The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 4

Wisconsin→Illinois→Indiana→Ohio

*Yawn* We left so early from the lake house that we were just in time to catch the sunrise. We passed by this area in Minnesota filled with windmills as we were driving on towards Wisconsin.

I caught a glimpse of something odd---Hormel Institute and it was right across the Hormel factory. Be honest, you thought Spam had it's own lab.

After getting a little shuteye, I woke up to see the beautiful farms of Wisconsin a.k.a. Land of Cheese. Call me crazy but I really imagined Wisconsin to be one big chunk of land filled with a whole bunch of cows raving with glowsticks parading around the fields, but I barely saw any. I mean I spotted some of ‘em just grazing on the fields but it wasn’t an overwhelming amount. What I did notice though is that these farm owners must be milking it big (definitely pun intended), with all the shockingly huge houses being built sometimes right smack in the middle of their farm. My visuals literally went something like this: farm, cows, farm, grass, crops, HUGE MANSION, wait…what? These farmers be big ballin’…that’s what’s up!
I see you, big house. Even if you're hiding behind those trees.

There's McDonald's in Sparta. Let the 300 know. This. Is. Sparttaaaa.

A rest area nicely landscaped in Wisconsin to stretch our legs/ run to the loo.

Next, we crossed over to Illinois. My bestfriend lives in Chicago and I couldn’t even do a quick stop over. It breaks my heart that I couldn’t see her even just for a minute (are we married?) but I've been there twice so far and both visits were awesome. If you’re into architecture, it’s definitely a place that you should visit---my Mr. Architect went nuts with all the Frank Lloyd Wright stuff. The Signature lounge at the John Hancock Center is my fave place to enjoy some cocktails with an insane view of the city. The next time I do a proper visit, I’ll definitely give you a more detailed experience.
So close, yet so far. Sniff.

The girl’s got to sleep. And slept she did for the most part while crossing Indiana! So sorry but I simply can’t say anything else about Indiana, it was just all road and usual farm stuff. We definitely didn’t pass through the scenic route (if there is such a thing) or metro area.  Boo.

Finally, our last stop for the day. Ohio!

We were so hungry when we got to our hotel in Cleveland but thankfully, there were a couple of restaurants just right across the hotel so I picked out a Mexican restaurant called Abuelo’s (which in Spanish means grandfather) for a change in cuisine--- *cough* McDonald's.

They made it look like there was a courtyard inside but that's actually an enclosed area with some lighting to make it look like there's light coming from the outside.

My chicken fajitas were pretty good. I made this on my own. Yes, I took a bite out of it and then took a picture.

Beef fajitas. Smells so good!

But these babies were de-lish! Shrimp wrapped in bacon and stuffed with jalapeno cheese.

*BURP* I wonder if I’m going to regret eating all these by tomorrow morning.
Toodles!