#9 - Cheese Anyone?

You know what one of the best parts of waking up is?
That's right, a good cup of coffee.
Mmmmm...
Surprisingly our hotel had just that!
No continental breakfast but fantastic coffee!
Places that SPECIALIZE in breakfast seem to get it wrong and for a hotel to get it right?!
Am I right or am I right?
(I'm right)

Two cups in, we loaded the car up and made a quick detour to the Mall of America.
Remember the whole thing about my trunk not locking?
We found a spot as close to the door as possible, backed the car up to the half wall, got a little close to the wall (Ok, I hit it), then went in and found some greasy spoon diner in the food court!

Naturally we danced to the oldies, met some new people that were eagerly trying to "Get in on our adventure" according to Becki, and then we were served with smiley faces as if we were children!

PERFECT!

Becki had to do a little shopping for Anth's birthday and I tried on my new favorite sweater...

which I should have bought... cause it's awesome...

Now... remember the "tire noise" from the night before?
Yeah, it wasn't going away.
A little while down the road I still couldn't seem to narrow down what it was.  I FINALLY found a tire store where I had to pretty well BEG the guy to check the tires.

"No no... that doesn't sound like it would be from your tire.  Maybe there's something wrong with your engine.  We could check that out!"

"Ummm... can we just BRING a gage out there?  Just to see.  I'm thinking it's a tire... it seems to really act up when I'm going over 100"

"100?!!!!!!"

"Sorry.  60.  I was talking in KM..."

Oh MAN you should have seen his face.  Ha!  Priceless.

FINALLY he gave in and came out with me.
One tire?  Fine
Next tire?  Needed a bit of air but not that bad.
Third tire?...

"Oh WOW!  Yup!  That's your problem!"

Turns out I was right, it was the tire.  I couldn't help but rub it in;

"See!  It helps being a girl from the country!  We know a thing or two!"

The tire was bulging so bad he was surprised I didn't have a blowout already.  If you looked at it from the side it was HORRIBLE.  All the wires, or whatever you call them, were sticking out.

Phew!  Good thing we stopped.

Once that was taken care of we were motivated to get on the road so we could check out Chicago nice and early.  For some reason, however, those two cups of coffee were long out of our system so we HAD to cross the freeway for a little Caribou.  This time we took advantage of the 1/2 price specialty coffee's.

Ok ok, NOW we'll get going...

Moments later Becki screamed out:

"CHEESE HAUS!!"

So that's what happened, we took the quickest exit for Wisconsin's finest cheese!

What was going to be a quick stop lasted well over an hour... they had a "Beer Cave" where we shopped for fantastic local micro brewery beers, had the owner create a cheese plate for us (which they don't usually do), listened to his life story and plans of bed and breakfasts, and enjoyed this goldmine we discovered.



Mmmmmm...



I tried the smelly goat cheese and Becki decided to shoot my play by play of "Ok,ok not so bad" too...

"The WORST thing I have ever tasted!!"

Becki, on the other hand, LOVED the stuff.  "The stinkier the better!"

Some local man came in for a quick cheese fix and decided to share his Dill Cheese Curds with us! Mmmmm they were tasty...
On his way out he mumbled something, we said "Thanks for the cheese" and at that he came back and dumped half the bag on our plate.

"No no no sir, these are yours!  That's too much!! Thank you though"
He just kept walking away... mumbling;
"No, you girls need to eat them.  You're too skinny."

Aw America... porkin' everyone up!

It was around sunset we realized it was probably time we get going.
And that's what we did... until I had one of my epic "Oh no... I gotta pee" moments which got scary.  Fast.
Lets just say from THAT stop on we decided it was best I had some paper along...

Needless to say, what was supposed to be quick drive to Chicago, took all day.
By the time we got  there Becki had napped and I had lost all energy to go to a blues bar.

We drove around the airport looking for a hotel that WASN'T by the hour, pulled into a Shell Station and asked, what looked to be, the only "legit" guy for directions to a good room.

Becki - "Excuse me sir... do you know where there are any hotels near by?"
Man - stares blankly at Becki
Becki - "Hotels?  Do you know where there is a hotel?"
Man - stares blankly at Becki
Becki - "Hooootel.  Hotel?  Ho-Tell? Hooo-"
Me - "Holiday Inn?  Travelodge?  Days Inn?'"
Man (Broken English) - "Awww!  Yes!  Hotel!  Follow me!"

Once he lead us to some HOTEL'S we finally checked in.  Which is good because by this point we were gettin a little cranky.

We then dropped our bags, apparently got some energy back, and ran around like little girls exploring the hotel.  We played  in the hotel's gym where Becki tried to teach me a yoga head stand...
Not a chance.
Went back up to the room to taste our local beer as we watched reality tv and fell asleep.

Yeah, ok... I fell asleep before Becki... this was evidant since I woke to:

"Melissa!  Are you sleeping and changing channels?"
"Huh?!  Wha?!  Oh... sorry.  Well, here's hopin' I don't start talking to you once YOU'RE asleep!"

Lights Out.