They Don't Respect the DEET!!!!

We stayed the night at the Charles Lindbergh State Park in Little Falls, MN. We felt this was an appropriate fit as we've been trying to get through this not so great audio book since leaving Alaska. The book is about a Russian Jewish family who immigrate to New York City in the early 1900's and, during the long ship ride, they manage to lose their youngest child. As the book continues through the years, the mother of the missing boy starts to believe that her lost child has grown up to become Charles Lindbergh the famous pilot. I'm not sure if it's the writing itself or the actor narrating the book that grates on my nerves as we listen along. I hate the lead character, the mother, Esther Lipshitz, with a passion. She is a neurotic whiner who later becomes completely obsessed with this notion that her kid, who's presumably dead, is the famous American hero. The male narrator gives her a wicked Russian accent, to which I can relate, but other than that this book just won't stop. We're on disc 9 of 11 and it's taken us 26 days to get this far. Unfortunately we're in an area that's not getting great reception so we've decided to finish it. I'm not even going to give you the name of this book so as to curb your curiosity, just trust in me as a book reviewer, that you do not want to waste your time with the Lipshitz family.

Back to the state park.... it was nice, devoid of humans for the most part but filled with wood snapping noises in the trees. I can't be sure but I think the woods were full of raccoons and squirrels, though I never saw any. Kai claims he saw a coyote run across the road as we were choosing our spot, crazy I know, but I missed it. The next morning we decided to get down to business and do a Crossfit style workout. We ran the length of the campground and then did step ups, box jumps, push ups, plank ups and lastly, sit ups. We were dripping sweat and despite the DEET bug spray we applied beforehand we are swarmed by mosquitoes. As Kai put it, "These guys have no respect for the DEET!" and they didn't. We were like magnets for these beasts. They are a smaller breed, maybe the smallest I have seen so far, but they are cunning. You don't feel the initial sting like with most mosquitoes, instead you notice their little black bodies on your person, but it's already happened. Smack! Blood gushes every where as you realize you're too little too late. Then the swelling comes on, the itching comes at this time as well and while it's heavy it doesn't last as long as you would think. Despite the 6 new bites I received this morning, I'm still glad we worked out.

Our initial grand plans for daily morning workouts and exiting the vehicle every 4 hours to walk has gone down the drain. It's just been so hot here in America that you hardly want to leave the air-conditioned Truckster unless it's for a swimming hole or a cool building. This is a horrible excuse, I know, but we hope to begin to acclimate soon. We also know that our future home, San Diego, doesn't receive the scorching dry or hotly humid waves like we've seen so far. Luckily for us, they seem to remain pretty even keeled and that sounds lovely. Regardless of our weight gain, we're enjoying the sights thus far. We've been told by more than a few people that we're "on the adventure of a lifetime" and "Oh, I'm so jealous!!!" when hearing about our itinerary. They usually ditch their coveting behavior after I remind them that we are, in fact, homeless and that's nothing to be jealous of. 

The Mighty Mississippi

It rained for the first time since we've left Canada and while the van really could use a de-bugging, it was depressing. It rained the entire state of Wisconsin. We opted to skip Madison, WI as previously planned and grudge-#$%@ it to Chi-town.  

We found a hotel in northern Chicago close to the metro station that accepted pets and didn't actually ask just how large our dog was. We've found that most "pet friendly" hotels really mean "we're pet friendly if your dog is less than 25 pounds." We checked in and got caught up on some True Blood online with our non-restrictive free wifi. The next morning we took the train into the city while KK enjoyed an American Chopper marathon on Discovery channel in our air conditioned room in Skokie, IL.