Chapter 24

We left Chicago around 5:00pm central time and headed east crossing into Indiana.

Our plan was to take a day or two getting back to New England. There was a brewery in Michigan that we wanted to visit.

But, it was closed due to crona. We thought we might swing by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland but, it was closed. So we thought 'let's just drive through'. So we did.

We arrived home around 12:30pm on Thursday, May 14. 2020. We were tired but happy with what we had just accomplished. We had travelled just over 12,000 miles (further than the distance from the North Pole to the South Pole) covering 35 states. The day we got back to Portland, Maine was day 28 of our trip. And we had a trip that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Chapter 23

Wednesday, May 13, 2020 found us in Iowa City, Iowa headed for the Mississippi River through Davenport with the intent of visiting Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago,  Illinois. The spot where we crossed the Mississippi was beautiful.

From here, we drove to Milwaukee where we stopped on the shore of Lake Michigan for a picture.

Milwaukee was basically closed AND parking sucked so, we headed for Chicago.

Chicago is a beautiful city. We decided to park and walk around for a bit.

And then we continued our journey east.

Chapter 22

We woke up Monday, May 11 in Rapid City, South Dakota, day 25 of our epic, pandemic road trip. We knew we were on the last leg of the trip and would be heading to New England soon but we still had a couple of more things that we wanted to check out. Denton had told me about a place where you could still see wagon wheel ruts from the Oregon Trail made by pioneer wagon trains. I did some research and we headed off to Guernsey, WY. So we headed west into east central Wyoming to find the Guernsey Ruts, traveling through some prairie to get there.

Finally, we arrived at the ruts!

The rest of this day and the next was spent driving through Nebraska

and into Iowa.

Chapter 21

Sunday, May 10, Mother's Day found us in Rapid City, South Dakota looking for Mount Rushmore which turned out to about a 30 minute beautiful drive!

Mount Rushmore is really cool but, honestly, after 20 minutes and a bunch of pictures there really isn't anything else to do.

And then we headed over to another (uncompleted) mountain sculpture, Crazy Horse.

From here, we headed north. Every time we took a picture in front of a state border sign, we were either going through or to a state with a particular purpose in mind. Except this time. We drove north looking for the North Dakota border just to take a picture

 The ride up and back took all afternoon but, it was a pretty ride.

And the ride back was just as nice including lots of roadside antelope.

And then we stopped in Deadwood sight of the outstanding TV show and, the only place on the entire trip that allowed us to sit down and eat and drink.

I really wanted to buy Lise a steak dinner for Mother's Day and Mavericks Steak and Cocktails came through big!

My ribs were pretty tasty, too!