We did it

Well, here we are. 3 days stuck at 65 mph, we are in Watertown. On the plus side, travelling at 65 instead of 73 (our preferred western travel speed) caused our mileage to jump from 14.5 to 16.5mpg. Not bad for a 23 foot motorhome.

We'll be here through the weekend, look for a new post for the return trip on Monday. And we will post a bison picture soon.

It's SALSA, not SAUCE-LA, dammit!

Today we pounded out some serious miles. Took a bit longer, as we were forcibly reminded that on the East side of the Mississippi, people like to drive slow. And make motorhomes drive even slower.

We both took a vote and decided that Wisconsin has the countries worst drivers. Now, I don’t remember who I picked last year, but Wisconsin has them beat. I actually miss California drivers. Back home, I expect to be cut off, I expect turn signals to be ignored. Californians do it because we are rude. Wisconsinites just do it because they are plain stupid. Maybe they can’t drive without a foot of snow on the ground. But apparently, merging onto a crowded freeway at 30 miles per hour is OK here. Or maybe there is a sport called, “Make the California RV smoke his tires by braking”. There must be such a sport, they did it to me twice.

I was worried that incompetent driving was all I could write about tonight. Then we went to an “authentic” wild-west restaurant in Illinois. Yes, just like you I head to Illinois when I want real western cooking. It was quite western, buffalo heads on the walls, fake arrows sticking out of the furniture, even the waitresses carried (plastic) six-guns.

Our waitress, going by the western alias of “Marge”, raved about their chips and salsa. “Best dang chips and salsa you’ve ever had, pardner” was her direct quote. So we ordered some. The chips were pretty good. Not just Tostitos from a bag, I think they really fried them right.

The salsa, now. Umm, where to start. We almost got kicked out of the restaurant because we could not stop giggling about the salsa. Here is how to make authentic Illinois salsa: Open a #10 can of Tomato Sauce. Whisper a word in Spanish over top, such as “taco” or maybe even “frijoles”. Now serve.

Yup, the “salsa” was 100% genuine tomato sauce. Oh, maybe they mixed in one can of stewed tomatoes, but nothing else. I mean nothing. The cocktail sauce for Sara’s shrimp was positively burning in comparison. Gary Rake, I know you are laughing your head off at this one.

And we almost got kicked out again when the table next to us asked for, “More of that delicious salsa, please”!

P.S. It really was tomato sauce!

Still traveling east

We left Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l Park today but not before more buffalo came through our camp. One stopped right outside our motorhome window. On our way out of the park, we saw a flock of wild turkeys. A mom turkey and about 8 or 9 babies trailing behind her. We also went past a prarie dog town. The prarie dogs were out and about. There were a lot of them. All in all we saw some very cool wildlife.
We made it as far as Minnesota today. We still have 4 days left on the road before we reach our destination for the weekend in Watertown NY. We will be there the weekend and then on Monday the 6th we start heading back west again. It sure is a long way to upstate NY. There has got to be a faster way to travel 3000 miles other than flying or driving.
We will be boon docking tomorrow night, and the remaining nights, so there probably won't be a post for a few days.