Minnesota Vacation - 2015

Day 3

We got up this morning in Osceola, Iowa and first things first, took the dog out. It was overcast, a little chilly, and very windy. It looked like we had gotten a very small amount of rain overnight by the dirty water spots on the windshield. We loaded up the car and headed out. We went back to the casino we visited last night, but this time only for the breakfast buffet...no gambling. Too early for that. The buffet was fair at best, but inexpensive. One weird item they had was a breakfast egg roll. Never seen that before, and it had no real flavor. I'm not even sure what was in it. One bite was enough.

We left and headed north once again and hit Des Moines about 44 miles later. We stopped in Ames, Iowa a little north of Des Moines and filled up. With a clean windshield and purchased snacks, as well as a bottle of water for the dog, we're off.

We hit some freeway construction on I-35, but no backups. Not surprising on a Sunday. We stopped again just before the Minnesota border at the last rest area in Iowa. Potty breaks for everyone, and once again, we're off.

It's always exciting to cross into Minnesota as we realize we have finally made it after three days of driving. We exit in Owatanna and head west on Hwy 14 towards Mankato and eventually New Ulm. After a total of 1286 miles and about 22 hours driving time, we arrive right on schedule at 3pm at Lawrence's brother's home out in the country amongst the corn fields. It's a big, beautiful multi-level place with a basement, which is where we stay. The basement has its own entrance doors leading out to the backyard and the lake and river flowing by. It's not what you would think of as a regular, dark, closed-in basement. It's really nice.

Lawrence's family from all over the area started arriving and there were lots of hugs and shaking of hands since we haven't been here in four years. Lots of catching up to do, and we did. We were sitting on the back patio watching a large, dark thunderstorm move our way, and when it arrived the temperature dropped very quickly into the low 60's with strong winds and heavy rain. We watched the three horses run from grazing towards the barn for protection. The numerous ducks wandering the property were fine in the rain.

It soon became dinner time, and for some reason I started to get an upset tummy. Bad enough that I excused myself to the basement to lie down for a while as others ate dinner upstairs. They had grilled German bratwursts, burgers, potato salad and watermelon. It must have been the breakfast buffet that didn't agree with me. Too much grease and that breakfast egg roll. I took some Tums and the tummy felt better soon, but I still wasn't able to eat much until hours later when I heat up a couple of small burger patties and enjoyed those.

Now it's getting late and I'm getting tired. It's still chilly outside and we need jackets. It's supposed to get into the 50's tonight, something I'm not used to this time of year in Texas. So far the only plans we have are this Thursday were going to an old fashioned ice cream social at a local church, and we'll do bingo at the casino one night this week, and this weekend we may go to Minneapolis to visit more family and stay the night with them. Other than that, we're here to just relax and unwind, and so far, we're off to a good start.

Minnesota Vacation - Day 2

Saturday, June 6th

All three of us had a restful night and like yesterday, had an earlier than expected departure. This time at 9:45am. Next to the hotel was a gas station so I decided to fill up. The problem was the pumps were running extremely slow, so after a few agonizing gallons, half a tank, and frustration, we hit I-35 and headed north again. Yesterday we drove a total of 345 miles. Today we travel from the Texas/Oklahoma border to almost Des Moines, Iowa. It will be a lot more than 345 miles.

We didn't go far until we stopped in Ardmore, OK and the Denny's for breakfast. I saw another customer use her AARP card for a discount, so I did too! Saved a little over $3. I handed the cashier a $50 bill for my check totaling $19.90, and she promptly gave me 10 cents change. Um, that was a fifty my dear, so she quickly opened the drawer and gave me an additional $30. She said it was her first day. Uh-huh.

Somewhere well on the other side of Oklahoma City we pulled off for potty breaks and goodies. Is was at this point I finally figured out why the dog loves to travel in the car with us. I thought it was because she was with her daddy and Uncle Bill. But no, I was wrong. I can sum up her joy of traveling in one word: Snacks. At home, she eats dog food and the occasional scrap from dinner. On the road, and so far today, she's had a ham and cheese omelette, DQ soft-serve ice cream with whipped cream, Chex mix, and a Hardee's cheeseburger. We're only halfway through our day and she's eating like royalty. They're very small portions, of course, but to her, it's heaven.

If you've never driven through Oklahoma and Kansas, I can tell you it's always windy. It's mostly open plains and of the few trees along this freeway, you can see that they all grow a little askew and lean north because of the constant wind hitting them. Pretty interesting.

We made another stop at a large "convenience area" along the Kansas Turnpike. It has a Hardee's burger place, gas station, convenience store and large restrooms. It's no Buc-ee's, but it'll suffice. I was surprised when Lawrence said he wanted to drive! He NEVER drives! It's open turnpike and not much traffic, so why not. I'm sitting in the backseat with the dog and feel like a nervous parent riding with a teenager beginning to drive. I won't nap, I assure you.

