Moving West: Day 1 and 2

Effigy Mounds

Dad and I left Scottsville at 6:00am. Everything went smoothly until we got to the Ohio border. The interstate was closed so we had to divert. There were flaggers and cop cars so it seemed like a last minute thing. Apparently a bridge over the interstate was deemed structurally unsound so they had to demolish it immediately. We got stuck in stop and go traffic for an hour. Finally we got back on and were headed west again. After lunch, I convinced Dad to let me drive. He was hesitant because it was a 15' Uhaul towing my car behind it. I wore him down though. I had planned on letting him drive again before we got to the Chicago metro area but that never happened. Traffic and construction picked up and there was never a good spot to pull off and switch so I ended up driving all the way around Chicago with Dad navigating. The traffic was heavy but still moved along pretty well. The bigger issue was stopping constantly for tolls. We spent over $100 just in tolls! It was getting pretty late and we had been driving in the rain all day but I wanted to get to Madison, WI to spend the night so we could be out of traffic the next day. Dad took over driving again and when we crossed over into Wisconsin the rain turned to snow. We finally got to our hotel at 9:00 pm. It was a long and exhausting day.

Effigy Mounds

The next morning was sunny but everything was covered in snow. We headed out of Wisconsin and into Iowa. Our first stop was at Effigy Mounds.

Effigy Mounds

Effigy Mounds

 It's a National Park Site. Apparently Dad had been there as a kid on one of his family road trips but he didn't remember it at all. To see the mounds you have to walk up a pretty steep hill. It was snow covered but the sun was bright and the Mississippi River was sparkling so it was a nice walk. We saw deer and even a bald eagle! The snow defined the mounds really well. I had been to the Hopewell Mounds in Ohio but these were animal shaped mounds so it was pretty neat to see.

Pipestone

We hopped back into the Uhaul and continued on into Minnesota. The next National Park site was Pipestone. It closed at 5:00pm so I stepped on the gas. We got there a little before 4. Pipestone is where the Native American's quarried stone to carve into pipes. It was cold and windy so Dad stayed in the visitor center and watched the film while I went to hike the quarry. Most of the trail was snowy and icy and parts of it were closed but I still got to see the stone and a waterfall.

Pipestone

The visitor center had some gorgeous examples of the carned pipestone. We hopped back in the Uhaul and crossed over into South Dakota for our second night. We stayed at the Kelly Inn. I chose it for the name but it had this really cute lodge theme going on so it was a good find.