Arriving at the Mall of America

Our second day of travelling was planned for much longer, 10 hours. Our "plan" was to drive about 10 hours then stop for the night wherever that was and finish the drive to the Mall of America when we got up in the morning. Our day did not go as planned. First off, we left 30 minutes behind schedule at 10:30 am. Then as we approached Gary, IN we hit incredibly long lines of traffic at the toll plazas. I'm SO glad it was a Sunday and not a weekday rush hour. Then, going through Chicago we passed right by the White Sox stadium as a game was letting out. All that plus an unscheduled rest stop (all this bad, fatty food- sooner or later someone has a stomach ache) led to us being behind schedule. So, instead of stopping sooner, we toughed it out and drove the entire way to the Mall of America. Since we were loopy tired and I'm weird, we drove past the Mall (at 1am) and passed by a Days Inn. Since it is directly across the street from the Mall we figured it would be way to pricey but we decided to stop in and check it out. Much to our surprise they not only had availability, indoor pool, smoking rooms, and allow pets but they also had a very generous military discount! So, we are staying here for two nights. We had planned to stay here all day and stay over anyway. Being here ahead of schedule is great since this will give us the entire day to play.
We also got our first moose sighting yesterday. It was at Black River Crossing, WI. Of course it was a statue and not a real moose! One of the kooky things you see on a road trip! And we had a bit of bad news.... my wonderful son decided to drop the bag w/ my camera in it. It wasn't very hard but hard enough to crack my lcd screen. So far, it appears it will still take photos but I have no way to see if I got the shot right. Of course before I left on this great adventure I had asked Sgt Dad to purchase a nice camera bag for it- which he declined. So I blame both of them! I should have bought the camera bag anyway. Needless to say, I will visit Ritz Camera and see if it is worth repairing. I guess youngest son has alot of chores to do to make up for this one! Grrr!