This summer MINI USA is sponsoring another MINI Takes the States and I have been looking forward to it for two years! My friend Cynthia Womble and her son Robert met me in Chicago so we could rally together towards the MTTS launch in Portland.

#womblingon towards the #BACONrally to the #MTTS2018

The route we planned would take us from Chicago to Minneapolis on the first day. We decided to stop at the House on the Rock to take a tour and eat lunch. We rolled out of Chicago and our first stop was the O’Hare Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway. Robert wanted to check it out and since they are getting ready to demolish it, it felt like the right time.

Wombles!

From the Oasis it was another two hours to the House on the Rock, which is in Spring Green, WI. The parking lot was packed so we parked under some shady trees in the back of the lot and purchased tickets for the tour of the house (it’s one of three sections but we didn’t have a ton of time!)

If you ever get a chance to visit the House on the Rock, take it! So much to see, I plan to return!

The highlight of the house tour was the Infinity room. It was incredible!

And so many collections!

Lots of Santas

When we finished the tour, we sat next to our cars in the parking lot and had lunch.

Parking lot picnics are my FAV!

That’s where things took a wrong turn. literally! I pulled out first and turned right at the end of the aisle. I pulled under a shady tree to wait for Cynthia and Robert to pull in behind me. After about five minutes I thought maybe they turned left and were waiting near the entrance to the parking lot so I drove over there. There was no sign of them but I didn’t want to go anywhere in case they were headed in that direction so I waited another five minutes. There was still no sign of them. I began to think maybe they’d had some sort of problem so I drove back over to the spaces where we’d parked. They weren’t there either! I tried to text them to find out their location, but my signal was spotty (thanks TMobile). Eventually I decided they must have thought I was ahead of them and had left.

I pulled out on to the road and headed towards Minneapolis by way of the Great River Road. Every once in a while I’d get a text from Cynthia or Robert, but I still wasn’t sure how far ahead of me they were so I hauled ass and didn’t stop until I got to Minnesota. As I motored north along the River Road I discovered that somehow I’d passed them! Probably because they had stopped at some really cool spots while I was driving as fast I thought I could get away with to catch up! Along the way I stopped to check out the river.

The Mighty Mississippi

I made it to the hotel a couple of hours ahead of Cynthia and Robert and collapsed. Tomorrow we will address our communication issues with some group texts and two-way radios!