We made it to Madison, Wisconsin safe and sound and have been sleeping on an air mattress in the semi-finished attic bedroom of our new house for two nights. But here’s the story of how we got here, highlights and hiccups included.

Here’s how we left our dining room window in Tucson, after attempting to fix it before Monsoon season hit and running out of time:

That project set is back a day. Rather than leaving Sunday, June 23rd, we left Monday the 24th. Here’s us in front of our house, all packed up and ready to go:

Here’s our cargo bins melting from the exhaust, luckily noticed at a truck stop in Bowie, Arizona:

The Ace we backtracked 30 minutes to get to:

Andrew hard at work attaching our makeshift exhaust extension:

To build this yourself, you will need:

• Flexible alluminum tubing (such as that used to vent your dryer)
• Metal hose clamp
• Wire
• Heat-resistant tape

And Voilà!

Time to hit the road, looking like proud hillbillies:

We took a very rural route, avoiding Oklahoma altogether. One of the most memorable stops was Las Vegas, New Mexico where we got cappuccinos from a mother and daughter run coffee shop and took a moment to photograph the town square:

And then we were off again!

One of the last towns in New Mexico we passed through was Springer. We didn’t see a single person, and pretty much the only sound we could hear was one dog barking, perhaps because we were walking Coriander around. The textures in this town amazed me, as did the massive size of some of the streets.

This old stone livery stable floored me, too. It was currently being used only for storage, it seemed, as it was filled floor to ceiling with stuff: furniture, tools, etc.

We sort of loved rural Kansas. We drove through lots of little towns that at first glance were identical. The highway speed limit would slow from 65 mph to 45 mph, there would be some very tall silos on the north side of the street labeled as per each town’s grain co-op, and on the right we’d pass Main Street and often a public place like a swimming pool. At one point in rural Kansas we passed a family who’d pulled off to retrieve their baby goat who’d gotten loose. Dad chased after the goat while Mom stood holding the little boy’s hand, baby sporting nothing but a diaper and cowboy boots.

And about halfway through Kansas, we were pretty out of sorts and in need of tons of hugs. Luckily, Kansas provides:

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is actually pronounced something like hyoo-go-ton. But even if you know this to be the case, please don’t burst my bubble about Hug-o-Ton.

Also memorable was Dubuque, which I never realized had so much personality. Imagine Milwaukee or Pittsburgh shrunk way down and placed along the Mississippi. We didn’t stop there, so it was hard to capture it. But here’s a cool bridge on the way out:

So this put us into Wisconsin right in the Southwest corner of the state. It was very rural all the way until Madison. There was so much green around us we barely knew what to do. We cruised through Madison and stumbled out of the car at my parents’ house in Pewaukee. My mom was a sport about us showing up close to midnight. She practically met me at the door with a glass of Wollersheim Blushing Rose.

And one of these for Andrew:

We’re on day four of the house remodel. More on that in the next post featuring plenty of photos. Meanwhile I’ll leave you with a photo of our lunch fare as it has looked pretty much every day since we got here, save for the times my best friend Jackie has picked me up and treated me to other local deliciousness like The Weary Traveler and La Brioche True Food.