Day 15 of our trip found us heading straight north to home.
We ate breakfast at the original Machine Shed in Davenport, Iowa.
We headed up the Iowa side of the Mississippi to Dubuque to cross over into Wisconsin. It was nice to see the temperature on the car thermometer read in the 70's. It hadn't done that since we left. Even at 1:00 in the morning in Memphis it was still 86. With just stops to pee and get gas, we made it home shortly after 2:00. Some of the worst traffic we encountered was on I94 between Black River Falls and Eau Claire. They are constantly working on that road and it really needs to be three lanes. Most states make semis go slower and can't drive in the fast lane-that would save a lot of headaches in Wisconsin. Most states also charge tolls-what a novel way to make the people that use those highways pay for them; plus the tourists.
We stopped and got the mail. We had it held while we were gone and then all delivered today. It barely fit in the mailbox.
Anyway, the first thing to be unloaded was the wash. We get the XXL Zip Loc Bags and every day put the dirty wash in the big bag. Halfway through the trip your suitcase starts getting lighter!
Ever efficient Lindy knew she was out of Downy, so she made sure to buy some at Target in Memphis-it was on sale!
From here on are pictures of stuff we bought just in case you're interested. First, sheet music from the W. C. Handy museum in Florence, Alabama.
The Polo Outlet in Michigan city had Polo T-shirts on sale.
So did the L.L.Bean store in Pittsburgh!
I got T-shirts and guitar picks at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
So did Lindy. Those are our tickets stubs and a wrist band on the side.
I got vinegar at an Asian grocery store in Pittsburgh.
And pasta in Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
Lindy got a Yankees mini bat in Louisville.
Here it is closer just in case you didn't see that Yankees' logo!
She also got a Louisville Slugger T-shirt.
I got soap at various places.
This was the soap at the Westin in Huntsville, Alabama.
We got an adjustable ceramic slicer and bottle stopper at Williams-Sonoma in Memphis.
Wine from Sicily in St. Louis.
Italian vinegar from St. Louis.
Italian coffee from St. Louis.
And various other nuts, spices and cake decorations from St. Louis. The cake decorations are to put on cupcakes for Harry. That was exciting, huh?
Well, the traveling is over, at least for awhile. Lindy is on the 4th load of wash and I harvested my cotton on Farmville.
So it appears that things are back to normal. We hope you enjoyed our little travel blog. Thanks for the feedback.
To be continued next time!
Day 14 found us leaving St. Louis and heading towards the last night of our odyssey.
We starting out the day by eating at Bob Evans.
We took a less-traveled road along the Missouri side of the Mississippi and went through a number of small towns. We crossed over to Illinois at Louisiana.
We had started to see evidence of the flooding that was occurring and it looked like springtime as we crossed the bridge. The locks on the dams were wide open. We continued to travel north in Illinois passing through other small towns and some larger ones. We got to Rock Island and started looking for signs for where we were staying, but couldn't see any. The GPS would not take the address I had punched in just like last year. We kept driving looking for a sign. Finally Linda decided to stop at a liquor store and ask. The people inside didn't speak so much English but a lady in the store did. She said she was going that way and just to follow her.
So, eventually we found our way to Jumer's Casino and Hotel. We had stayed here last year on our way back from Kansas City and had enjoyed it.
The rooms were nice and uniquely laid out. The bed looked normal.
The desk area looked normal.
But the shower had frosted glass between it and the room.
You could sort of see through it.
One place we had not eaten at on this trip was a Steak and Shake. Time was running out, so we found one over in Moline. It took awhile to find it as the address did not register on our GPS. I think it was maybe the fault of the web site though this time.
This place doesn't have steaks, but it has ground steak. It does have great milkshakes. Lindy had the Choconana which is banana on one side and chocolate on the other.
I had the fresh peach.
They have great burgers and skinny little fries that are delicious. I had the Guacburger. They make their own guacamole from scratch daily.
They also have this great pepper sauce which is peppers from the Amazon and vinegar. It added a great zing to the fries.
It was time to go back and try our luck at the casino. The casino is nice because it is smoke free and they have a nice variety of games to play. One of the strangest games was called Kitty Glitter.
When you got the bonus, the kitties would meow in the most annoying way. I didn't win too much on Kitty Litter, er, Glitter.
The big winner tonight was Lindy. She won 4040 on the bonus. Too bad it was pennies instead of dollars.
We didn't stay out quite as late as our night in Memphis, plus we still had 277 miles to go to get home so we went back to our hotel room and nestled in for the evening.
For those of you in suspense, here are pictures of our tattoos.
First, Lindy's.
Then, Blake's.
They both mean the same thing, so you'll have to figure it out. Post your guesses!
Day 13 our trip found us leaving Memphis.
As we passed the Pyramid,
crossed the bridge,
and got a beautiful view of the Mississippi, we knew that we would be back.
What we like about Memphis is that you get a true feeling of being in the South, but it isn't too far away.
Someone said they like the grime of Memphis and I guess I agree.
We had over 300 miles to go to get to St. Louis, so we ate breakfast at a Waffle House and kept going on our merry way. One nice thing about our travels is we get to listen to Rosie on Sirius radio in the morning. It is a two hour show and then it's repeated so if we miss the first part we can hear it on the repeat. We only stopped once to refuel, release, and refresh and kept going as we wanted to beat the rush hour traffic.
Our main destination in St. Louis was The Hill which is the Italian section of town. We got a brief glimpse of the Arch on the way.
You have to look close to find it.
We made it to The Hill by 3:00 so we had time to go to the shops and bakeries to look around. There were many choices to have dinner, but we decided to go back to Cunetto House of Pasta.
We had eaten there last year and it was very good except the portions were huge! We started with a bottle of Chianti and the Insalata Cunetto.
Lindy ordered the Fettucine Carbonara which was fettucine in a white sauce with prosciutto. The prosciutto had been fried crisply so there was some really nice contrast of textures going on.
I had Spaghetti con Salsa di Melanzane which had a red sauce and fresh eggplant. Needless to say they were both delicious. I don't think these pictures accurately depict just how large the portions were. No, we did not finish them, but we polished off the wine!
Now we were off to our destination, the Ameristar Casino Hotel in St. Charles. We did have a bit of traffic getting there, but not too bad. After a bit of confusion at check-in with the bitchy hotel clerk (which Lindy deftly took care of) we got to our room.
It was very nice with a sunken living room and view of the muddy Missouri river. The bed was not as comfy as some.
But the bathroom was spacious with double sinks, tub, big shower and separate poop room.
There were 3 flat-screen TVs including one in the bathroom.
We relazed awhile and then went down to try our luck. The casino is on the river and looks like a big boat. They had a lot of slots to play and being Monday, it wasn't too busy so you could try out different ones. I hit 3,000 on a bonus game when I was playing Invaders From Mars and didn't do too bad on Poppit. So I left up some, but Lindy had kinda lost what I was up and then some, but we still had fun.
So today wasn't quite as exciting as other days, but we are winding down. Our last night will be in Rock Island, Illinois at Jumer's! AND I'm back on schedule!
