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SOUTH DAKOTA!

The amazing, action-packed adventure of two 20-something women traveling across the country. Old west shootouts! National monuments! Palaces of corn! Motorcycle gangs and countless leather chaps! (Not pictured.) And a drug store!

The adventure continues Sunday through Wyoming and into Utah! (Que action music here...)

Dr. Bonkers

Amanda and Marcie dedicated most of their time in Minnesota to hanging out with Sean, who is now officially on his way toward becoming a doctor. At the University of Minnesota Friday, Sean and the rest of his medical school class received their physician jackets during the white coat ceremony.

Dad was very proud.

So was Mom.

And Sister.

Sean performed his first surgery minutes after the ceremony -- on Mom's camera. The memory card had been inadvertently locked for a couple hours and no one could figure out how to fix it. Sean got it though.

Sean and his medical school class pose after the ceremony. You can't tell here, but Sean is near the back and he is the ONLY person in the entire class wearing sunglasses. He is very cool.

We're proud of you, Bonk!!

And, just a little side note: This is Sean's new cat, Rodney. He will be critical to keeping Sean sane through Med School. He does that by being so cute and cuddly.

Anne Boleyn died in Wisconsin

At about this point in our drive through Wisconsin, Anne Boleyn had about three hours to live. We enjoyed the view along the scenic Great River Road, which curves and weaves along the Mississippi from LaCrosse, WI and into Minnesota while listening to the tragic tale (on CD) of a rather witchy queen doomed to have her head chopped off. It was fun. And pretty. (The view, not the head chopping.)

Our trek up the GRR (short of Great River Road, of course) started in LaCrosse, WI, home of the world's largest six pack. Here it is. If you look at the bottom of the middle can, you'll see Marcie leaning up against a sign describing the sight.

Don't worry, moms, we only drank one of the beer from this six pack. But one beer holds 114,700 gallons, so you do the math. This, combined with the cute restaurants, music shops and bars, was enough to make Amanda declare that she is moving to LaCrosse.

Then we continued our merry way up the GRR, to Lock and Dam No. 4. Home of the "Best BBQ by a Dam Site." Thank goodness for that. All the BBQ we've had by Dam sites in our lifetimes have sucked. This is our creative attempt to catch the roadsigns and the Pabst Blue Ribbon sign dangling above one of the billions of bars (a slight exaggeration, but only slight) in Wisconsin. We meant to count the PBR signs, but ran out of fingers and then ran out of toes and then just decided to drop the counting because there were just too many bars with PBR signs.

This is Pepin. 878 people live there and there are about 2.5 streets. Clearly the roadsigns to EVERY establishment in town is necessary.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House in the Big Woods, was born in Pepin. They celebrate her birth every year in September with a festival aptly named "Laura Ingalls Wilder Days." They also claimed to have a pickle factory, which Marcie and Amanda hooped and hollered for about four seconds until they realized it was merely a bar. Can you imagine the photos that would have come out of a pickle factory visit?!

The drive up Hwy 35, or the GRR, was pretty. The Mississippi followed along the road to the west and the sun hit it beautifully, making the water look like silver.

Huge bluffs soared into the blue sky along the east side of the road -- a very cool contradiction to the more level lands and water across the street. Here Amanda documents the experience on film so ya'll know were aren't making this stuff up. (Car's still doing OK, too. Like the river, it glistens silver in the sun.)

Now we are in Minnesota! (It's the first time since Tennessee we've remembered/had the camera ready/weren't on a bridge when we came into a new state.)

And to rectify that, we did a U-turn on the highway to get the "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign. But it mocked up by saying "Welcome to Prescott," which we clearly didn't go through first because it neighbors Minnesota.

P.S. So far we have liked Wisconsin the best. Trolls, mustard, pretty things to look at, cheese, PBR.

Trolls + Mustard + Rossettes = The Perfect Day

We have found the most funnest town in the whole wide world. Really. It's awesome. Everyone should make sure they see Mt. Horeb before they die. Here's the first step toward getting there: http://www.trollway.com/

While in Mt. Horeb, you will see trolls. It is, after all, called "Wisconsin's Trollway of Treasures."

Yes, oh, yes, there are many trolls. Scary painted trolls, grinning with their sharp white teeth. We swear we saw the one in green overall lick his lips and giggle a sinister little laugh.

And wooden trolls, nicely playing accordions. But we were cautious. Aren't trolls supposed to trap and kill children and billy goats and stuff?

But then we met some genuinely nice trolls, but we think that's because they are really gnomes. Garden gnomes, actually, that smiled sweetly at us as we ate our very tasty breakfast at Schubert's.

We think the man in the red hat must be Schubert. We were standing in line getting ready to pay and apparently we looked very much like tourists because this nice guy behind asked where we were from and if we wanted a photo with the owner and out waitress. "Of course we want a photo, sillyhead," we responded and trust the camera into his hands. Well, we didn't really say that, but when he suggested a photo, we agreed that would be fantastic.

