30 in 30: Day 3

Before we left Illinois this morning, we stopped by the second apartment we lived in and again remembered all of the fun times we had there with Chelsea. A happy way to start the day!

Day 3 Stats

Starting Mileage: 34,820

Ending Mileage: 35,456

Miles Traveled: 636

States Visited: IL, WI, MN, ND

C lived and worked in Madison, WI for a year while I was in grad school in PA, so we're pretty fond of Wisconsin!

Classic Wisconsin!

All of the rest areas in WI have
these signs posted and I think it's a
fantastic idea!

When we drove past this city...

...all I could think of was this
Muppet sketch!

As for Minnesota, we stopped by the University of Minnesota to check out the Weisman Art Museum because it's a beautiful building. My photos do not do it justice! After that, we made three fun stops. C has a book (and there's also a website) called Atlas Obscura, and he found some unique things to for us to check out. Pretty entertaining!

Extremely cool!

Seriously, just look at it!

Just beautiful!

Alexandria, MN

This viking is 28 feet tall!

This is a huge otter!

His name is Otto!

Ridiculously large!

But adorable!

We noticed all of these birds in what
we think is a fallen dead tree in the middle
of the water...

...possibly egrets and cormorants
(according to my dad after I texted him
this pic LOL!).

This enormous
Prairie Chicken Statue
was apparently built for
the 1976 Bicentennial!

When we finally arrived in North Dakota, we went to the tourism center and happened upon three curious things. One was a rainbow bison, the second was a "walk of fame" honoring an eclectic mix of people, and the third was a movie prop - the wood chipper from the movie "Fargo". None of these were things we planned on seeing today! That's the beauty of wandering...you never know what you're going to find!

Aerosmith

Chuck Yeager

Bert & Ernie

Bill Gates

Wandering also paid off in terms of
dinner because we found a diner that
served all-day breakfast!

Such a cute place!

I spent a good chunk of the day just staring out the window at the breathtaking scenery this country has to offer and feeling grateful that I get to see so much of it on this one trip!

Happy Tails to you!