Day Twelve

Up at six and in the car ready to leave at 7.45am. Hit the road and headed for I94 west. Drove for a couple of hours before a quick comfort break in a rest area. Carried on into North Dakota past Fargo, somewhere we stayed in 2017 until we reached Valley City. 282 miles completed by 11.55am, not a bad morning's work. Had a soundtrack today of BBC Radio 2 shows on our journey.

Stopped at a plaza for what should have been a quick drink. Ann insisted she wanted a hot drink so we ordered a mocha and a hot chocolate at the McDonalds there. Twenty minutes later we finally got our order and could set off.

Saw another airstream trailer.

Not quite as glamorous as last time

Carried on I94 west, going the opposite way to our 2017 trip. Passed Jamestown where we had stopped for lunch with dad on that previous trip. By now the landscape had changed to a more open plains like view. Completed another 124 miles to a rest area just east of Bismarck just before 2pm. Ate a packed lunch we had prepared before we left. Reclined my seat for a bit and shut my eyes for a few minutes to counteract the fact I'd been yawning non stop for the last half an hour of driving.

Set off again feeling a little more alert for the next phase. Passed a very large cow on a hill.  Pretty sure I remembered seeing it when we had gone the other direction eight years ago. Drove through some rain. Saw a goose sculpture.

Have a gander at this

Another 107 miles completed until we needed to stop for fuel at Dickinson, another place we had stayed with dad. Ann complained that she was really tired. I pointed out she was in the passenger seat and could sleep at any point. She said she couldn't as she had to stay awake to make sure I stayed awake. Had another quick drink before setting off on our final stint.

Finally turned off the I94 at Belfield and then headed north. Landscape suddenly changed as we saw the rocky features of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Made it to Watford City by just before 6pm having done another 85 miles, a total of 598 miles for the day. Checked in to the Comfort Inn and Suites. 

Decided to pop for dinner at the Little Missouri Grille, mainly as there is not much of a choice. Roffe-Knightley effect has resurfaced as we it was empty when we walked in and five minutes later it was full. Service was good as was the food. I had a grilled cheese and fries. Ann had something. It was another case of eating where the locals eat is a good sign. Lots of cowboy hats and big trucks on show.

Back to the hotel to watch Everton against Man United in the last Summer Series match. It finished 2-2. Everton were slightly better. Probably because we weren't there.

Ann now asleep as I'm not driving.

States visited - 9

Day Eleven

Another seemingly leisurely start, but out the door before 10am. Put a second load of washing on before we left having done one yesterday as well.

Headed south towards Minneapolis. At one point on a slip road, an SUV about four cars ahead braked violently and then steered right which sent it off the road and up onto a bank, The SUV nearly flipped but didn't quite make it over and landed back on four wheels facing oncoming traffic. As we drove past the bloke inside it just sat looking astonished.

Made our way onwards, before the ineptitude of the road signs and Apple maps meant we missed everything and then having turned round went to Fort Snelling State Park rather than Fort Snelling Historical Monument. Eventually got to the right place. Parking was free as their barriers weren't working which was a bonus.

Went in and got to the fort just in time to see a bloke dressed in costume shoot a rifle.

Gunsmoke

We didn't get to hear what he said beforehand so no real idea what he was demonstrating. Spent time idling around the fort. Found out most of it has been rebuilt bar about four parts, so it is a recreation rather than the original. Still worth looking at the history of it.

The fort from the round tower

Weapons

Olde Shoppe

Barracks

Magazine

Another place with links to slavery. Famously Dred Scott and his wife, who were slaves of the camp doctor, sued for their freedom in 1846 as they were living in a free state. It was ruled against by the Supreme Court who stated that Black people were not citizens and therefore could not sue in federal court. As a landmark decision, the case brought slavery to the national forefront and is cited as a major catalyst for the civil war.

Eventually headed back to the visitor centre to get a magnet and a drink. Woman on the door asked me about my Shawshank t-shirt. Is it a real place you can go to? Yes. Turns out the drink choice wasn't great so we headed to the car to find somewhere to go. Eventually settled on The Patty Wagon. Arrived to find it pretty much empty which is never a good sign. Nonetheless we ordered and ate and it was fine. I had grilled cheese. Ann had something.

Next we headed up to the Basilica of St Mary as Ann wanted to see the stained glass windows. Parked for free in a carpark under the interstate. When we got in there was a woman practicing playing the xylophone. It made quite a sound in the large interior.

