We started out by going to Iowa, where Dayna was able to meet my extended family. I must say, Dayna handled herself pretty well, as all my family loved her. While en route to Iowa, we made a few "okay" stops in Nebraska. We stopped in Sidney, NE at the Cabela's...Dayna's dad said it was the mother ship of Cabela's or something. We also stopped at one of the original Pony Express stations. Both were somewhat mildly amusing, but were really exciting compared to other tourist attractions in Nebraska. Our last stop in the Cornhusker state was Winter Quarters, where we looked at the outside of the temple and watched a little movie at the visitor's center.
We finally made it to Iowa later that night and my parents arrived shortly after Dayna and me with Tasty Tacos in hand. We stuffed our mouths with tacos and visited with family. And that last statement pretty much sums up our Iowa stay. After my parents left, Dayna and I did manage to visit one of the infamous "bridges of Madison county," where we played with the camera a bit.
We then headed off to Minnesota, where I lived 10 years of my life. We stayed with my friend Patricia and her parents, Michael and Monica. They were very generous to let us stay with them for so long. They live about half a block from where I lived in Minnesota, so Dayna was able to see the old Ponderosa. And since St. Paul is only about 20 minutes from Wisconsin, we took half a day to cross the St. Croix and see the highly boring Wisconsin--we went to a cheese factory.
We wrapped up the Minnesota leg of our trip by visiting with old friends and just looking around exploring. We decided to drive back to Utah through South Dakota. Mainly for Wall Drug, but we also stopped at the corn palace and Mt. Rushmore. Ok, we actually drove through SD for Mt Rushmore and the other two destinations were small bonuses.
We left Mt Rushmore at 10 pm and drove in to SLC. Dayna slept and Conor drove...actually, Dayna helped out quite a bit once the sun came up. I hope you all enjoy the pics!
