02.05 - Day 108 - St Louis to Madison

Thursday 2nd May - St Louis, Missouri - Madison, Wisconsin (Day 108)

Loading up on the buffet breakfast and also on battery for the car, taking advantage of the free charging available overnight - some hotels offering this but not consistently the same chain of hotels, nor even tier of hotels - after a couple of thousand miles heading East we instead turn North towards Madison our next stop. 

Longer day of driving, the first 2.5 hour stint finishing at the uninspired town named Normal. Kate and the kids get out at ISU Horticulture Centre, a wildflower garden maintained by volunteers next to a golf course complete with Enchanted Forest Section - the large screen in the car allowing us to search for little gems like this whilst heading to the charging station. 

Another 1.5 hours gets us to the car park of Woodman’s Food Market in Rockford - we stick our heads in this supermarket; of course it’s huge. For scale it’s so big it has two sets of restrooms (toilets) at either end. 

One hour later we’re arriving in Madison around 5pm - pulling in outside Greg and Melissa’s house on one side of the road and through 20 metres of forest, the Yahara River on the other side. Kate and I played Ultimate Frisbee with Greg and Melissa around 2012-2014 after which they moved back to America, Melissa’s work having brought them Down Under. 

Since then our only contact has been Christmas Cards. Last year I had to write to them to get an email address at which point they immediately and very kindly offered that we could stay with them. And now here we are in front of their smart blue house with white trim. The kids are thrilled to have Annie (6) and Beckett (3) to play with, not to mention all their toys. 

Dinner is a spread of tacos and quesadillas with time spent catching up on the last 9 years and our travelling adventures so far. Annie and Beckett have kindly given up their bedrooms for us, or have been volunteered to do so at least - after a quiet day of travelling the last four hours of the day are a burst of excitement but eventually everyone gets to bed.