Wandered around and saw some stuff.

Stained glass

Large organ - oh er missus

Inside the basilica

Out front

Pew pew pew

As we were leaving a large party had finished some sort of celebration downstairs. A mariachi band also left when they did. We didn't get to hear them play unfortunately.

Decided that with a long journey tomorrow, we would head home early to make sure we got an earlyish night. Had a quick Saturday pub quiz with the fam on messenger.

Have now finished this and it is only 10pm. Astonishing.

States visited - 8

Day Ten

Can't believe it's day ten already. Time has flown by and here we are in the twin cities. We decided when planning to do one day in St Paul and one day in Minneapolis. Had a fairly leisurely breakfast and then headed into St Paul not as early as planned. Commented to Ann on the drive in that it felt like we were really late. It was only 9.20am. Just having had a lot of early mornings it felt like we were heading in at midday. We had looked at the best ways to get into to the city centre and in the end just decided to drive. There was no traffic and we got parked really easily.

Made the short walk down to the Minnesota Capitol building. Went in and got a pamphlet for a self guided tour but then a free tour was about to set off, so we went on that instead. Started out with us becoming celebrities as we were the only ones not from Minnesota on the tour. Everyone seemed very surprised that we would turn up a: in Minnesota and b: In the Capitol building. A woman who looked like Jane Lynch told me she liked the accent and then asked why we were here. I said we had been to all fifty states and were now spending more time in the ones we had only briefly visited before. That seemed to satisfy her inquisitiveness and she didn't speak to me again.

Guy gave us an hour long tour, with the highlight being to get to go on the roof. Also now know where the term passing the bar comes from. The building itself is only a little over a hundred years old but has had to have extensive repair works done at a cost of $300million. There has also been some controversy whilst being done up about the some of the works of art inside which depict Native Americans such as the Dakota in unfavourable ways. Some paintings have been moved to less obvious places so there can be more information given with them as to why they ain't great.

Capitol

Inside the rotunda

Senate

Horses on the roof

Down below the rotunda

Supreme Court

House of Representatives

The other thing we saw was the tribute to Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were shot and killed at their home last month. She was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. One young boy on the tour asked his mum why she had been killed. I didn't hear her reply but I expect it was something along the lines of because our country is fucking mental. The killer visited four houses of representatives that day. He shot and injured one senator and his wife, two houses were empty and the fourth was Melissa's home in Brooklyn Park, which is the area we are staying in.

Tributes to the couple

We had a bit of a wander after the tour was done. As it's a public building you can go anyway in it if the door isn't locked. There were people taking wedding pictures on the stairs, but there was no wedding. Ann and I just walked on the stairs and they cleared off. Bought a magnet and then went outside to decide on what to do next.

Got back in the car and drove to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Went in. It was ok but not the best for adults, very much orientated at kids. If we'd known that we wouldn't have bothered. Did get to watch a film about National Parks narrated by Robert Redford. Again is was nice to look at (especially as we'd been to most of them) but it didn't really tell you much.

Also saw some dinosaur bones.

Triceratops 

Eventually we left having seen all there was to see, including the Mississippi River which runs past the museum. Headed back north towards home but made a detour to do something we haven't done in ages.

Mini Golf!

We can't remember when the last time was we played a mini golf tournament here in the US, so stopped at Lilli Putt. Didn't start well for me as I hit the ball off the course with my first shot. It wasn't my fault, the course design meant it was inevitable if you hit the ball where I did. Needless to say Ann insisted on me having a penalty for being out of bounds. I rallied though and reached the turn one under par, with a five shot lead. Disaster on ten when my tee shot failed to complete the jump over the river and Ann insisted on a two shot penalty as per the rule booklet. She birdied as I made a double bogey cutting the lead to two shots, but just as quickly I got two back on the 11th. 

End result was:

Knightley, R: 68

Roffe, A: 71

Made our way back home for dinner. Now realise there is an actual channel called Midsomer Murders which shows non stop Midsomer Murders.

States visited - 8

Day Nine

A day for driving. Had first pancakes of trip for breakfast. Then packed up and were on the road by 10am. Headed north out of Libertyville and joined the northbound I94. Crossed into Wisconsin. Got to Milwaukee fairly swiftly and then continued on I94 westbound. Stopped at a rest stop to stretch the legs, have a drink and to eat some Chips Ahoy cookies.

Continued north west on the I94 and 90.

