And we've got a winner!

Hello People!  To start, here is a family photo from this past weekend:

 We’re still on the move… we’re currently in the middle of working our way from Grand Rapids, MN to Kersey, CO.  We decided on a route that would take us by Mt Rushmore, so we headed west from MN into North Dakota and camped last night at a KOA in Bismarck.  It was a really good night – we got into town pretty early in the evening so we ran a couple errands, went to an Applebees and had a couple beers, then went back to the campsite to make dinner and get ready for bed. 

The first thing we did last night was to purchase a new mac-daddy 2-burner camp stove.  Sorry Mom – the other one leaked fuel and caught itself on fire, so we figured a replacement was in order.  The new stove did a great job and Ben cooked up some delicious chili with ground pork, and yes you guessed it, the rest of the leftover Porketta.  Mmmm.

So, not sure where you are while you’re reading this and what your weather is like, but it is definitely winter up here.  It got down to 5 degrees last night!  We camped in the car again (it just seems warmer than in the tent on the ground).  It’s so nice because the car starts warm and delightful, then just cools down throughout the night.  We woke up to frozen crystallized windows and cold air, but it was cozy in our sleeping bags.  Ben pan-fried thick slices of homemade banana bread and made mocha with pressed coffee and homemade hot cocoa mix – all compliments of my Auntie Carrie (thank you!)… a perfect start to the morning.

So, Ben and I have been holding off on the car bingo until now in an effort to savor the experience… ya know, we don’t want it to be over too quickly.  Well, we decided to go ahead and bust it out for this leg of the trip, and we’ve each won twice so far!  We also accidentally messed up the order of the presents (Ben thought #11 was #1), so here is what we’ve won so far:

#11 – Another set of car games, including checkers, snakes & ladders & chess

#2 – A magic set… can’t wait to fool all of you with our new tricks :)

#1 – A whoopee cushion.  Yes!  I’m totally slipping this under Ben’s sleeping bag tonite!

#3 – A pair of sweet candy cane socks (pretty sure Ben is going to try and claim them).

We’ll get back in the proper order after this… I think we’re also going to try some more difficult bingo requirements… like the “L” or something like that.

So how many people have driven through North and South Dakotas?  Wow, they are big states.  The views are enormous… you can see for miles and miles and the roads are super straight.  I’ve never seen so many round bales, cows & buffalo in my life, but despite the redundancy, it’s a very beautiful part of the country.  Here’s another map of our progress – From November 15 through November 22.

Ooooh Mannnn

Well, today was pretty... good? interesting? both? yes.  As I posted earlier, we ate at Wishbone in Chicago, and it turned out to be pretty darn good.  We did have some interesting folks seated next to us... let's just say we know all the details about food network plans in the next while, and we witnessed somebody putting lottts of sugar in their cheese grits. I mean, I can totally understand sugar in plain grits, but sugar in cheese grits... is that weird to anyone else?

So, it turns out that there is a Ray's MTB in Milwaukee too!  And we went there.  It was different than the Cleveland one, but still super fun.  Then guessed what happened?!  No, not that.  Ben broke his rear derailleur... damnit.  Yepp, like completely broken.  On day... yeah, day 3.  He is not a happy camper.  He says it isn't his fault and that I'm making him feel guilty.  It wasn't his fault, but it still stinks.  He had to ride a funny rental park bike after that... I'll post a picture of him being sad with it tomorrow.

Well, we didn't last much longer at Ray's after that, so we hit the road.  We stopped to have some dinner (cheese curds for an appetizer, apparently a Wisconsin fave), drove on for a little while, and now we are in the middle of nowhere.  Seriously, if we disappear, come looking in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.  No, no, no, don't actually worry.  We're camping in the car again tonight, but this time we're at an actual campsite.  It just happens to be miles from a main road and completely deserted other than us.

Tomorrow we'll have a pretty good chunk of driving to get through, but then we'll be catching up with and hanging out with some family in Minnesota.  I'll keep you posted!

The Title!

Okay okay, already not doing so well at this.  I meant to tell everybody about the title of the blog.  Hopefully "Adventures" is pretty self-explanatory.  Now for the "Car Bingo" part...

So, Ben and I have some really really really good friends Zach and Blaire (a lot of you probably know them).  They are totally awesome.  You know, the kind of friends who really get you, and you don't have to filter the things you say or the way you feel when you're with them, and you always want to hang out... yeah, they're that kind.

Well, Zach and Blaire gave us the most unexpected and wonderful road-trip gift.  Well, it's kind of a bag of gifts.  We got to open one when they gave it to us - it's a set of car bingo!  Have you guys seen this before?  Ben had, but I don't think I have ever played it.  I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow.  Anyway, it's got all kinds of things on it like cows and churches and street signs and people and more.  So, to offer us a little bit of fun during our days of driving, we have car bingo to play - and the best part: each time one of us wins we get to open a prize!  There are 11 prizes and we have to open them in a certain order.  I can't wait to get started (and win, hopefully).  I know with the minds of Zach and Blaire  behind it all that I am in for some good laughs.

Thanks you guys!!!