June 16: Chicago, IL to St. Paul, MN

This morning I walked briefly around the hostel in Chicago, then I started the drive to Madison, Wisconsin. It was a beautiful morning and I didn't want to leave Chicago, but I had to move on. I saw signs for Mannheim Road near Chicago/O'Hare (I have a friend from Mannheim, Germany), but I couldn't get a picture. I also failed to get a picture of the McDonald's that was a freeway overpass, linking the "oasis" (service area) on each side of I-90. Once I got past O'Hare the drive was pretty. More farms. Madison was not impressive. Like Phoenix with trees. The University of Wisconsin in Madison is big. The Wisconsin Dells (about 2 hours north of Madison) were unimpressive--one giant main street of overgrown tourism. The rest of the drive was uneventful. One disappointment is that I thought I was physically crossing the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota. However, since I crossed at Eau Claire I was too far north and only crossed the Mississippi's tributary the St. Croix.