It would've been nice to stay a bit longer but I had to head home to work. We've never seen the Mid West so we wanted to come home this way to see it. Crossed the border again on the Ambassador bridge and headed for Chicago. I have been traveling a lot and seen a big part of the world. Thought I've seen the worst big cities traffic wise. My favorite tune for a long time was: Sweet home Chicago, from now on I'll remember that song in a very different way. We did 4 miles in 5 hours, the weather was an ugly mix of rain and smog, my wife started to feel sick and made me worried a lot. Finally we had Chicago behind us and had to find a spot to watch one of the Canucks games (Stanley Cup). Pulled over at a big mall, turned on the Tv just in time, they just started the game. (Canucks lost) A cop told us that we can't stay there for the night, so after the hockey game we moved to a MacDonald's. Next day we finally had very nice weather, 28-30 C°, it was good to see the very well kept farmlands in Wisconsin and Minnesota, it reminded me on the rolling hills in the Swiss Alps. When we crossed the Mississippi river on I 94 to Minnesota it was so beautiful we had to pull over and spent a couple of hours right down at the water. Lot of locals were fishing, it was one of those "picture perfect" fishing spots. Later we checked out an Aldi Market, we used to by our groceries in those stores in Germany but there is none on the west coast. We stocked up the fridge with good German stuff, although good German beer is a bit expensive there. We spent the night just before the turn off to Badlands South Dakota at a truck stop. Badlands was the same as the Grand Canyon when you see it the first time: jaw dropping. You expect something and when you see it all you can say: whooooooa! In the middle of the flat land all of a sudden it feels like being on the Moon. But it can't be the Moon because wildlife is walking around, stops in the middle of the road and stares at you. The park also has a nice campground, 99 sites and very friendly rangers. Then we headed to see Mt. Rushmore, same story: yes we have seen lot of pictures but did you think it's that big?
Sweet Home Chicago in a new light
Wind power farm in Minnesota.
A picture perfect fishing spot on the Mississippi at the Wisconsin-Minnesota border on I 90
A little Germany in Minnesota: Aldi Market
Finally made it to the Badlands in South Dakota. It's really "jaw dropping"
It's not a roadside but a middle of the road attraction in Badlands National Park
