Nebraska

Well, we've come more than halfway, finally.  After a nice, but brief visit with Gramma Rula and Grandpa Mike, we continued on our way.  Our dog Biscuit was no big fan of being relegated to his kennel in the backyard and barked just enough to let us know about it.  After a day of barking, I headed to Petco for a muzzle. Ahhh! - the silence was bliss, until he figured out he could whine through the muzzle, seriously more annoying than the barking.

So... we crammed all our well-laid plans into a few short days.  Like hitting every thrift store in suburban Minneapolis for school clothes (no more uniforms) and some winter duds as well (It gets cold there too).

This is the part where I have to say that I think the only thing I like about Minnesota (other than the thrift stores, and the weird concept of yard sales during the week) is my favorite movie, "Grumpier Old Men".  I was joking about the ten million mosquitoes - no joke though.  There's got to be a million mosquitoes to every person.  We all look like we have chicken pox now.  And no offense, you brilliant community developers there, but why would you build great big beautiful McMansions around every scum-filled mosquito breeding pond.

Let me give a plug to New Hampshire here for knowing the difference between the pond you build your house next to and the one you relegate to the furthest point on the property. So having added about five hundred pounds in extra stuff to the cargo bay of our truck (Thanks, folks!), we hit the road.  It was just like being back in L.A. again, stop go, stop go, stop go traffic for an hour! Isn't it the greatest living in the city, NOT!!  You can keep your conveniences like gas stations, restaurants, shopping - 24 hours a day, all within a block.  It took three hours to get out of the city (about ten miles)