Saturday 1 December - Canistota SD to La Crosse Wisconsin

After dinner at the local cafe in Canistota last night, Philip came back to the computer and good old Google Maps to rethink our next two days' driving. We had planned to stop tonight in Albert Lea, Minnesota but thought it better to drive a little further east so that our drive to Chicago tomorrow (Sunday) would be shorter. Researched on TripAdvisor and found good reviews for Settle Inn La Crosse so cancelled Albert Lea and here we are. Pleased that we made the decision as we reached Albert Lea by midday! Now we are 200 km closer to Chicago. Nice big rooms here but we are super impressed with Jenny's - Alison's comment was that it looked just like a nursing home room!!! Has a recliner arm chair beside the bed and an extra roomy bathroom with room to swing four cats.

When we refuelled at the only service station in Canistota, the lady on the counter said that a girl who had just been in said that we were the people from New Zealand!!!! Philip quickly straightened out that situation. Whilst the refuelling was happening Jenny popped out of the car to try to catch a photo of an Amish family walking down the street and Philip and Alison warned her to be very circumspect. A car pulled in beside ours and a woman rolled down her window and said directly to Jenny - "What are you taking a picture of?" Jenny was very quick on her feet and pointed out how she was taking pictures of the main street of the town because it was such a beautiful little town and went into a long spiel about how she was capturing pictures of the buildings and streets of the little towns we had visited as they were so different from ours back home.

No fabulous scenery to report today as the drive has been foggy all the way along the interstate with the temperature in the mid-40s fahrenheit. We managed to drive across the whole state of Minnesota with one stop for fuel and McDs - Alison lunched on two hot apple pies for a bargain lunch of $1!

Remembering some particular gruesome if funny scenes from a movie, we did not venture to the town on the following sign.

The only excitement was the appearance of a large river on our right as we approached the Wisconsin state border and then as the highway turned right to cross the river we spotted a sign - Mississippi River. So even though Jenny will not be with us in New Orleans she has seen the mighty Mississippi.