Day 8-9: Wisconsin and the Interstates

What set the US apart from other countries when it comes to infrastructure is its Interstate Highway System. The system extends throughout contiguous United States. Our Camper NoBo has made its awareness in OK, TX, NE, CO, WY, SD, MN, WI, IL, IN. Nine days and ten States.

I was tasked to plan our route and organized our agenda {where to camp and who to meet}. Before our medical debacle, we were supposed to have TV gig in Wisconsin and one in Rockford, Thursday and Friday respectively … and because we got derailed, our AS Awareness TV gigs didn’t pan out. Wisconsin was on the route and as soon as it gave me the major cities, I was so ecstatic to make a detour in La Crosse so I can be reacquainted with a high school friend that I haven’t seen in 29 years.

Heavy thunderstorms were brewing when we left Minnesota and it followed us through Wisconsin.The Toribio family were accommodating when we changed the date of our get together. As we were dashing quickly before the storm hit, we were greeted with scrumptious array of foods already laid-out in the kitchen. As we were eating lunch, we spoke our native Chavacano dialect, and it was so refreshing to talk about “anything and everything” as though 29 years ago was just yesterday. We talked about how our culture remained unmoved when it comes to family & education of our kids. We talked about Matthew’s diagnosis and despite the fact that there was a communication barrier between Matt and the Toribio boys, They too, played like they’ve known each other for awhile.

Saturday, we left La Crosse late in the afternoon and we decided to stay the night at KOA campground an hour away from IL. Today, we took our time and pushed ourselves on the same phase as everyone driving along Interstate-90. It took us 3 hours to get away from Chicago’s traffic to get to Indiana.