Backbone of America

On to Illinois and Iowa!

We slept in on Thursday and left our very quiet and quite empty campground, heading east through the lower portion of the State of Minnesota, planning to camp in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 

We’re here in LaCrosse, our campsite is right on the Mississippi River—only 25 feet away. It is beautiful here.

 We’ve just finished dinner and plan to relax tonight—and hit the sack early. We’ll get up early so we can get the 213 miles before noon in order to meet up with my cousins on my mother’s side of the family at the Stockholm Inn. They have fantastic Swedish pancakes and I’m pleased all four Lang cousins and mates will be there tomorrow.  

We drove around 300 miles today through farm country. I saw a sign that said:

Agriculture is the backbone of America

I’d say we drove along that backbone today. Here are some scenes. 

We had an interesting encounter on the freeway yesterday. He was driving an eighteen wheeler and on the back of the truck, neatly painted were these words:

In loving memory of Jerry, the best brother on earth.

It listed his birthdate and year of death

John 3:16

As we passed the truck, I gave the driver a thumbs up. He nodded and smiled at me.

Looking forward to completing our drive tomorrow to stay with the Graybill’s, who live near the Quad Cities in Iowa. We’ll stay the weekend and rest up and reacquaint ourselves with our grandchild and her new baby sister.