Coco, our 6 month old chocolate lab, goes to the neighbors for the duration of the big trip. She'll be passed through three different houses to spread the misery. She's a stubborn mutt, refusing to sit unless I take a step towards her... not a non-menacing step because that won't work, but rather one menacing step and she sits like it was her will all along. I put a cone on her head, not to keep her from scratching but rather to gather more sound waves so she can hear me better.

We have 3 sons, Kiefer 7, Kyler 5 and Kelby 3. Kiefer was given these water shoes from a friend last evening that are about 5 sizes too big. I even checked to see if they would fit me. They look like clown shoes on him. He was determined to wear them, told to leave them behind, and discovered on his feet 2 miles south of town. So back we go. Make that a 10 am departure from Grand Forks.

Kelby thinks we are going to Mexiyellico. He has been asking about Mexiyellico for about two months, and he is determined to go there or go back home. He emphatically denies he means Mexico. So if anyone knows how we can get to Mexiyellico, let me know and I'll try to work it in.

Somewhere near Alexandria we see our first signs of car sickness. Not motion sickness, just tired of sitting in the stupid car. Kyler finally can't take it anymore and asks, "When are we ever going to get to Fargo???"

Andi proved her adeptness at guiding us through MPS/St. Paul with the Minnesota map instead of the Minneapolis map. That cost us an hour. The plan was to cut south through Hastings, instead we took a tour of Woodbury. We drove the gorgeous Great River Road down to Lacrosse. Kelby has given up on us and now wants to go home.

It rained all day. It is a good thing the roof luggage bag I bought on E-Bay is waterproof, or our clothes would be a lot wetter than they are. Perhaps they will dry out some tonight.

Day one ends in Madison