La Crosse, WI to Chicago, IL

A "short" day became a bit longer as we decided to stop at the Grumpy Troll pub and House on the Rock on the way to Chicago. Except it wasn't really on the way, so we got to our next B&B at 8 instead of 5. Oooops - there was a note by the door with a number for us to call, and the person who answered gave us the code to enter to get inside. It's like a secret mission! :)

This B&B rules, by the way. It's great, and quirky, and filled with candy and cats! YES! AND... their cat has a lion cut to help him with the heat. He looks super cute.

We went to a place called Piece and had some non-deep dish pizza. It was good - and by 'good', I mean texture-wise, because I haven't been able to taste food since last night. Yeah, I developed a head cold in South Dakota, and it's been with me for the past 2 days. I feel better now (no more scratchy throat or stuffy nose) but I have a bit of a headache. Bad timing, you stupid cold. It's not that bad, though - Monk was smart and brought some Aleve, so I took some of that this morning and felt pretty good all day. But now it's night, and I think I might need some more.

Chicago's highway system is a maze of tolls and having to bear left or right to continue on I-90. Everyone drives 30 mph faster than the speed limit. They have a cool train system that runs in the middle of the highway (note to Seattle: having your trains go to the same places as cars go IS A GOOD IDEA.) and collect random tolls every so often. We paid $1.00, then $1.60, then 30 cents, then 80 cents. At least it's not as weird as Maine, where you pay based on where you're going - leave it to Mainers to prefer scratching their heads for 5 minutes trying to figure out exactly how much to pay so they don't get ripped off, instead of just paying a convenient flat fee to go wherever they want. (Also leave it to them to minimize the number of toll booths, which would also solve this problem, because building more toll booths is expensive!)

We're finally starting to see higher-octane gas again, and it's even better than the 92-octane stuff I usually get in Seattle. Yes, the last 2 tanks of gas I've put in my car have been 92-octane. Happy birthday, car!! (I will have had it for 2 years on June 27th :)