We're here!

July 5 –

Well, technically, we entered Minnesota at midnight. We got to Winona, where Donnie’s family lives, at 4 a.m. And then, my friends, we slept.

I woke up around 9 or so. Donnie had feed the cats earlier (I think, barely remember). I woke up just feeling horrid. My hands were still shaking with road vibrations and I was all clenched up inside and my neck and back were sore. Eventually, I got up, freshened up a bit, and got Donnie up. We went in and his mom was making pancakes, sausages, bacon and tea. She and Donnie’s dad were watching Trey, Kaza and Aiden, Donnie’s niece and nephews, who immediately leapt on Uncle. We ate and showed off Bertha and did a load of laundry.

Dan, Donnie’s friend who drove my car back, had his girlfriend Deanna come and pick us up, and we went to see Dan’s house (he is restoring a type 4 VW in his garage). Then Donnie and I drove back to his parent’s house and took off with both vehicles towards Prairie. Donnie’s van is still sitting in his parent’s drive way (Donnie drove his van back filled with stuff to move us in, and then took the train back to drive Bertha). We’ll be back up next weekend to collect it.

One day soon I will draw a schematic of how the logistics of all this move. I believe it would be very entertaining.

We made one important stop on our way to Prairie, and that was at the Dakota Firehouse parking lot to meet with my parents (as opposed to making a 10 mile round trip out of our way). It was nice and they really liked Bertha – they wanted to rent her in August to go to a reunion.

We traveled across the Mississippi River bridge into LaCrosse and I took a great snap of Bertha from my car. We stopped in Ferryville to buy some fireworks (pretty much any kind of firework is legal in Wisconsin – yay! And this place, just a mom and pop hardware store most of the year, had a whole other section that had flat screen TVs showing what the fireworks looked like when they went off. There was a huge pack called “King of the Block” with fountains and rockets the size of microwave ovens. It cost $249). We also went to a Ferryville store that sold local cheese and bought some precious curd as well as a three pack block of cheddar, Colby and jack.

Arrived at the “back house” around 2:30 – 3 p.m. Donnie did such a nice job of getting it all set up. It is very small, but I think we will fit in very nicely. We are just going to loaf for the next day and a half. Will catch up later!