Day 5:(Albert Lea, MN to Ann Arbor, MI). Another “4 State Day” today… After another late start and a pretty awful breakfast in Albert Lea, I covered the rest of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois & a chunk of Michigan, before ending up in Ann Arbor at about half past midnight — a total of 710 miles and about 13 hours, including a few refuelling stops and a skanky cheeseburger just outside Chicago.
Tonight I am staying with some friends, Jim & Leslie Milroy, who I have known since I was 14 years old — their son Andrew is one of my closest friends from my school days in Sheffield. It’s good to see friendly faces after 4 nights of anonymous motels!
Today consisted pretty much entirely of driving; I didn’t do any sightseeing at all, although I did shoot some “drive-by” video footage of farms in Minnesota & Wisconsin, and the Chicago skyline as I blasted around I-94.
The Deathmobile is still running pretty well, although I had to fight with it more than I would expect in the gusty Illinois cross-winds — I’m starting to think that it’s a front wheel bearing that’s going, and that the steering has been adversely affected. Still, I’m at least a day ahead of schedule, and it looks like I’ll be going through Detroit tomorrow — what better place to get the wheel bearing looked at than Motown, where my car was born?