somewhere in winsconsin

much has happened since our last post, i’m trying to remember enough of it to make a blog post. we left mount rushmore 2 days ago and drove straight through south dakota… minneapolis… Then to Duluth, that’s right, now i remember. Duluth is the city in northern Minnesota where my Great, Great Grandfather, William A McGonagle was president of the D&IR railroad. We got there in the evening and hd to find a place to sleep, but we did get a chance to check out McGonagle St. which was very interesting after looking at it on google maps from over 2000 miles away.

After that we drove up the coast of lake superior hoping to camp at a place, recommended to us by some people we met from Minnesota in idaho, called Gooseberry falls, but it was full so we had to go another 30 miles north to a campsite called “Eckbeck” about 90 miles south of the canadian border. Beautiful place. Commas are a mystery to me right now.

Then this morning we went to the Duluth railroad museum & public library where we learned a lot about W.A. McGonagle. It turned out they have a memoir about him, dedicated by my Great Great grandmother, Sarah McGonagle, in the Duluth Labrary private collection. There was also a file with newspaper clippings and an actual photograph from the 1920s.

The librarian helped us find out where the house he lived in was and we were able to go see it. There was a cemetary a block away where he and other family members are buried. It was quite and experience to learn that such a close relative played such an important role in history.

So, now we are south of there at a motel somewhere in Wisconsin. Very tired from driving. We finished our Harry Potter CD so it’s time to rest. Tomorrow morning we will be at our new apartment in Chicago and our journey will be finished. Goodnight.

A visit to Mount Rushmore

I forgot to mention in the last post our big tourist stop for the day: Mount Rushmore…Pretty amazing sculpture work, but one reason I really wanted to see it was because of the filming of North-by-Northwest that took place there about 50 years ago!

After almost 600 miles of driving…

We made it to Minneapolis, Minnesota! It’s 1am now. After almost 600 miles of driving, (every 100 miles, we switched places taking the wheel-Harry Potter audio book consistently turned on), passing through all these miles full of green grass, open pastures, farms, cows, and the occasional market, we finally, curiously drove into a big, huge city: Minneapolis. Wow…is it always this crazy on the weekend? Are there always streets and streets full of glittery high-heeled women in tight skirts, dudes surrounding them? Quite the entertaining experience, cruising the street (most often one-way, annoyingly, by the way)…until we finally gave up the driving and went straight to the nearest hotel; by now it was midnight…
So, here we are, chillin’ in a very classy hotel, “The Normandy Inn and Suites.” I had a bath, and there’s free wireless internet!
Tomorrow, we’re headed for, I think, Duluth, just northeast of here, to find out about Casey’s family history…
Love to you all, thank you for reading…photos coming soon (and please check the “flickr” link for more images!)

revised proposed route

we realized we aren’t going to be in chicago by tomorrow so we decided to go to duluth, minnesota and learn about McGonagle heritage.

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Cody public library, wyoming. Trying to figure out what to do.

Right now we’re sitting in the public library in Cody, Wyoming. We spent yesterday in yellowstone checking out the geothermal activity and getting extremely sunburned. We had planned to take the north east exit out of the park and see some of Montana, but the road was closed so we had to come out the east exit into Cody, “Rodeo Capital of the World”. Right now we are trying to decide if we should head north and take the 94 towards Minnesota, or Take the 90 into Rapic City to check out Mount Rushmore etc.

Yellowstone was extremely beautiful, and serene. We had expected it to be crowded but it wasn’t… maybe due to gas prices. Another amazing sight was the Grand Tetons (which means large breasts) although wildfires in the area have drastically reduced visibility.

The Grand Tetons

Quinn at the morning glory pool

the riverside geyser in yellowstone

Fire, outide the eastern yellowstone exit.

Hello Idaho

Here we are sitting on the 89. There’s something going on up the road so we turned the car off. All you can hear is wind and grasshoppers.

We stopped at the lake and went swimming. It was very clean and not too cold.

So far we’ve driven 1277.7 miles

our proposed route

Currently we are just north of Salt Lake City, Utah. Yesterday we drove here, leaving from flagstaff around 9am. We stopped at the Grand Canyon for a couple hours then drove straight through, it took us until around 1am. These distances are farther than I expected.

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Layton, Utah

Made it all the way from the Grand Canyon to Salt Lake City, Utah, only to find that either there were no available rooms or what is available is very expensive…maybe because it was after one in the morning…so, here we are in Layton, Utah, about 30 minutes north of Salt Lake City, at a Comfort Inn…looking forward to coffee in the morning (and yes, there is coffee here-not just decaf either!) A bit of reading from “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” while Casey does his computer genius things, then…good night…

Utah. Hwy 89 to route 20 to I-15

Our driving adventures continue…we’ve crossed the boarder from Arizona into Utah. It’s 8:41pm & our plan is to get all the way to Salt Lake City to stay the night, then off to Yellowstine in the morning.
Today’s highlight was definitely the Grand Canyon…spectacular views from over 7,000 feet! So incredible…
Another highlight of the day included the unsweetend iced tea & Harry Potter on audio cd…the journey continues…

Rodeway Inn, Flagstaff, Az

The least expensive hotel we could find for the night, Rodeway Inn…clean but looks a bit dingy; maybe it’s just all the interesting furniture, or it could be the “office” in the dark, windowless corner of the small room…interesting art above the bed, and of course a plastic-covered lamp shade! Casey got the wifi password immediately so we could begin our 1st collaborative blog…he has the hang of it, and has now become my blog coach, of course…we’re walking distance to the main streets…almost time for a cold beer, which Casey deserves much more than I, because he did ALL the driving today!