6/26/17 Illinois to South Dakota

Happy Birthday to Nathaniel and Happy Anniversary to us - or as our friend, Pat would say:  Just Married + 52 years!  What a difference a day makes!  We had absolutely no traffic today.  In fact, several times during the trip, I could see no cars either in front or in back of us and that is saying something when you are driving through flat prairie lands and can see for a great distance!  BTW, we found out what the traffic mess was in Chicago.  At breakfast, we heard that there was a huge PRIDE parade in downtown with over a million people lining the parade route to watch.  Obviously, we came through as they were all trying to get home from whence they came.  Just our luck!  The kids were again excited to have three meals in three different states:  breakfast in Illinois, lunch in Minnesota, and we will go for dinner in a bit here in South Dakota.  We had a lovely lunch at Del's Cafe - a small town place with great food.  Ella ordered ribs and her eyes got huge when she saw the portion - two racks!  She was able to finish one rack with help from Grandpa, but sadly could eat no more even though she declared them very yummy.  Zoe took a taste and they decided that next time, they would order one meal and share it.  The girl's had another great day in the car:  started to listen to Brian's Winter, watched a movie called Jem about a small town girl who made it big with her singing on the Internet, played the alphabet game and looked at license plates.  They now have 33 states and 3 provinces.  We drove by several huge wind farms today - they seem like such a sensible solution to green energy.  The girls were very excited when we drove through the Wisconsin Dells as we passed many water parks and of course, the girls wanted to stop, but the outside temperature at the time was a chilly 59 degrees.  The girls are swimming in the pool now while Dave is lifeguarding and I am doing the laundry - not that it needs to be done yet, but it will save us a trip to the laundromat while we are camping.  BTW, the favorite license plate of the day was SAMWICH.