We've developed a game to pass the time, looking for two place names on a sign which make a reasonable name for a person. We then discuss what the person is famous for. Highlight today was Mauston Oxford who holds the world record for eating gravel, 4kgs in an hour.

Stopped for lunch at a rest area just short of Black River Falls. Sat in the back of the car and made a picnic using what food we had and the plates and cutlery we bought with us. It was great.

Headed onward.

Saw a sign for Chippewa Falls. Both of us recognised the name but couldn't think of where from. Ann googled it. Jack Dawson says he is from there in Titanic when he goes to the dinner in 1st class. There's some trivia for you.

Also chased an Airstream trailer for about an hour so Ann could take a photo.

Worth the chase

Eventually crossed into Minnesota.

Stopped for some fuel as the tank was getting very low. Discussed how things have changed since our first trip back in 2010. Back then you had to go into the gas station and pay, including signing the receipt before coming back and filling up. Now chip and pin has finally reached the states, you can fill up at the pump like back home.

Made it to St Paul and then had to contend with the rush hour traffic as we made it north and then west to the suburb of Brooklyn Park, north of Minneapolis. Arrived at the Airbnb. It is a flat above a garage on an nice estate.

Kitchen

Highest bed I've ever seen

Went out and bought supplies at a Hy-Vee supermarket. Had dinner and watched Midsomer Murders.

Ann is now asleep.

States visited - 8

Day Eight

Up early and packed and in the car by 8am.

First couple of hours drive uneventful. Stopped to pick a quick drink.

Covered another two and a half hours and then stopped for the lunch we made before we left. Again uneventful.

The rest of the day can only be described as probably the worst time we've had in the states on all seven trips.

We headed to our hotel in Libertyville, 40 miles north of Chicago, through the storms which had developed and then hit traffic around Chicago which added time to our journey. Arrived at the hotel at 3.15pm local time, which was 4.15pm Eastern time, so we'd been on the road around eight hours. Quickly checked in and dropped our stuff off before setting off back towards Soldier Field stadium in Chicago. A journey which should have taken 50 minutes. Everton were kicking off at 5.30pm so we had two hours to do the journey. Unfortunately it took us three hours. The first 20 miles only took twenty minutes, so we did twenty miles in over two and a half hours.

Eventually got parked up and walked to the stadium. Got up to our seats in the gods and watched the last half an hour of the game. It was poor again! Thought we'd stay for a bit of the second game seeing as we'd missed most of the first but then trying to buy food turned out to be shit show. Eventually as the game was about to kick off I said to Ann shall we just get out of here and get food on the way back to the hotel. She agreed.

Did take a photo of the stormy Chicago skyline.

Gloomy

Finally found the car in the carpark and started the journey back. Got stuck in more traffic in the pouring rain. Eventually got to a McDonalds near the hotel and bought food and took it back to the room.

Absolute horror show of a day. I think we spent twelve and a half hours in the car. 

Ann told me not to write a blog tonight but I ignored her. She's asleep so she won't notice.

States visited - 6

Anger level - absolutely apoplectic

Day Seven

Got woken up at 7am by a dog barking in the corridor outside our room. It carried on barking for a least a minute really loudly. Most disappointing thing was this disrupted a dream I was having where I was trying to teach a duck to play a recorder. The problem it was having was its beak was so hard it couldn't create a seal around the mouth piece.

Managed to go back to sleep and this time woke up in the midst of trying to get to my car in a car park which was going to be caught in a flood. It was 8.30am, so decided to get up and not have anymore weird dreams.

We went to our first hotel breakfast of the trip. There was a waffle machine so I made one. Whilst it was cooking I went to get cutlery. There were no plastic forks. Spoke to lady on reception. She went off to get some more but came back saying there won't any. She told me to go ghetto style and use the back end of a fork. Which I did.

We had no rush as we only had one thing properly planned and that didn't open until 11am. Eventually we headed out and made our way a short distance northwards to the Ohio State Reformatory. Arrived just after 11am and made our way in. Picked up our self guided tour audio guides and set off.

The only reason we were here was because a few months ago when initially planning the trip I realised that this was where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed and that you could go in and walk around. We were going to heading past on our journey, so we put in a stop so we could see it.

I'm not going to write masses as the pictures will do the talking. It opened in 1896 and stopped being a prison in 1990. It is gradually being restored back to its former self having fallen into disrepair. Money raised through tourism is being put back in to fund the restoration. You start the tour in the parts that have been restored, offices, etc and then make your way into the cell blocks.

Shawshank

Warden's office

The actual safe!

