Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.
~~Albert Einstein
Trip Totals:
Walmart Trips Made:7
McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:10
Horse Trailers Seen: 25 + 1 Horse Show
Itinerary Changes Made: 5
Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5Lessons Learned:
1.) Iowa isn't much different than Ohio or Indiana or Illinois. Flat.
Today's Itinerary: Iowa to Austin, MN
One of our shortest drives of the trip was today. Today we will head up to Minnesota to visit with my Grandpa.
Along the way we made a couple quick stops. The first, being an itinerary change, was the Herbert Hoover National Memorial. 2 real reasons for stopping here. 1st being that despite all of our travels inside the Great Lakes area this was our last chance to get a National Parks stamp from the region. The 2nd being, since we will be visiting Hoover Dam, it seemed fitting we should visit his birthplace as well.
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| Herbert Hoover National Memorial |
Our 2nd stop, was Iowa's Largest Frying Pan in Brandon, Iowa. I don't know where it stacks up in the world rankings, but it is rather large.
We made it to Austin, Minnesota in time to show John the SPAM Museum, yup it exists. After the SPAM Museum we headed over to visit with my Grandpa.
After getting lost in Austin trying to find my Grandfather's house, thanks to my Dad's directions, we eventually found it. We chatted a bit before heading out for dinner at a wonderful restaurant, Old Mill Restaurant. A great local spot with great food and a fantastic view of the remnants of the dam used to control the river for the mill. On the way home we even got to watch a hot air balloon float across the sky as we drove around getting the tour of Austin. Once home we enjoyed nice bowels of ice cream with strawberries and play a game of Scrabble. Somehow John won, still trying to figure that out.
