Interstate Love Blog

I love the Interstate highway system. It is fabulous. Let me back up for a minute and tell you how I came to love it.
After our time in Ft Qu'Appelle, we spent a few days in Glenboro, MB visitng Murray's fam. Glenboro is south of Brandon, and they are known for being close to the desert. We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Wallis and the whole gang, went golfing and generally enjoyed ourselves for a few beautiful, sunny Manitoba summer days. It was really fun for me to see all the places Murray used to hang out when he was younger.
Yesterday we set out for Minneapolis. We left town at about 10am, had a pleasant border-crossing experience (after we assured them that we had no beef in the car), and after a minor navigational blip we were cruising on the interstate. Ahhhh...the interstate. First of all, the speed limit is 75mph. Roughly translated, that's 115-120. nice for me, since I like to drive fast. They have lovely clean, easily accessible rest stops about every 40 miles or so, which make it nice to stop and stretch your legs or go to the bathroom without feeling like you have to buy something! Not many people here drive with their headlights on, which seems strange to me.
The drive through North Dakota was pretty uneventful. Murray slept and I ran over about a million birds that sit on the highway until you're about to drive over them. Some were not as quick as others.
Minnesota is very pretty. Mostly farm land (especially corn), rolling hills, very green, lots of water. They say they are the 'land of 10,000 lakes,' but I demand a re-count since I think some of their "lakes" are just slough-y pools of standing water at the side of the road. Pretty nonetheless. Both of my great-grandparents on my mom's mom's side of the family were born in Minnesota, and although we won't be going to the towns where they were born, I have a pretty good sense of the area. Today we are heading towards Chicago - we won't be staying in Chicago tonight since it is about $300 a night to sleep anywhere there, so we are staying in Hammond, IN. We'll be taking a more scenic route down the Mississippi river till we hit the beloved interstate again in Wisconsin.
I almost forgot - we went to the MALL last night. I have to run, but I'll post the pics next time!