a few things immediately upon crossing into Wisconsin. The drivers are insane!! They tailgate like you wouldn't believe. They pay NO attention to the speed limit, it's incredible! Wayne was driving and had the cruise control set right on the speed limit and we actually were plugging up the highway. People were rushing past us like we were doing 40!

The next thing we noticed was that a lot of the farm buildings and barns had a lot of metal, while all we saw in other states were wood. The farms here as well as in Minnesota and most other states we've been are all so neat and almost manicured.
There is no rusting old farm machinery or debris or other garbage laying around. Not only the areas around the houses, but also the areas around all the out buildings is well maintained and green and pretty.

There is an absolute minimum of trash and litter on the highways. I really notice the difference here from California. It almost makes me ashamed to think of how our highways and freeways in California are so littered compared to these.

And, finally, more corn!!!!!! Corn is truly king here. Miles and miles of corn. The miles of corn fields we saw in Minnesota didn't quit when we crossed over into Wisconsin~

We think it's alfalfa, but there is a green crop that almost hurts your eyes to look at, it's such a bright green. I got a picture of it but not sure it really does it justice. It's the greenest green you've ever seen.

The leaves are beginning to turn and we are getting some really precious scenery of fall colors.

Note to Dennis and Lori: Thanks for the suggestion to go this way instead of through Iowa. It was a great idea. You are right, it's very pretty here.

We are in Madison Wisconsin tonight and plan to go through Chicago tomorrow to see Wrigley Field. There was a game today but they were selling BLEACHER tickets for $129 each. We decided to go see the stadium tomorrow when there is no game for free! Do not have any idea where we will stop for the night tomorrow. I think Chicago is only about an hour or so from here but don't know how much time we will spend there.

Note to Todd: I have been thinking about the week your Dad and I spent here with you when you got out of boot camp at Great Lakes. That was a fun week, wasn't it?

We are continuing on I-90 through Chicago tomorrow and I will post details of our day tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading......love to all
Wayne and Colleen