Minneapolis Excursion

A couple of weeks ago my roommate quit his trucking job with Minn Star and I drove to Eagan, MN, to bring him home. I packed up the dogs, all 4, and headed north around noon on a Friday. Ross, my roommate, had suggested I put the seats down in the back of the Corolla to give them more room. With a quilt covering the back and sheets tied on the front seats, to minimize the accumulation of hair we were set. Remember these are 45-75 lb dogs. I brought some snacks and their gear, leahes, gallon of water, bowls and the dry food they always eat, and minimal clothes for me. We drove up 183 and took the toll road to Georgetown, smooth sailing! Wanting to conserve fuel, I kept it to 65 which is difficult for me but cruise control helped. That toll pass comes in handy, too not to mention the GPS.

So, up I-35 we go, thru Ft. Worth where I caught a little friday afternoon traffic, it wasn't too bad. I had wanted to stop at Cabela's and let the dogs ut but traffic was too heavy to get over. About this time i was hankering for Whataburger and under the mistaken assumption that once I left Texas the would be no more Whataburgers, I searched and stopped at what I thought was the last one in the state. Mm mm, I love Whataburger! Also tanked up on Coke, I knew I would need the caffeine. So up and around Oklahoma City on to Wichita by midnight where we spent the night at Motel 6. NOTE: Motel 6 accepts pets with no extra charge! It was a little frustrating g trying to call motels I found on the GPS from the phone which is also mounted in the window with Bluetooth and speaker through the car speakers. I knew there must be an easier way but couldn't remember. I was bit apprehensive about taking g the dogs to a motel, it was their first time. They were perfect angels.

Got up and left the motel at 7. Lovely GPS found a Starbucks are the next exit. Their coffeer is wonderful. But don't bother with the egg 'n muffin, McDonalds is MUCH better! On to Eagan, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. Stopped in Olathe KS, which is a suburb of Kansas City, for lunch at Subway, had a brilliant idea and asked for a 12" cold cut sandwich, just meat not even bread for the babies, they loved it! It was the first thing I could them to eat! Also, I needed more Capri pants so I St the GPS to search for Dress Barn and after a false search, the second one was right where it was supposed to be. Found exactly what I was looking for in no time flat, of course I kept the car running with the a/c on for the pups. This little detour actually kept me out if a long line of traffic's in a constuction zone, bonus!

We stopped at a nice shady rest area, I think the last one in Iowa because Ross said all the ones in MN were closed due to state budget problems. We even tried to find a geocache but it was overrun with weeds and I didn't feel like bushwacking. About 9pm we rolled into Eagan and found Ross. We headed over to Panda Express for some dinner.