The Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Thirty/Day Twenty One

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

The next morning at the hotel they had a free breakfast and free newspapers in the lobby.  We loaded up on breakfast as we wouldn't be stopping for lunch.

I culled the coupon inserts out of the newspapers before housekeeping threw the papers out.

Winning! lolz

So we packed up our luggage back up in the room after breakfast and headed out on I-94 going South East.

A nice sunny day, good for traveling if you have sunglasses. 8-)

Cousin Sonya Ann loves her some Entenmann's Donuts....not the vanilla ones enrobed in a chocolate coating but the Devils' food ones enrobed in chocolate........Mmmm, donuts......

We would be stopping to see her the day after this one and I found an Entenmann's bakery outlet along the way while we were on the road this day so we made a very short route change to pick some up to surprise her when we got there.

But alas, the Bakery Outlet had gone out of business though they still have signage up in that little strip mall for it. 8-(  No donuts were secured.

We did stop once we hit Minnesota for gas and while Hubs filled the gas tank of the car I wandered into the convenience store to look around and stretch my legs.

I found some funny shirts for sale there......

And then more of these Snickers bars with funny sayings on them.....

A "Rowdy Oddball".  Yep!  That about sums me up. ;-)

A sign for Sinclair Lewis Ave. in Sauk Centre MN.  I've read some of his stuff.

92 Miles to Minneapolis.  I've been through Minneapolis on the way from Wausau Wisconsin to Clear Lake, Iowa and then Roland, Iowa back in 2014 on my solo road trip.  I also attended a convention in Inver Grove, MN along with a bunch of Beanie Baby Collectors back in the 1990's.

Lake Wobegon Trail ahead.  I was never a fan of Garrison Keillor.....

                                          

Passing through St. Cloud Minnesota.

We saw this billboard outside of Minneapolis.  I think "The Artist Formerly Knowns as Prince" was still alive and in residence in Paisley Park back then but this wasn't a stop on our agenda.

Over the St. Croix River..........

And into Wisconsin, another place I've seen a lot of.  We were staying the night in a hotel near Eau Clare, WI.  

It's true what they say about "Midwest Nice", as we found this note on the bed of our room when we checked in.  A personal note thanking us for staying with them. 8-)

And staying over the river in WI rather than back in the suburbs of Minneapolis the room was much less expensive for the same accommodations you've find in the Metropolitan area.  Not a fancy room but clean, spacious and quiet.  They also had an indoor pool(makes sense to have it indoors this far North, right?)so while Hubs took a short nap I scampered down to the pool for a refreshing dip as the drive that day was short and we got in mod-afternoon.

Then we dressed and drove back into Minnesota to visit a blogger friend.  The sky was exceptional that day as we drove through farmland on some backroads.

We met blogger friend SAM in MN.  She made us dinner and we had a nice long chat with her Hubs, my Hubs and us.  They have a nice comfortable home in a nice subdivision(which we were challenged to find! lol).  Her hubs was a sweet man and a joy to get to know, as well as SAM.  We took a photo to commemorate the visit.  Boy, is she tall!  Well, everyone is tall compared to me. lol

Thanks again for the hospitality and allowing us to visit SAM or rather, thanks to her doggy for allowing us to visit. ;-)

Then we drove back to Wisconsin to the hotel and almost had a run-in with a deer darting out onto one of those backroads we took to avoid traffic.  That was a little too thrilling an end to the evening but both the rental car and the deer were no worse for the encounter.  And my nerves eventually recovered. '-)

Sluggy