Day 19 ~ Dairy Day

I had the best sleep last night.  It was the most comfortable bed-- the sheets, the mattress, the pillows-- it was like sleeping on a cloud! 

Today we set out on the next really long driving day. We drove for four hours and crossed from Minnesota into Wisconsin over the Mississippi River.  Halfway into our ride, we took a lunch break at a dairy farm.  Wisconsin is very pretty with lots of crop fields and farms, so we had to stop at one!  Sassy Cow Creamery had a great big red barn and served grilled cheese, milk, and ice cream. Their food was delicious! The meals included unlimited milk and they had like 10 flavors!  I tried strawberry and chocolate raspberry,  Tiger tried the mint chocolate, and Kevin and Panda had the plain option. 

After lunch we got ice cream, and again, so many flavors to choose from!  They had windows into their work area, so visitors could watch them bottle the milk.  We went outside after eating and played corn hole and pet the goats they had penned. It was a sweet spot for a mid-day driving break.  

Back on the road, we aimed towards Chicago.  Another four hour drive, and much, much more traffic.  It was miserable.  We finally arrived at the Baymont hotel, just outside of Chicago, into Indiana.  This one was horrible.  Old and smelly, the toilet paper holder was rusty and broken, the toilet seat was not secure, and there were smoking folks all around outside, just yuck.  Thankfully it's just one night!

A highlight of this area, was the Indiana Dunes National Park.  We stopped by one of the beaches on Lake Michigan and Kevin and I walked to the beach just in time to see the dark red sun setting over the horizon.  The Chicago city buildings were visible and that's about as close to them as we wanted to get!

After enjoying the beautiful sunset, we had a late pizza dinner and headed back to our hotel.