Still driving to Minnesota

Once we got away from Chicago, it’s pretty easy driving.  We stopped in Wisconsin at a convenience store to change Oscar, but

 even though it was spacious with roomy bathrooms, no changing tables in men’s or women’s so he got changed in the car.  But we were able to get some Wisconsin cheese curds at the store and they were simply delicious.  They were 

 like a blend of mozzarella creaminess and Cheddar taste….awesome.  We finally decided that it was time for some dinner in Eau Claire where we caught the second exit and didn’t find that much to excite us.  Luckily, Tara was of the same mindset that John and I  are when we travel, we try never to eat at a place that we have at home, because what’s the point of traveling if you eat the same things?  So, we stopped at  a barbecue place called Dickey’s and this is a chain in Wisconsin and maybe elsewhere in the upper reaches of the plains.  I got some ribs that were pretty good, but the sauce didn’t come close to Smackey’s 

 here in CL in the summer, which is now the standard that all barbecue is held to in my mind.  They did have sweet tea, but it was made up north where the sugar most likely can’t infiltrate the liquid like it can when it’s in the south because it didn’t make your teeth hurt to drink it, which meant that I could get several refills…They also had soft serve ice cream for dessert that

 was free, so I figured it was time for Oscar’s first attempt to eat an ice cream cone.  He was walking all over the restaurant and I had to chase him down to give him a taste and he bit off the top of the ice cream and made a face about the coldness and then came back for more.  He would toddle off, come back and have another bite of ice cream.  When I had to go to the bathroom, Tara was trying to give him some and he just kept trying to head butt the ice cream cone….I’m not sure why he was doing this, but the kid is going to have to learn to lick things before we get to Europe, because no one head butts gelato…While we didn’t have to deal with bad weather on this trip thankfully, John did have jalapeno beans at the barbecue place which meant that the rest of the drive was dicey…