We treated ourselves to a late sleep in compared to the day before, waking up around 8 am. We showered and packed and enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast provided by the hotel. Standard, and not that bad. We left Sioux Falls around 9:15 am and crossed into Minnesota shortly after, around 9:30 am. We drove through corn and wheat for hours. Classic Minnesota. We got has in Jackson, Minnesota and I won $3 on a $1 scratch off. This is a super lucky trip for me.

After logging some more time on the road we saw a sign for the world’s tallest Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota, so of course we stopped off. It was advertised as 60 feet but in fact 55, so we were beyond disappointed. There was a sign in front of the statue that detailed its construction, history, purpose etc. Well done, Blue Earth.

By 1:45 pm we were already in Wisconsin. Just a heads up – today we were in 4 states! We absolutely crushed it. We stopped off in Mauston, Wisconsin (Alex and I both said “Mauston Lotte” like I say “Moster Lotte”…DANISH!) for gas and food. Carr Valley Cheese was right next to the gas station, so we popped in for some free samples and to drool over all their delcious local cheese selections. Though tempted, we opted not to get anything. We instead drove down the road to Culver’s, which is a true fast food burger / diner chain of the Midwest. I had the butter burger, their staple supposedly, and a chocolate shake (not like that, Cohn / Cory / Gill) and Alex had a bacon cheeseburger. Quick, easy, and pretty good.

Back on the road after a short lunch break. Further into Wisconsin we saw an ad for Dunkin Donuts and freaked out!!!! This meant we were getting closer to home because they don’t have DD out west. We considered driving through Madison and going to the University, but opted not to in order to get to Chicago sooner than later. We arrived in Illinois around 5:30 pm. Closer to Chicago we got caught in commuter traffic but saw an incredible sunset!

We arrived at Alex Cohn’s apartment around 7:15. We debated some parking options, ultimately landing on paying $24 to park in the garage next door to his building. Though Alex and I are both from big cities, having just been in much smaller cities we reacted to the price accordingly. We put our stuff in Cohn’s apartment, hung out for a bit, and walked to meet Tara Marcus for dinner. She eventually swung by in a cab and picked us up halfway so we all went together to the Athenian Room for delicious Greek food. We all got the gyro dinner – lots of meat and fries. Nice pick, Chicago friends.

We left dinner around 10 pm and went home because we were all tired and Cohner had to get up early the next morning to play golf (life is tough). We watched the rest of the Mets-Dodgers game before Cohn went to bed. Alex and I stayed up to watch the Moe’s episode of Undercover Boss and wept ourselves to sleep, amidst Alex uploading almost 1000 pictures to our blog – FINALLY!!!!! We fell asleep on Cohner’s super comfortable and spacious couch around 1:15 am.

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