Fantastic because of the deliciousness the waitress and Mr, Schubert (if that's really his name) brought to us on clean white plates. There was the Eggs Benedict with the best Hollandaise sauce ever created. (Not as good as Aunt Mary's, of course. Obviously.)

And then Mr. Schubert brought us Rosettes. We had never heard of rosettes. We had never tasted rosettes. We had never seen rosettes. And now, we don't know how life had any sort of meaning before rosettes.

Rosettes are an amazingly delicate and crisp pastry that looks like a flower and tastes like heaven. Yes, heaven. We called and asked St. Peter to FedEx us a sample so we could compare.

We weren't really wondering how the stock market was doing after we left breakfast and headed down Mt. Horeb's quaint main street, but when we saw how cheery the locals are about the Nasdaq and the Dow, well, we wanted to start investing. Seriously, have you ever seen a happier posting of the stocks in your life?

A few steps later we made it to the Mustard Museum, which Troy highly recommended. It was the only reason we came to this town. Really, who could resist the world's largest mustard collection? It could be the only one for all we know. There is even an annual Mustard Festival. How awesome is that? (We missed it by days...poupon us!) But don't ask for ketchup on your hot dog... that's a $40 charge and it comes with a healthy dose of heckling.

But we did get to watch an informational mustard video, complete with 60s cartoon describing how mustard is made. A talking dragon told us all about the process, and then Woody Allen shared his thoughts on mustard. There was also a full minute of video of this farmer dude sitting on a tractor, smoking a cigarette and just wiping bucket loads of sweat from his forehead. We don't know if he had anything to do with mustard or if we walked away from the film any more educated about mustard, but we did giggle a lot.

This the wall of mustard. Do not cross the yellow line. If you do, there could be a mustard explosion. Or you could accidentally knock a glass off the shelf causing all the jars to fall, like dominoes. That would certainly look like an explosion. These mustards are from all over the world...Japan, Norway, California. How you say "mustard" in Swahili?

In addition to a wide variety of ads, posters, knick knacks and fine art (including an impressionism piece of a trio of hot dogs doused with mustard called "Three Dog Night"), there was a collection of mustard-inspired literature. Really now, who wouldn't want to read a steamy romance novel called "The Mustard Seed"? It looks like they **REALLY** like mustard.

And then we stumbled into the store. Better than any store on the planet. Yes, it was that awesome. Marcie and Amanda even, unwittingly, dressed in brown and yellow as sort of a Mustard Museum Day homage to the condiment. We are calling it Mustard Chic. It will be all the rage on the runways in Paris by fall.

Our "confidential condiment counselor" loves mustard and said she landed the job here for two reasons. (1) She was able to recite numerous mustard quotes from Shakespeare (she's a school teacher in her "real job," she tells us) and (2) she is crazy. In fact, she said, she prefers to go by Crazy (yes, single name, like Cher) while working at the museum.

Well, Crazy Becky knows her mustard. She let us sample a good 10 or so. Here are some of the flavors we tried under Crazy Becky's watchful eye: Tangerine Habanero, Honey Chipotle Lime, Key Lime with Ginger, Temeraire Dijon, Banana Pepper, Merlot and Chocolate and the Hit-and-Run Horseradish. (Amanda liked the Key Lime and Ginger best, while Marcie favored the Tangerine Habanero. It was a delightful little splurge.)

But if you don't want to buy from Crazy Becky, you can always go to the world's ONLY mustard vending machine. They run about $3, and don't worry, the bottles are plastic and won't shatter as they come crashing down.

The curator, Barry Levenson, has created this entire mustard educational experience and even cleverly named it Poupon U. Like any good university, there's an array of school paraphernalia. Like this toilet seat. For Poupon U. Think about it. Now laugh out loud.

Tommy Bear attended and graduated with honors. He also now knows the Poupon U Fight Song by heart. We wouldn't let you miss out on that, so here are the words. It is meant to be sung to the South Bend fight song You can practice at home.

"Eat, eat, eat at old Poupon U,

Bratwursts and hot dogs, hamburgers, too,

All with the mustard spread on thick,

We never eat ketchup

'Cause it makes us sick!
We slather it on our bagels and fries,

Licorice and corn flakes, blueberry pies,

Even with out Irish stew

'Cause we're true to Poupon U!"

We know Mt. Horeb is not very close to many of you, so if you find yourseld craving mustard, you can also visit Barry, the museum and Poupon U at www.mustardmuseum.com.

Marcie and Amanda do the Badger State

Marcie and Amanda did the nice and easy drive from Chicago to Madison, WI on Wednesday night and had plenty of time to have a delicious dinner of Bratwursts with Marcie's friend Troy and his wife, Awa. (There was fancy mustard at the meal, too, which led to Troy recommending the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb. AWESOME, but you'll have to check out the other post to read and see why.) Awa made these super yummy veggies...just green beans, onion and carrots, but it was oh-so-marvelously flavored with spices and butter. Yum. Marcie and Amanda talked all day Thursday about how yummy that meal was.

Troy was nice enough to share the bottle of wine Marcie and Amanda brought as a thank you gift. It was a very fun bottle, and the wine was quite tasty.

