Day 1 on the road

Yesterday, we woke up late in New Stanton, and were out on the road by 10:30 AM. We continued on the Great American Turnpike -- it was all toll-roads from PA to the northern tip of IL. Thank the lawd for the E-Z Pass (though Ohio didn't take it). This kept us out of city traffic for the most part but also kept us on a reasonably boring stretch of roads with the only interruptions being the depressing gas/fast food stops containing Cinnabon and Nathan's Hot Dogs and other barely edible foods. We had planned that day 1 would be the boring day of driving, for fun on days 2 and 3. Day 1 lived up to that expectation.

The Allegheny River crossing outside of Pittsburgh. Or was it the Cuyahoga outside of Cleveland?

Paul was fascinated about the edges of the barns curving down, presumably for the snow.

The Penn turnpike ends and we go to our second state:

The plan was to try to photograph all of these. Indiana, our third state of the day, didn't have one. So we had to settle for something else:

"It's 167 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, no cigarettes, it's not dark out, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"

A little detour. When's the next time I'm, gonna be in South Bend, IN?

You can't hear the Odyssey chanting "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"

And on to Illinois.

I-294 took us west of Chicago, but we still managed to see the famous skyline from the car.

From there, north to Wisconsin.

We stopped for dinner, at Glass Nickel Pizza in Madison, WI. This was on the recommendation of my friend Kristi, who is a Badger Faithful. We got back on the road, crossed the Mississippi River sometime around 11 PM and shortly thereafter pulled into Rochester, MN, our goal for the night. 6 states (PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, and MN) in a day, about $50 of toll roads, and a lot of farmland was behind us.

We just arrived in Casper, WY at the end of Day 2. Day 2 was a lot better. We actually saw cool stuff. I'll crop some pictures and select some from the road tomorrow. Tomorrow, the goal is Reno, NV.