Driving Day 3

Last night's hotel: Holiday Inn Express Janesville, WI
Pros: pretty nice beds, two sets of pillows marked 'soft' and 'firm', decent breakfast, good water pressure
Cons: no fridge, breakfast crowded (space was WAY too small for the size of the hotel), door almost impossible to open, doors slammed, pipes were really loud, towels were stained, our 'queen' beds were doubles and the fitted sheets didn't stay on, no fridge/microwave

I know this isn't really their fault, but we also had the world's most obnoxiously drunk wedding guests across from us.  I actually called the front desk and they sent security up, but they just started up again not too much later.  It was loud enough with the slamming doors and loud pipes, as people got back from the wedding around 1 a.m., but these douchebags were yelling, doing shots, turned up their TV louder than I thought possible, etc.  It was awful.  Worst night's sleep ever.  The front desk gave us a discount, though, so it ended up being a more reasonable price (drunk a-holes aside, it was way over-priced for the quality).

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So after the crappy night/morning, things went pretty well.  Both of us were a little ill from the previous night's dinner (Fuddrucker's - tasted good, but a little more grease than our systems can handle), but that went away pretty quickly.  We drove through basically all of Wisconsin, and then through Minnesota.  Winconsin was surprisingly REALLY hilly, with all these crazy ridges and rock formations everywhere.  Also LOTS of places to get cheese  Minnesota really is the land of 10,000 lakes - we saw so many just off the highway.

Wisconsin Farm

Crazy rocks in Wisconsin

A bridge over some big river in Minnesota

Lots of boats on the river!

Today was gorgeous, too.  It was really nice not dealing with crappy city traffic, there was a little construction but it was mostly smooth sailing and we made it to Fargo (just inside the ND border) in good time.  We have both decided that we really like Fargo, there are a ton of people our age and everyone is super duper nice.  Plus the accents are amusing and 'Fargo' was a great movie!  Tonight's hotel seems a lot more promising, so here's hoping we get a good night's sleep.  The driving has been pretty good so far - I know I'm not doing any of it (I can!) but it hasn't been as torturous as 9+ hours in a car sounds.  I'm lucky that Jeff is such awesome company :)

Arch in Fargo

Tomorrow is another 9 hours of driving, with a stop in Billings MT.  Towns are a lot fewer and farther between in ND and MT, so we need to be alert for gas stations, food, and bathrooms whenever we can get them.  Our cubes are still in limbo, after the initial update saying they made it to Carlisle PA, there hasn't been any change.  I think I will still need to call them tomorrow (booooo).  We are on track to get to Seattle on Wednesday, and I'd like to know how long we need a hotel!