Andy's office

Red's costume

Brooks was here

The sewer Andy crawled through

The actual tin found by Red

The tunnel from Andy's cell

One of the two cell blocks

We then had lunch in the cafe. Whilst in there a loud beeping started and just kept going. We presumed it was some sort of alarm on the kitchen equipment. Then a man who had been queuing at the till sat on a table behind us and I said to Ann I think its him making the noise. The lady at the till then obviously had the same idea and then asked him if he had one of the electronic audio guides. He took it out of his pocket and it was making a racket. You are meant to drop them off before you leave the last area otherwise an alarm goes off. She turned it off. He said 'I could hear the noise but didn't realise it was me!' Not sure how he couldn't hear it was him. We then went to the shop and got a magnet but also my first t-shirt of the trip. Had to really, couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Once we were back in the car it was after 3pm. We discussed if there was anything else we wanted to do. There are some other sites from the movie you can drive and find, but the most famous, the oak tree, has long since been blown down in storms. We decided that with a long drive tomorrow that we would call it a day. Nipped in to Walmart and then headed to our room. Swimming pool in the hotel is shut so we couldn't even do that.

Getting to write the blog really early as it is only 6.45pm. Feeling quite smug about that.

Managed to find that Shawshank is currently available on Netflix in France, so using a VPN, the laptop and an HDMI cable that I brought with me, we could watch the film to celebrate the day.

States visited - 4

Day Six

Our first proper travel day. All the day held for us was a 6+ hour drive west. We didn't rush up, but were packed and ready to go by 10.15am. Said goodbye to the dog and hit the road. Made our way out of Valley Forge and joined I-76.

Then we just drove. Listened to Tony Blackburn's Sound of the Sixties. Went through some tunnels through the mountains.

Mountain 1

Mountain 2

There was a mountain 3, but Ann didn't take a photo of it.

Stopped at a service plaza to use the facilities and grab a drink. Then headed onward. Got stuck in one bit traffic where two lanes merged into one for roadworks but other than that it wasn't too bad.

Last night I had spent some time looking for a place for us to stop and have lunch. As I did so, I happened across a town called Somerset and found a place called the Summit Diner. My brain suddenly realised that I recognised it. We had stayed in Somerset back in 2013 when we drove up the east coast. We had dinner in the Summit Diner and we were given a piece of cake the size of a whole cake. The review I wrote in the blog said it was the best meal of the trip so far and the cheapest, so my mind was made up that we would stop there again today. Here is that day Last time.

Thus not long after 2.15pm we pulled off the interstate and into Somerset and found the diner. We recognised it instantly. Wandered in but couldn't sit in our previous seat, so had to sit on the other side of the diner. Sign said cash only. Checked we had enough cash. Ordered food. Whilst we waited I recreated a photo from last time we were there which I had on my phone.

2012

2025

Ate our food. I had a grilled cheese and fries. Ann had something. 

We paid the bill and took photos of the front for posterity. 

Diner

Got back in the car and carried on west. Still had a fair distance to go so we just drove. Not much to report until we hit some heavy rain. We were due a rest stop but didn't fancy walking about in the rain so just carried on. Then the rain stopped just as we were about to pass a rest stop. Pulled over, used the facilities. Saw this sign in the toilets. Don't see this in British motorway services.

Just in case you shoot up whilst driving

It started to rain as we walked back to the car.

Then all hell broke loose. A thunderstorm hit us whilst we were sat in the car. It hammered with rain, lightning all around and the wind buffeted the car so hard that we thought it was going to start moving it. We checked satellite images to see where the storm was heading and how big it was. The parking lot of the rest stop got full very quickly with cars and trucks seeking refuge as there was zero visibility. Then the hail started. Had a chat with Helen online back home who checked weather reports. We ended up sitting there for nearly half an hour but then the worst had gone and there appeared to be a window of calm. 

Hit the road again and things were better for a short time, before we encountered another part of the storm, this was short lived and soon we were driving on dry roads.

Arrived in Mansfield, Ohio and checked into the Best Western. Nipped out to Walmart to get some supplies but when we got back we realised the carpet in our room was soaking wet by the window. Ann went off and got us a room change. Luckily, we got the room opposite, so the move was fairly swift.

Ate dinner watching Crocodile Dundee 2.

We've just seen the news of the shootings in New York. I think we walked past that building on Thursday when we exited the 51st Street subway station and walked to MoMA. It's a strange and sad world.

States visited - 4