Driving home from Wisconsin

We slipped out of the house before everyone woke up.  The sun was just rising.









We stopped at a new Starbucks in Sun Prairie.  We didn't make coffee at Jill's as we didn't want to wake them up.  The smell of coffee is so good and would surely wake them!  

I love a good cup of coffee in the morning!

We had learned that the night before there was a gas explosion in Sun Prairie that leveled a downtown bar and caused a massive fire to a pizza restaurant.  It killed a firefighter and critically injured another.  I had to think about that as we stopped in that city.  Here's a photo I found.

We hit Madison at rush hour.  Bumper to bumper.  It took so long to go through it!  We should have found a 2-lane road around the city.  It would have been faster!

 I love the wildflowers in the ditches!  Wouldn't that be wonderful if every state had them in between the roads.   You wouldn't need to mow them.  I think they do, but they should just leave it as it is so very pretty!

 We didn't go on off roads going home as Al had to be at work early the next morning and I needed to set up for Dress A Girl at our house.  So we went the fastest way we could!  It truly is a beautiful drive!

 This barn becomes more and more dilapidated each time.

 One day it will be in a pile I suppose.

 Beautiful farms!

 Crossing the Mississippi

 Crop duster

 I took a turn driving from Des Moines to Kansas City so Al could take a nap.  We hit rain and had to drive pretty slow.  Some people don't understand the danger of driving fast in a downpour.

"Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."  CS Lewis

A short visit

We only had 2 1/2 days with the kids in Wisconsin but we packed it in!  Hannah and Sophia were going to switch rooms but wanted to paint the rooms so we tackled that!

Hannah's room became Sophia's.  It was painted a mint green.

Even Claire helped!

By the end of the day, it was finished!

The next day, Sophia's room became Hannah's.  Hannah chose a gray steel.

When Claire got bored with painting, she had her toys to play with.  From the first, we've asked Claire if she wouldn't like to paint her room pink.  But no, she likes the green.

Jill also did some re-decorating.

The big excitement was the baby doves on the porch that were getting ready to fly off and leave the nest!  The doves had made a nest in the hanging ferns on the porch.

 The girls named them Charlie and Shuanda.

"Fly, babies, fly!  You can do this!  Every bird does!"

In between painting and bird watching, we took Claire to swimming lessons and the park.

She was the youngest in her group, and learned so much!  Her turn to jump in!

We ate at Gilles Frozen Custard.  

Adam came over his lunch hour and joined us.

 A quick shopping trip.

The older two are taking stringed instrument lessons and played some for us.  Hannah's teacher is a Mrs. Schroeder.  A very Mennonite name!  They will have to play the "Mennonite Game" and figure out some connections!

 Outdoor grilling

A little rest after a couple hard days' labor

We told everyone goodbye that night as we would be up and out the door around 5 am.

Driving across Wisconsin

We left La Crosse the next morning after the wedding.

Look at this house! 4 stories.  I'd sure like to tour through it!

This part of Wisconsin is rather hilly.

We took Highway 90 across to Tomah and connected with Highway 21.  90 is a 4-lane road and we usually take 2-lane when we are "adventuring", but as we had never been on this road before, we decided it was ok.  

You have to wait on trains sometimes on 2-lane roads.

We are used to that, living in a railroad town ourselves.

What a pretty church!  Love the bell tower!

We know someone by that name!

I wish we could grow tall evergreens like this in Kansas!

Historic marker

"Stop!   We have to see this!!"

Al turned around and we got out to investigate.

There were no signs at all, but we found out it is Shiprock wayside.  Evidently, someone thought it looked like a ship.  It is located on Highway 21 close to Friendship.

We are in Wisconsin, for sure.

An unusual cloud formation!

A rock silo little house?

The kids texted and wanted to know where we were.  They expected us a lot earlier in the day I think, but our adventures were taking a little longer than we thought.

Adam warned us not to take the road through Rosendale, Wisconsin.  It has a bit of a reputation for giving out LOTS of speeding tickets!

An investigation showed that it had an average of 1,714 tickets a year. To put that into perspective, Green Bay, which is 100 times larger than Rosendale, issued an average 1,542 speeding tickets per year over that same period.

The gas station even sells these t-shirts!















So we detoured and kept on our trip and got to the kid's house by 2:30, rather than at noon.