Our second day in Milwaukee took us into the Historic Third Ward. We have limited time here in Milwaukee so we are not getting to do as much exploring as we would have liked. There were a lot of great recommendations for this area and since it spans just a few blocks so it is very walkable for our little ones.
This morning before we headed down towards Milwaukee, we are taking it pretty easy. We woke up at our usual west coast schedule at around 9:30, 10 o’cock. Since we have some decent wifi here at our courtesy parking, we decided to do a little Skyping with Marlene’s parents. They miss the kids and the kids miss them as well.
Last night we drove from Chippewa Falls to Wausau, Wisconsin. Don’t worry, people. Dan did not drink and drive after our day at Leinenkugel’s. Nor did he accidentally hitch up their beer-stream instead of ours. Good job, Dan!
St. Paul is one of the cities we had planned to visit during this leg of the trip besides Denver. Our plan so far has worked out quite well with decent weather all along the way. We have only needed to use the AC a couple of nights and finally here in Minnesota, we are turning on the furnace in the evening.
When we pulled into this Walmart last night we immediately noticed that we needed sweaters. Having been worried about the heat for so long, it was kind of a welcome change to put on some layers for once. I just hope we don’t start making that a habit here or we will have to start heading south soon.
Our 3-night stay in Deadwood came to an end and we were ready to move on. The Deadwood KOA wasn’t the greatest place to stay as many of their facilities were dilapidated and unkempt. We did enjoy learning more about the history and significance of the area and we will head towards the south end of the Black Hills to see even more today.
Dear Mila,
Today was your 3rd birthday.
You went to sleep the night before as a 2 year old, living in an blue and white striped Airstream… and you woke up as a 3 year old in a pink princess explosion Airstream. In the morning, the first thing you screamed out (since your volume control is broken) is that there were two balloons everywhere. You say two for anything greater than one. It’s cute to us but now that I am typing it out, maybe we should start correcting your vocabulary. Nah! And we weren’t playing a practical joke on you with that huge gaucho pillow wedged next to you on the floor. It’s actually there every night so you don’t hurt yourself on Ava’s bed in the middle of the night.
Every once in a blue moon we end up having back-to-back transit days. Here in Wyoming, we have pretty poor Sprint reception. As a matter of fact, as we head out of Cheyenne, Sprint’s coverage completely disappears and we will be roaming on Verizon all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We used the last bit of our Sprint 3G connection to do some research on places to see in Cheyenne and decided that we should just keep driving north and east into South Dakota.
I don’t want to assume but I suspect we might be the only people who have ever completed the Denver Aluma-Trifecta. If you have never heard of the Denver Aluma-Trifecta, don’t worry, I just made it up. As many of you know, we just attended the inaugural Alumafandango event at Lakeside, CO. We also ate at the original Chipotle Mexican Grill yesterday. Today, we will be visiting the birthplace of the Silver Bullet: The Coors Brewing Company.
We got into the greater Denver area last night after the drive over the Rockies. We were beat and needed a place to crash. Marlene called up the Walmart and they gladly took in 5 weary travelers in their parking lot for the night.
Fruita, Colorado has treated us really well since we reemerged into civilization after our 10-day stint in Utah. We needed the 5-day stay to unwind and take things easy. Especially for Marlene who was on the verge of a panic attack after 10 days of driving through some of the most amazing but hair-raising mountain roads via Scenic Byways 12 and 24.
We are starting to get to know this little town of Fruita pretty well in our 5 nights here so far but that only means we will be moving on soon. Our first morning here, we tried to eat at the Hot Tomato Cafe only to find that most of the stores and restaurants here are closed on Mondays. Almost a whole week has gone by and we are finally getting around to try our luck again.
