Tuesday September 9 (Defiance to Rochester)

We were up early as we need to be on the road at 7am, it was nearer 7.15 by the time Joe had packed the truck. It was a very foggy start, patchy at times and quite thick in other places. We also saw the sun coming up and it looked a bit like the Super Moon with cloud drifting across in front of it. 

 We travelled Route 66 from Defiance so went through Archbold and past Sauder Village, familiar territory, then onto the Ohio Turnpike. We also passed the St John Lutheran church where Lynette's brother is the pastor. 


We crossed into Indiana and stopped at an Oasis for the restroom. I also bought a coffee at Gloria Jeans, this coffee chain has shops in Wellington New Zealand!

 Later, we stopped at another Oasis and I bought a couple of fridge magnets. For the most part the weather was cloudy with some patchy sunshine.

We travelled towards Illinois and were directed onto a detour before crossing the next state line. 

We circumnavigated Chicago then headed west. I had a wee nap and woke up as we arrived at our third stop, the Oasis Dekalb. 

The weather had improved so we had blue sky and sunshine although it was still a bit cool. This was a restroom and food stop so Subways for all and, lo and behold, a Starbucks for me!! 

Every time we stop Deb picks up some free reading material so the seat is littered with travel books about the area we have just stopped in, lol!!

We travelled along route 88 then onto route 39. This took us through our last toll payment and into Wisconsin where we drove into and through the city of Janesville. The countryside here is different, more rolling, less flat than Ohio. 


We then stopped at the Mousehouse Cheese Store. They have selections of cheeses from 19 different local factories as well as making their own fudge. I purchased some Cheddar and Cranberry cheese.

We followed route 90 towards Tomah and passed a rather beautiful house that has Cranberry fields in front of it, apparently Wisconsin has a lot of Cranberry festivals. 

The road splits at Tomah and, as we needed a restroom, we went to a DQ and came out with ice creams. (Note to Lisa, they could/would not put nuts on for me!!)

We were on the final leg and there were hills to be seen! Then we crossed the mighty Mississippi and the valley is very wide at this point. 

They are constructing a new bridge to replace the present one, crossing the river also meant we crossed into Minnesota. It had clouded over by this time and it will probably mean rain later.

I now have some small idea about a road trip in the USA, we covered over 600 miles and it took eleven hours with plenty of comfort stops. The USA is well set up for long trips with so many places to stop for food, to stay overnight and for fuel.

Deb left almost straight away to drive the hour and a half to get home. I sortedd my things out in the bedroom and it did not take Ganache and Sizzle long to find me and, later, I had some lovely head rubs from Sizzle.