Sept 23 - We've been out of touch for awhile, mainly because for the last three nights we've had no wi-fi. Gotta have it to do this little blog thing. But tonight we are in Holland, Michigan, in a nice spot, so have the necessary tools.

Catching up won't be too tough, as a lot of the time for the last few days has involved driving across a lot of country that doesn't really have many highlights. At Sioux Falls, we went to the central Falls Park, and had a very nice walk-around. They have done a great job highlighting the history of the area, and displaying from many angles a very nice waterfall series. Best of all, it was a very pleasant day.

But that contrasts with two nights in a row when we received prodigious rainfall. The first was also accompanied by major lightning, creating a sky that didn't dim for minutes at a time. Chain and heat, on and on. And poured! The second night, however, was even heavier, when we were in Wisconsin, the rains resulting in school closures in 10 counties because of flooding. We went for breakfast that morning as a reward for surviving, and our server showed us a picture her daughter had taken north of Dodgeville, where we were, showing a car sitting nose down in a sinkhole. Fortunately, none of that where we were, so we were able to proceed without incident.

Along the way, we stopped to view the Jolly Green Giant, a 60 foot statue placed in the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota, to 'honor' the relationship of the area with the company. As I say, highlights aren't easily found across southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. We did enjoy SE Minnesota, as it's a lovely area of great farms, neat and tidy and well developed, with a large Amish community at the core. Even saw a couple of buggies driving down the shoulder of the highway, transporting couples to town. Farms are so neat and tidy, they reminded us of Germany, where every square inch is so well tended.

We decided, after following along the Mississippi for an hour or so, to avoid Chicago, so we went south, then east, and ended up last night in a remote camp far from the madding crowd. Took us forever to find it, but talk about peaceful. No one around, a nice little lake in front, total quiet. Today we went across the busy strip of Indiana east of Chicago, and decided to come up to Holland, a lovely city of 30,000 originally settled by... guess who? The buildings in the core of town are definitely of Dutch style, and we visited the Windmill Island Gardens, where they have the only functioning original Dutch windmill in the U.S., imported from Holland and restructured for the community. We toured the windmill, and learned a lot about the mill and how it processes the grinding of grain. Well done, very interesting. They even have the only Dutch-certified Mill operator in the U.S., a female, again a first. Bought some Dutch cookies and flour which was ground in this very mill. Life doesn't get any more exciting than this, folks.

I have to mention the highways. At times they are just fine, smooth and enjoyable. But too often they are made of concrete, or less often, are paved. But our poor r.v. has been jostled, battered, pounded, by potholes and ridges beyond imagination. We have our famous County Road 49, voted worst road in Ontario, proudly taking truck traffic from our local cement plant and port away to places unknown. But 49 is nothing compared to what we've experienced all the way across from South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Obama...please cut your defense budget by 10 percent and redo your countries infrastructure. It's in bad shape. I forgot! No worry. The Donald will make America great again.

So we're now within striking distance of home. Straight across to the east, and we'll cross at Sarnia. May stop off at Stratford for a look around before putting our nose to the wheel and beating it for home. Should be back by Sunday or Monday, unless we stay here another day. May do, as it's near Lake Michigan, and we badly need a hike.

Miss all of you. More later. Stay tuned.