I wanted to make note that we haven't seen one highway patrol officer yet. That was until Lawrence started driving and within 5 minutes a Kansas State Trooper passed us. The key phrase here is "passed us", not followed us. The nervous parent came out again.

(Later that same day.....)

I took back over the controls before we got into Kansas City and stayed with it until we arrived in Osceola, Iowa, our overnight destination. This small town is south of, and is also the Amtrak stop for, Des Moines. We arrived at 8:15pm, which means we drove for 10 1/2 hours and 625 miles. We checked into the Days Inn, and after unloading the car of valuables, we weren't really feeling too tired, so we loaded up the car with us and the dog and headed one exit north on the freeway to what used to be called Terrible's Casino. I guess they finally figured out that it was not an appealing name and changed it to the Lakeside Hotel and Casino. We played slots and maintained for a while. Lawrence about broke even and I was down a little, much like last night at Winstar. Not too bad.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Subway for a sandwich. It's the first Subway I've ever seen that is 24 hours. I guess being next to a casino you have to. We ate back at the hotel and got ready for bed. Yes, the dog ate Subway with us. She hasn't eaten any of her dry food for two days now. I'm beginning to think she might be a little spoiled.

Tomorrow we reach our destination of New Ulm, Minnesota. According to Google Maps it's 4 1/2 hours and 300 miles. Easy, compared to today. It will be good to finally arrive as we haven't been back there for four years. We usually go every year, but a few things kept us in Houston. We bought and remodeled a new house, which took a year and a half to complete. We also moved, I was promoted at work, we lost our baby boy Rusty and got our new baby girl Desiree 6 days later, I started driving for Uber, and we bought a new car, which is the one we are driving to Minnesota in. The time finally came to slow down and take time from all our jobs, drive for two and a half days on a very familiar route, and finally get to visit family we have missed for years.

Minnesota Vacation - 2015

Day One - Friday, June 5th

Surprisingly, we got out of Houston earlier than I thought we would. I thought we'd leave around 2pm...early enough to beat the Friday afternoon rush hour of Houston, and get into Dallas at the tail-end of theirs. We departed the house a little before noon, went to the bank, then headed north.

We made it to Buc-ee's in Madisonville a couple of hours later, and it was packed! I thought it would be fairly normal being a weekday, but I was wrong. I guess everyone had the same idea we did. After walking the dog, a restroom break for us and purchasing sandwiches and drinks (no, we did not get Beaver Nuggets or beef jerky) we were once again headed north on I-45.

Right on schedule, we hit Dallas Friday afternoon rush hour, and it was heavy of course, but the worst part was after we got on I35E towards Denton, we crawled all the way into Denton. There was a stalled vehicle in one area, and then everyone was gawking at how high the water was in Lake Lewisville. Throw in some construction the whole way, and you've got a miserable and hot two hour stop-and-go parade.

It was about 91 when we left Houston, and we hit 96 in Dallas. Thankfully, my new Honda CR-V has great air conditioning so we were comfortable the entire time. The car is getting about 32 miles per gallon and is very comfortable. Of course, the inside of the car looks like a rolling Radio Shack with all the Apple iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple iPads and their associated chargers all plugged into a power inverter. It was a geek-fest. That's just us.

We crossed the Red River into Oklahoma, and it was the highest I'd ever seen it after all the rains they had up here the last couple of weeks. We took OK Exit 1 and headed to our hotel at the Winstar Casino. We unloaded the car of anything valuable, got settled into the room, walked the dog again, and Lawrence and I headed to the casino. We could have walked there, but it was too darn hot. I drove the 1/2 mile to the casino and parked.

This casino claims to be the largest in the world, and it just may be. It goes on forever, and there are thousands of slot machines, and numerous table games. I did pretty well as I hit a $179 jackpot, which is very rare for me. We were getting hungry and decided to go the DQ inside the casino for dinner. Surprisingly, this particular DQ only sells desserts...no burgers or other popular menu items. We were directed next door to an actual burger place and had a quick bite.

A little after 11pm I started to get sleepy and we headed to the hotel for the night. Once again, we walked the dog and gave her something to eat, and we started reading and writing on our various devices. The noisy air conditioner, which I like because it blocks out freeway noise, is lulling me to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day as we are traveling through Oklahoma, Kansas, a little bit of Missouri, and into Iowa where we will stay the night somewhere near Des Moines. We normally go to Kansas City, but we want to get into New Ulm, Minnesota, our final destination, fairly early to visit family and have dinner together.

Until tomorrow......