Slowly coming back… road trip pictures. With the loot report.

Greets badgers! What an extended blog blackout I’ve been on – and it’s been accompanied by an email, twitter and google reader near-blackout, so I feel completely of it. And I have nearly 1,000 blog posts to read and catch up on. You guys are some busy badgers! Not only am I feeling the social media overload, but it’s finally warmed up in Minnesota and I have a whole yard of rosebushes and friends asking for attention. AND I’ve been working on my Miette sweater, which is time consuming and enjoyable, but not very bloggable. I wonder what knitting bloggers write about and how often…

So today’s post is light on actual sewing. I’ve got a few pictures I snapped during our trip. I tried to at least keep on sewing-topic… let’s start out, shall we?

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Here, the whole family poses for a picture before heading out. Just look at
how Lucy the hound is gazing soulfully at us – do you see how I’m pointing
at the camera?? She was totally ignoring my photoshoot directing.

Lucy LOVES riding in the car! She can’t wait to get in!!

 

As soon as she gets into the car she falls asleep,
usually in uncomfortable looking positions.
She’s an excellent traveling hound.

 

Lucy also loves staying in hotels. Here she’s
successfully stolen a pair of Mr. Bug’s socks and escaped
to the giant bed. Overcome with her victory, she promptly falls asleep.

 

On our first day we drove about five hours to Madison,
Wisconsin. On day two we drove another hour or two to
Rockford, Illinois and spent the day lazing about and
shopping. I made my first-ever visit to the Hobby Lobby!
There aren’t any Hobby Lobbies around Minneapolis, so
I didn’t know what to expect. While the fabric selection
wasn’t huge (it reminded me of Walmart’s fabric section)
there was a nice selection of knits. I couldn’t resist these
two polka dot jersey knits. The print in the middle is a
quilt-weight cotton that I ALSO couldn’t resist! I’ve
been stocking up on summer wear lately and buying
at least one coordinating knit and cotton for a shirt and
skirt combo… hopefully tomorrow I’ll get pics up of this one!

 

Day three of the roadtrip was marathon day!! It was cold
and rainy, and the marathon started at 7:00 a.m!! Egad!
We were all up at 4:30 and it was worth it, because Mr. Bug
placed 2nd!! His time was 2:45. I dressed up Lucy in a grass
hula skirt to meet him at the finish line. He was very impressed
with her cheerleading outfit! Here they are in a post-race pose.

 

After the marathon we headed to Galena, Illinois,
a very charming town that reminds me a bit of
Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. It’s packed
full of cute little shops and people more than
willing to admire basset hounds wearing grass skirts.

I was impressed with the business vision of this shop owner!

 

Galena is full of cute old buildings. Here’s the
oldest house in town, with some beautiful phlox
(at least, I think it’s phlox!) We couldn’t tour it
because of the slobber monkey with us. Boo.

 

After playing in Galena for a few hours we went on to
Dubuque, Iowa, which is a pretty little town on
the Mississippi. With casinos. Mr. Bug celebrated his win
by playing blackjack while I found a deserted corner
with cushy chairs where I could knit and listen to an
audiobook on my iPod. I’m so exciting, aren’t I?
I grew up close to a casino in northern Minnesota and
I hate them. Just hearing the slot machines beep…ick.
But Mr. Bug likes to play cards occasionally, so I play along!
We finally tucked into the hotel for the night and
I played with my new favorite iPod app – Instagram. Here’s a shot of us!

 

Lucy was exhausted by her big day of
marathoning, antiquing and playing blackjack.

 

 

We got up bright and early the next morning
and headed north along the Mississippi. We
decided to start out on the Wisconsin side
of the river and had only been on the road
for a bit when we passed by this church and…
stone encrusted chapel-type building.

 

Here’s a closer shot of the chapel, called the Grotto. It was built in the 20’s
and 30’s by the priest of the church and is made of everything under the sun…
coral, stones, agates, metals, pottery, petrified wood… I don’t even know what
else. It was completely overwhelming and insane. AND it was religious and patriotic in its themes… so in the same space there were the stations of the cross and a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Crosses and American flags.

 

Here’s a closer shot. If you’re ever heading through
Dickeyville, Wisconsin, stop by to see the Grotto!

 

I didn’t do much shopping! I got the Hobby Lobby fabric,
and in Galena I saw this scarf and had to have it! I’m trying
to limit my textile purchases to either the raw goods to
make something for myself or things that I can’t make myself.
I love to buy scraps of awesome fabric to make my own
scarves, but I figured this scarf with it’s dueling
polka dots fit in the can’t-make-it-myself category.

 

We also stopped by a thrift/resale shop in Prairie du Chien and
I found this cute little sweater guard. I particularly liked
that it’s marked as ‘old’!! Also, the two flowers have pins
instead of clips, which I sort of like. Even though it’s more
fussy to fasten pins, the clips on older sweater guards
are either to old and creaky to open well or they don’t pinch very tight!

And that, my badgers, was our big roadtrip! I missed you all, but I’m back now… and hopefully will be caught up with emails, comments and reading all of YOUR blog posts in the next few days!!