We embarked upon our fourth road trip from Seattle to Wisconsin and back in eight years. Mom wanted to attend her high school reunion in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. We took the northern route east through northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota. We spent our first night on the road in Bozeman, Montana, at our neighbor Tracey's parents house. We had a good game of football using Brock's Muk Muk stuffed animal on their lawn before bedtime. Once we made it to Miles City, we could feel the heat of summer was finally with us. We made it all the way to Fargo, North Dakota for our second night. While the weather was fine in Fargo, a couple hours south a tornado touched down causing damage to a small town. The traffic finally slowed us down in Minnesota. During a large stretch of highway outside of Minneapolis, papa had to stop abruptly to avoid an accident and mom's foot, which was resting on the dashboard, bumped into the windshield causing a large crack. We stopped by a roadside sweet corn stand as we drove into Wisconsin. We made it the kids great-grandparents' log house on Middle Sugarbush Lake in Lac du Flambeau by dinner time. Their grandparents met us there. We spent a couple days hanging out and fishing before driving down to Oconomowoc. A few days later while mom was at her re-union, the rest of us went to one of the many Wisconsin Dells waterparks. After a couple more days in Oconomowoc, we started our journey back to Seattle. This time we took a southern route through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon. We first stopped in Luxemburg, Iowa, where mom's grandparents immigrated. We visited old family graves and noticed that the church steeple had just recently burned. Our first night's rest was in Grand Isle, Nebraska, home of Harry Fonda. We drove through Colorado the next day, stopping in Boulder, before stopping for the night in Laramie, Wyoming. The next day we stayed in Salt Lake City, Utah, to do some genealogy work at the LDS Family History Library. We were able to make it back to Seattle by late the next day. The kids were well-behaved during the car trip as usual, though I think we will be doing any more cross-country road trips for long time.

Loaded up and off we go.

Cuzco's spot... not on her bed, of course.

We see more and more wind turbines each year.

Pompeys Pillar, the only physical evidence left from the 1804 Corps of Discovery is William Clark's name carved in this tower rock.

Badlands in western North Dakota near where the rugged outdoors helped shape Teddy Roosevelt's adult life.

Home on the Range for wayward boys at Sentinel Butte, North Dakota.

Eastern North Dakota between Bismarck and Fargo is full of fields of sunflowers.

As we entered Wisconsin, we stopped at a farmer's sweet corn stand by the side of the road.

A dairy farm in southern Wisconsin... red barns and rolling hills... starting to look like home.