We decided we needed another day to "chill" in Madison. This meant that we had to make the drive home in one day rather than two but we thought it would be worth it to be able to spend an extra day with my father and Pat. I have to be back at work on Thursday.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we hung out, shopped for some back-to-school clothes for the girls, picked up some cheese curds, and had lunch at the very nice "Blue Plate Diner" in the Atwood neighborhood of Madison.
Talia and I left Madison this morning at 6:15 and arrived at our home this evening 14 hours later. Today we drove 869 miles. I can't stress enough how listening to books while driving made the hours disappear. Bruce had dinner waiting for us when we got home. Charlie (the dog), and Dasher (the cat) were very excited to see us too!
To recap, we were gone 10 nights. We traveled 3345 miles through 10 states: Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We filled the gas tank 10 times and averaged 23.3 miles/gallon in our 1998 Toyota Sienna minivan. The final odometer reading: 139634.
We visited 6 sites where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. We camped 5 nights, stayed in hotels 2 nights, and with Dad and Pat 3 nights. We listened to 4 novels (mostly Laura Ingalls Wilder) plus 3 hours of biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder and 6 "Junie B Jones" children's books. As we drove along, we saw cars from 32 different states!
It has been a great vacation!
