we took one seat out of the van, created a nook for the dog, made sure we had all the chargers and cords, loaded up a week’s worth of stuff and headed north.

there was a lot of eating on the road and often in the car.  with so many miles to travel it hardly felt worth eating inside.

we have a fun book at home full of pictures of american landmarks.  none featured in that book were close enough to our route but we found some of our own.

perhaps the craziest part of our trip was jerry waking me up to look outside.  we were driving through/over/on a water covered road.  covered as in at least 6 inches of water.  it was c.r.a.z.y.  it felt like we were on a slow boat ride through south dakota.  i was leaning myself out the window taking pictures and didn’t know the camera was on “self portrait” mode…so, proof here that i was happy.

it took us at least 10 minutes to drive a couple of miles.

there were signs that we were getting closer…old dutch and oh henry showing up, crossing the border, meeting up with my folks.

and then a final reminder of what we were about to do: