Lake Geneva, WI

We flew out of LA last Saturday and into Wisconsin. I had another 'Wow, America is HUGE!' moment flying in over Lake Michigan. Even from 30,000 feet I couldn't see all the way across it. On a good day, you can stand on the white cliffs of Dover and see France. I don't think this would be the case for standing in Chicago and trying to spot whatever lies beyond that expanse of water.
Courtney's mum picked us up at the airport and had with her The Cooler. Courtney told me about The Cooler. A great Dicmas tradition, The Cooler is always filled with yummy snacks to welcome home the weary traveller. In this case, it was us. We were treated to prawn cocktail, cheese and crackers, tiny grapes and pineapple juice. 

 On Sunday I was taken to the Walworth County Show. It's an agricultural show that I'm assured is a very Wisconsin experience. We watched the Draft horse competition, ate some very greasy food, petted some fuzzy farmyard animals and admired the huge pumpkins.

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 'Unicorn' formation of three horses

 

Big pumpkin.

Later in the week we were taken on a boat ride on Lake Geneva itself. Courtney's dad works on the boats that do the cruises. We took the tour on an old steamboat called 'The Louise':

  

The tour took us around the lake, close to the shore. The main attraction is the plethora of mansions that line the lake shore. The Wrigley family (Wrigley Gum) have several summer homes there on Lake Geneva, some of which are very impressive indeed. Later in the week Courtney and I walked the 20.6 miles across the lake. The shore side path actually cuts across the property of all the shore side houses, so we got a pretty good view of the houses, despite our main interest being the lake itself. After the 20.6 miles we were hobbling along, our hips hurting more than anything else, but after a good nights sleep we felt fine. 

This weekend we went off the the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. It was a six hour drive there ad served as a test run for the route 66 road trip. The main aim of the trip was for Courtney to renew her drivers licence. We got that done within 20 minutes of the DMV opening. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Courtney's old haunts as her university is in St. Paul. We walked down to the Mississippi, which divides the twin cities, had some great coffee, some not so great coffee and wandered around a sculpture park. 

  Us feeling adventurous by the Mississippi

 

Claus Oldenberg in the Walker Sculpture Gardens

Now we're back in Lake Geneva and we're putting together the final pieces for the road trip. We've got a GPS, a tent, some sleeping bags and an air mattress. We have places to stay along the way; a mix of camp sites and couches. We still need to sort out food for the trip, but that's about it. More about it later.