Hello, Wisconsin!

Packed, loaded and ready to leave Mill Hall, PA on Day #2.

Days #2 and #3 were much like the first day, but with less interesting scenery. We drove through quite a bit of fog both mornings and a substantial amount of road construction. Even so, we made good time.


We started the day by giving Eva some Dramamine because she had complained of being carsick the first day. It worked like a charm, no complaints of tummy aches, and the added bonus was that it made her drowsy enough to take a nap.

We checked into our hotel in Fremont, Indiana around 3:30 pm yesterday. It was nice to have some downtime! Dave put in some hours for work, I worked out in the hotel's fitness center and the kids played and watched some television.

The girls gathered all of the pillows in the room and made a pillow fort.

For dinner, we lucked out by finding a fantastic Italian restaurant. The breadsticks were out of this world, as were the meatballs and stuffed shells. We're hoping to stay again in Fremont on our return trip, which means we can try more of the menu at Caruso's.

We let the kids sleep in a bit later this morning and didn't leave the hotel until 7:30 am. Our GPS was showing that the last leg of our trip was only around 5 1/2 hours, and we would also be gaining an hour as we crossed into Central Standard Time. After the long days we'd had, this seemed like it should be a piece of cake.

We had planned to bypass Chicago and instead stay on I-80 and drive up through Rockford, but we missed the turn and found ourselves headed north to Chicago on I-90. Traffic was light though, so we thought maybe we would luck out.

We thought wrong. We found ourselves in a major traffic jam, three lanes of traffic and no one moving any faster than a crawl.

And as luck would have it, all three kids were awake at that time. And Eva had to go potty.... BAD. And then Liam started to fuss. We crossed over to get into the right lane and made the next exit.

By the time we got back on I-90 twenty minutes later, the traffic had dissolved. Maybe our emergency stop was a blessing in disguise.

Chicago

We arrived in Wisconsin around noon and stopped at the Welcome Center for another potty/feed the baby break. A friendly woman offered to take a family picture of us, which I happily accepted.

Lindsay family on the Prairie

While I fed Liam, Dave learned everything about Prairies.

We made it to Fall River, WI by 1:30 this afternoon, exactly six hours after we left. (Well, seven if you count the time change.) Of course, we had to stop at Culver's for deep-fried cheese curds. Which then turned into a double butter burger, which Dave and I shared... or inhaled. And then the flavor of the day was Blue Moon and I had to try that.


A million calories later, we pulled up to Mom's house and slowly unloaded the entire van. As Dave said, he thinks the van let out a sigh of relief when all of the weight was lifted.

Actually, I think the entire family let out a sigh of relief that we made it 1,200 miles without any problems and still in good spirits!