Minneapolis
We got up and got ready for the day in the REI parking lot, and decided to check out the store before heading to the Mall of America. It was worth it! The REI store here is much bigger than the ones we've been to in the Detroit area. They call their climbing wall "the Pinnacle" and here's a picture of Sam at the top of a nice 5.7 route:

From the REI, we headed down to the Mall of America and met up with some friends who are in the area too. We rode some of the indoor roller coasters, and were pretty impressed. We got to see most of the cool stores, and now we can truely say that we've been there, and have the t-shirt.
We've decided that we're not going to eat at any restaurants that we have ever been to before, and with the recommendation of our friends, tried Famous Dave's. The most noteable part of the dinner was that we got Sam to eat catfish without her knowlege. She said how much she liked it, asked for more, ate a second peice, and then we told her what it was. Once she knew it was fish, she was grossed out and wouldn't eat any more.
We got to stay the night at our friend's house, and got real showers in the morning! We also got to visit their Church in the morning. Rockpoint Church was very warm and inviting (because there's no air conditioning, and the people are nice).
After Church, we hit the road for the short trip to the world's biggest ball of twine. Really. I can prove it with a picture:

Now we're back on the road, and the kids are watching the latest Veggie Tales DVD, and we're starting to see signs for Wall Drug and the Corn Palace.

Tire fun
After the slow progress through Chicago, we finally got moving again only to have trouble with a tire. Apparently, the heavy mud flap came partially unscrewed and started rubbing on the inside tire. This caused enough heat for the tread to let go of the rest of the tire! Here’s a picture:

We were right by the Cherry Vale mall in Cherry Valley, IL and stopped in to the Sears store for some help. And were they ever helpful! The guy who talked to me first was at the end of his shift, but he came out and took a look anyway. They didn’t have a tire that would replace the bad one, but he said to pull it around so they could put the spare on for me. A technician named Chris cheerfully came out with a huge jack and proceeded to swap out the tire. He really knew what he was doing, and checked out the spare, tightened and torqued the bolts properly and cleaned off a few scuff marks that he left on the side of the rig. When I asked what I owed, they said it was free!

All of this put us way behind, and so we didn’t roll into the Mall of America until after 1:30 in the morning. Then the very professional mall cop informed us that there’s no overnight parking. I tried to convince him that we weren’t going to be overnight since it’s already morning, but as you can imagine, that didn’t fly. He suggested a nearby Wal-Mart instead. I had trouble finding the Wal-Mart, but there was a big REI store with a good parking lot, so we slept there.

Even with a few setbacks, we are in high spirits, and having a fun adventure. On an up-note, we got gas last night and calculated about 9.5 miles per gallon, which is better that the 8.5 that we planned on.

On The Road
The five of us mounted up and headed out for our three-week tour (not to be confused with Giligan's three-hour tour).
As proof that we're really on the move, here's a picture of the welcome to Indiana sign...

Our first destination is the Mall of America in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. We told Gladys to lead us there, and we're currently in Chicago traffic.
The kids have been having a fine time playing games, watching DVDs, and stuff. The 6-year old is taking a nap. It sure is nice to have some space to spread out while we're moving.

Climbing Geek
We took our first MotorHome trip over Easter weekend to the huge climbing gym in Bloomington Indiana, Upper Limits.
It was an 8 hour trip, and went really well. We're pretty new to climbing, and had a blast!
If you want to get to UpperLimits and try it yourself, here's a map.
The gym is an old grain silo, and you get to climb to the top of 65 foot silos.
Here's what it looks like from the outside:



That's a long way up for a new climber like us. Here's a picture of our 6 year old and myself on side-by-side routes:


Our family of 5 took the two-hour family class, and it was excellent. The instructor was fun, and at the same time made sure we understood exactly how to top-rope climb and belay safely. After the 2 hour class, we spent another 9 hours climbing until the place closed. Having the motorhome in the parking lot was a big help when we wanted lunch, or a nap it was right there.
I highly recommend this for anyone, and can't say enough good things about UpperLimits.