Alice writes:

We are ending our time in Iowa/Minnesota area tonight and will begin to make our way back east tomorrow morning. We will tackle our longest driving day yet - need to go 400 miles to Madison, WI, where we will spend 4 days with our dear friends, Bart, Heidi and Francis. Clayton and Francis are great buddies and he is very excited to get to visit her town as she has been to ours.

We have had a wonderful time here - reconnecting with brother Jim and making new connections with those we have met along the way. We spent this evening on a 2 hour boat ride at sunset on Spirit Lake - in a 1947 wooden hulled Cris Craft - Dad, you would have loved it! The weather here has been absolutely perfect throughout our stay and am hopeful that it will continue.

The boys are wonderful travelers and eager to explore wherever we go - they are certainly learning their geography - even Travis can point out on the map most states that we are visiting.

We are packed and ready to leave early, early, early tomorrow morning. Coffee will brew while we are putting beds away and we will dine on the road..............