all in a day's journey to Wisconsin

Stephen and Leah have been married for six years, but this is the first time we have driven to Wisconsin to visit them instead of flying. We were supposed to be in Orlando this week for the trial of her brother John's killer, but the trial was postponed - again. The trial date has been changed to September 29. Even though the driver of the SUV that hit and killed John was drunk, the DUI charge has been thrown out on a technicality. So the lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter will be brought to trial soon, we hope. It has been almost four years since the accident.

Since we were only going to Orlando for the trial, we cancelled our reservations. Thankfully, there was no fee to cancel. And then, we decided last week to drive to Wisconsin and see our newest grandchild, Ethan. He is so tiny (11 days old today) and basically eats and sleeps 24-7!

Along the journey to Wisconsin, we drove up I-24 from GA passing through Tennessee and Kentucky, until I-24 ends in Illinois. Even with two unplanned stops, we made the trip in 14.5 hours, $77.00 gas and our Intrepid averaged 28.2 miles per gallon! Driving through Chattanooga brought back a flood of memories. I lived there for four years going to college at Tennessee Temple University and met Cindy there. I did not realize that Chattanooga is less than two hours from our home in GA, so we will have to go back on a day trip to visit Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, Rock City, the Choo Choo restaurant - some of the places we enjoyed while living there. I wonder if "Armando's" (best burger in town) is still in operation?


Near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, we left the highway to find a blueberry patch. Alas, they had none for sale, and we did not have time to pick them. I was surprised to cross the Tennessee River for a second time, the first time was in Chattanooga, and somewhere near the Kentucky Dam we crossed over it again.(see photo above) As we traveled into Illinois from Kentucky we crossed over the Ohio River. I-24 finally ended in Illinois and we traveled I-57 towards Chicago and then took I-74 to I-39N to Wisconsin. Between Bloomington and Rockford, we crossed the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge over the Illinois River.(See photo below)



I have to note that I have never seen as many cornfields as we did passing through Illinois. In Dix, IL, we made a quick stop at Hawkin's Orchard and bought a peck of peaches. Maybe we can make a peach cobbler (made with Aunt Jemima's syrup) this week!