Get it? See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil... Pinot Evil. Think about it. Har har har.

After dinner we went to the Terrace, an outdoor sitting area at the University of Wisconsin that overlooks the lake. A few bands jammed out for open mic night while we shared a pitcher of summer ale and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was delightful. On the was there, we saw the state capitol. Fancy.

Hickory and the Windy City collide

Amanda and Marcie rolled into Chicago around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night with one thing on their minds – deep dish Chicago-style pizza. And boy, oh boy, did Ryan (Marcie’s cousin, with whom they crashed at his wicked cool apartment) deliver.

The trio hopped in Ryan’s VW and headed out toward the Chicago Pizza and Grinders on Clark Street. Marcie and Amanda still aren’t sure exactly where that is in relation to everything else in Chicago, but we picked up some fun facts. For example, the Valentine’s Day Massacre (a mobster thing in the 1920s) took place across the street and rumor has it that Al Capone’s hoodlums hid out in what is now the pizza place waiting to shoot.

But before we could learn all this fun stuff about the joint, we had to wait. It was cool, though, because any place that has a 45-minute wait for dinner at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday is a pretty safe culinary bet, usually. And in that wait time something very cool went down. We were chillin’ outside, drinking a beer and chatting with this girl with a Southern accent about something. Don’t remember what, but the conversation led to where everyone was from and went something like this.

Julie (the southern chick): Where ya’ll from?

Amanda: North Carolina.

Julie: Me too!

Amanda and Marcie, in unison: Where?

Julie: Hickory.

Amanda and Marcie, yelling way louder than ever necessary when someone says “Hickory”: NOOOOO WAY!!!!

Turns out Julie was just in the Windy City for some sort of training and just recently moved to Hickory. And, she patrons Copperbean, Amanda’s place of employment, and knew that Amanda works the a.m. shift. (“That’s why you look familiar!” Julie giggled.) So that was fun, and of course, we had to document it. So here is Amanda and Julie posing in front of where the Hickory connection discovery went down.

Anyhow, so the pizza. It wasn’t the “traditional” deep dish but oh-so-yummy. They take this ball of dough and stick the ingredients into a bowl, which they then stick into the dough upside down. Cook for a bit, take it out, cut off the bowl, and ta-da! Pizza. Here’s Ryan enjoying his.
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All three of us could only make it through ½ the pizza, which was OK because it made for an awesome leftover lunch Wednesday. So, how about we finally get to Wednesday? Enough words already, we know, more photos! So we took the Chicago River Tour at Navy Pier. We know we said we weren’t going to do the typical touristy junk, but this was fun. So here’s the pier. Wow, fancy.

And rather than give ya’ll the whole commentary on the tour, we’ll provide interesting fun facts about the buildings lining the river. This may one day help you on Jeopardy, so pay attention.

*There are 52 bridges on the Chicago River.

*The Merchandise Mart, built in 1930, was the largest in the world when it was completed. In the 1940s, however, those Washington bigwigs knocked it from its top spot when they built the Pentagon.

*The Sears Tower has its own zip code and 104 elevators.

*The top floor of the Lincoln Tower is only 9-feet wide.

*The Blummer Chocolate Factory is just off the river and it smelled delicious. We wanted chocolate after that. But that probably won’t help you on any quiz shows. This could, though: At one time there were eight candy factories in Chicago and the city provided 1/3 of all candy in the United States.

Merchandise Mart.

Amanda and Marcie. Duh.

The fanmous L (or elevated) train and the Chicago skyline.

The Lincoln Tower.

The Tribune Building and a hotel, which was originally built by the Shriners as a temple. (That's the one with the big yellow ball on it.)

The Chicago Tribune Building. The lobby was very pretty.

But the true highlight of the day was finding Slurpees. Fantastic. (NOTE: There are NO 7-Elevens in North Carolina. This has made Marcie’s last two years very difficult, thus prompting mass excitement when she finds a Coke Slurpee.) After finishing our cups on sheer happiness (aka the Slurpees), we wandered down the Magnificent Mile (oodles of shops) and decided to check out the Chicago Tribune Building. Very pretty and fancy. See?

Then we bid farewell to Chicago and like Jack, hit the road, and headed to Madison, WI. Stay tuned.

Honk if you're happy

Indiana has a lot of corn. Lots and lots and lots of it. And unless you get super excited about miles and miles and miles of corn, there isn't much to get pumped up over as you drive 4 hours up I-65 through the Hoosier state. (Not trying to knock Indiana here, but sorry, we were bored...)

SO, we created a game! We decided that it would be fantastic to see how many burly (and no so burly) truckers we could get to honk their big booming horns for us. We kept a tally and between Indianapolis and Gary, we got 28 truckers to honk (some gave us double and triple honks). Only 5 flat out refused and shot us angry-don't-mess-with-me looks and 7 waved and smiled. Very fun. Oh-so-much fun. So much fun that we decided we couldn't possibly not include ya'll in the funness of it. So we took a video. Yay.

SERIOUSLY, just miles and miles and miles of corn.