Two Moro's Travels

DAY 1:
I don’t think it’s sunk in where we are going yet. The trip has been planned for over a year, Itineraries have been done for weeks. Yet, it still does not seem real, but we are retracing some of our original trip to Alaska back in “77 while exploring some new areas.

We drove across PA. What a long state to traverse east to west; they should come up with some shorter way across it. Made it out past Ohio and into Indiana. We went to the spot where we we spent the first night in a hotel back in ’77 – the Toledo Turnpike Motel. The address 2325 Reynolds’s Rd. still exists, but now it is a business, Williams Distributing. Ironically it is my daughter’s married surname. It had also been a restaurant in it’s transition to the current business. “Things change. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” Quote by Stephen Chbosky. Maybe that is why we are on this trip. Because life does not stop and neither should you.

NIGHT 1:
We spent the night at the George Craig Travel Plaza (westbound) in Elkhart, Indiana. There is another plaza, the Henry Shrieker Travel Plaza (eastbound). They both contain Tesla charging stations- 8 on one side and 8 on the other. Do you know how many Teslas we saw charging in the 6 hour span we were there? ONE. We took a pic to prove it. It was a one-person partaaaay. TIDBIT: they are not free unless you have owned a tesla since 2017. Though if you live in Indianapolis, Indiana, and own an electric car, you can charge it overnight for free. Indianapolis, here I come. Oh, wait, I don’t own an electric car.
Goodnight. Using our car fan. Car fan died at 2 AM. Indiana nights, why must you be so hot and humid?

DAY 2:
Woke up about 8 AM. Headed to Indiana Dunes National Park. Not what we expected. We have been to other beautiful national dune parks, such as: Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, a stunning, must-go to place with beautiful white sand dunes that we climbed at sunset. We’ve, also been to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes in Michigan with its massive wall; one we did not attempt. They both had something that Indiana Sand Dunes National Park did not have- sand. There are marshes and bogs and places where natural succession has taken over the area. The coast does have 15 miles of sandy beaches, but we were not here for beaches so we did not check them out. On the way back to the highway we went though Marquette Park and noticed electric scooters just sitting in various spots in the park; guess you just plop in your credit card and go. Oh, but just because you are in a park, don’t go crazy and walk on the grass. Signs posted clearly state, “keep off the grass.”

We continued on and drove through Wisconsin and got some cheese because when in Rome…. Is that what real cheese tastes like? Kraft, what have you been keeping from us?

NIGHT 2:
Spent the night at Menomonie Rest Area. Slept a solid 9 hours. Temperatures dropped to 49 degrees and it was quite chilly in the van because slightly-claustrophobic me has to have the windows cracked open.

DAY 3: Drove through the rest of Wisconsin; sadly running out of cheese. Got though Minnesota and still retracing some of our steps as we located the second hotel we stayed at on the way up last time- The Thrifty Scott, a chain that was popular in the 70’s and 80’s. The hotel is there but it was bought out by other hotels along the way and now it’s called the Coratel Inn and Suites, We took the customary pictures in front of it. Wish we had an original from that time frame I could share, but just imagine us just as sexy, but with no grey hair.

We headed into North Dakota past Fargo and and ended up in Minot. We had stopped here at the Minot Walsh Motel on our original ’77 trip, so we had to go see what it looked like now. Well, currently at the corner of Hwy 83 and 17th avenue is a Taco Bell, China Star, Broadway and Bagel and Mexican Eats, but no Minot Walsh Motel. We did mange to a picture of a postcard that someone sold online. There is no info or I would credit the person.