Summer Trip Part 3: Chicago to St. Louis - June 25-27, 2013

After Chicago, we traveled to St. Louis via Wisconsin and Iowa, over 3 days from June 25 through 27, 2013. The pictures are gathered onto the pages linked below.

June 25 - Chicago, Illinois, to Madison, Wisconsin

We started north out of Chicago late morning, following (slow) US 41 up through Skokie, then onto I-94 and the tollway. We made a stop for lunch at a Culver's in Gurnee [2 Pictures] just before crossing into Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, we followed I-94 other than the bypass around Milwaukee on I-894. When we arrived in Madison, we checked into our hotel and rested for a bit [Picture]. Then it was up into town [2 Pictures][Picture] to walk up and down State Street [Picture], including some take out for dinner. We checked out the lake front by the U of W campus [2 Pictures] [3 Pictures] before driving back to the hotel to eat dinner and to settle in for the night. We highly recommend the Sleep Inn along the Beltline Highway, by the way. [49 Roads/Signs Pictures].

June 26 - Madison, Wisconsin, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Even though an overnight storm flooded parts of the Madison area [3 Pictures], we were able to get going in the morning with no problems. We left the hotel a little after 9 and stopped at Wal Mart (the best organized and cleanest one I've ever seen) for a new Minnie stroller and then on to the Henry Vilas Zoo [17 Pictures]. We had an excellent couple of hours there before getting on the road to Iowa. We stopped in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, for lunch, then for gas in Dubuque, Iowa. Our next real stop was the Field of Dreams movie set outside Dyersville [21 Pictures][7 Pictures]. Not a whole lot to do there, but a nice stop nonetheless. After that, we continued on to Cedar Rapids. We checked into the hotel then made our way to the only Hot Harry's outside of the Capital District and Berkshires for dinner [Picture]. Finally, I took a ride to Veterans Memorial Stadium to see a Cedar Rapids Kernels game [29 Pictures]. [50 Roads/Signs Pictures].

June 27 - Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to St. Louis, Missouri

We got on the road around 9:30 and drove down through Cedar Rapids looking for a postcard. We found one, then really got going. We took US 30 and Iowa 38 to get to US 61, which we then took all the way to St. Louis. Iowa 38 included a short stretch on I-80 in Cedar County, which took us to the nicest interstate highway rest area I can recall. Our lunch stop was at Jimmy John's Subs in Burlington, Iowa. Our main touristy stop was in and around Keokuk, Iowa, to see the town and (without knowing it was there beforehand) the old toll swing bridge over the Mississippi River [22 Pictures][2 Pictures]. After that, it was on into Missouri, with just quick stops in Hannibal and Chesterfield. We arrived in St. Louis (or more accurately, Webster Groves) around 6. [72 Roads/Signs Pictures].

The trip continues ... in St. Louis.


terescoj+pics@teresco.org - Sat Jun 29 22:46:48 CDT 2013