On The Road Again....

So last week Thursday, Justin and I hit the road to Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  He bought a new trailer for hauling frac sand and that was the closest place to get one- 978 miles away.  It was a nice time and was nice to get away and spend some time together.  We left Thursday afternoon and made it to Bismarck where we stayed at a nice hotel and at Red Lobster for dinner.  Friday morning we hit the road and traveled into Minnesota.

Justin hasn't driven much in city traffic, much less in a semi.  I obviously have driven all over So Cal, and a few of the bigger cities in Nor Cal.  Minneapolis is traffic like LA during rush hour.  He did great navigating through the traffic and getting us to the Mall of America.  (There is much argument there as to whose idea it was to go!) We walked around the mall for a couple of hours to allow for traffic to let up before sailing through the rest of the city.  For those who have not been to the mall and really want to go- it kinda sucks!

After we left the mall we looked at the map and decided we would make it to Tomah, WI for the night.  Well, once we got there it was after midnight.  We started calling hotels and everything was booked.  Not a HUGE deal, the truck does have a sleeper, but it's a twin and not so comfortable for two people.  We ended up finding some hole in the wall motel that had one room left for the night, and it was a smoking room (Ick!) but we took it anyway.  J apologized for having to get such a crappy room, but I said it made for fun memories for the future.  We got a king sized bed to sleep in, and a shower in the morning we didn't have to pump quarters into. 

After leaving Tomah, we made it in to Elkhorn to pick up the trailer.  We passed through a few small towns on Hwy 12, one of which was Cambridge, WI.  I REALLY wanted to stop there! It was such a cute old downtown and there was a streetfaire going on.  But there was nowhere to park the semi, so we couldn't stop :(  We picked up the trailer and headed back through Wisconsin and stopped just West of Minneapolis in St. Cloud, MN at a Holiday Inn Express, which was much nicer than the Daybreak Inn the night before. 

Sunday morning we left St. Cloud and hightailed it back home.  It was about an 11 hour drive, but we got home.  It was really nice to spend some time together and we learned that we can work really well together under pressure.  It was nice to hear Justin talking to people about my navigational skills, and how he wouldn't have been able to get through the cities without me.  He still claims the mall was my idea though :)