Diner

We’ve had two days of heavy rain with temperatures of 40 to 60 degrees. This is a part of the country where the interesting things are outdoors. We’ve bypassed most of our planned activities (except meals). We found a very good geological museum at U of Wisconsin. We had a dinner at a wonderful diner. It was a new building built as an old-fashioned diner. It had a wonderful mix of modern and retro. And the food was quite good. I had “Meatloaf of the gods” and rhubarb pie.

River tug

The good thing is that the inside of the car is quite comfortable. We didn’t bring much in the way of warm weather clothes. We each have a sweater and a rain jacket. I’ve learned how to put them on and take them off while in the driver’s seat by kneeling on the seat and facing backwards. It’s a cool trick. When we crossed the Mississippi River, we were lucky enough to stumble upon a lock. The Minnesota welcome center was just down the road from a small visitor’s building at the lock. Mississippi barges are huge beyond my imagination. One tug pushes two sets of barges (side by side).

Mississippi Barge

The rain has let up but it’s still cloudy and quite cool. We plan to get at least a short walk at one or two parks on our way to Sioux Falls today.