Fighting Boredom on a 5,000 Mile Roadtrip

If you know The Husband, you’ll know that he’s pretty entertaining.  But after 1300 miles together in the car, he’s ready to just sit back and put some miles under his belt.  We’re currently listening to the Bluesville station on Sirius XM while speeding through the Minnesota countryside. 

Back when we were kids, parents came up with all kinds of ways to entertain us on long road trips.  There was the classic “License Plate” game where you try to be the first one to find all 50 license plates on passing cars.  Hawaii and Alaska were the most elusive, but we often grew bored after only 10 or so since the vast majority of passing plates were from whichever state we happened to be cruising through at the time.

Another one was “Punch Bug.”  My cousin Van was a brutal Punch Bug expert.  My arm still hurts thinking about it.  We didn’t need violent video games back in the 70s; we had each other.

A favorite in the western states was always counting train cars.  When train tracks paralleled the highways across the prairies, it was fun to count the 100+ cars of every passing freight train.

In 2021, my pastime is Google.  We’re curious folks, The Husband and me.  We Google a LOT of things.  Here’s the list so far on the current trip:

• Minnesota sayings:  This happened after Matt from the Siesta Adventure Team, sent us a note from his passenger seat that included the phrase, “You betcha.”  I instantly recognized this as Minnesotan, so I had to Google more.  Oh, for cute!  (Yeah, it didn’t make any sense to me either.)
• Denali camper with space over wheels:  This was because we saw the STRANGEST camper passing by us with a bay window in the back and this two- to three-feet gap over its wheels.  We never did find the model and The Husband concluded that it was a homemade hybrid of some sort.  (Speaking of homemade, we saw a homemade wooden box camper with a window air unit built-in at a rest stop in Minnesota this morning.  I question its aerodynamic function and its weight, but it certainly looked sturdy.)
• White water birds in Minnesota:  After perusing a few “birds of Minnesota” sites, I realized that The Husband had already correctly identified the bird as a snow goose, assuming that my memory of the bird accurately matched the pic on one of the bird sites.
• Ptarmigans:  That was Googled after I offered “pterodactyl” as a possibility for one of the water birds.  Are there any other words that start with “pt?”  I should Google that…
• Lake Wobegon Trail:  We had (correctly) thought that Lake Wobegon was a fictional town from the imagination of Garrison Keillor.  Our Google search yielded the information that the rail trail was indeed named after Keillor’s creation.  There’s an annual Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon for all you interested runners out there.
• Sirius XM blues channel:  I was obviously trying to expedite the finding of the blues without having to go through 10,000 other XM channels.
• Why does the body make mucus when sick:  I’ve had a cold and was curious about the apparently VERY VALUABLE function of mucus in the body.  According to one website, it’s like the body’s bouncer, stationed at all body entrances trying to kick out all invaders.
• Medora Campground:  I wanted to find out if the campground we’re staying in tonight was private or public.   (Answer:  It’s kinda both.  It’s owned by the Theodore Roosevelt Foundation.)
• Quotes about sunrise:  We saw a lovely sunrise leaving Wisconsin this morning and I wanted a lovely quote to match my Instagram post. 
• Haloview lost signal:  Our backup camera kept blinking out yesterday.  Answers were reviewed in a variety of forums.  No worries, The Husband got up on top of the camper last night with a razor blade and a variety of other tools and figured out he had correctly soldered and installed everything.  The camera straightened itself out and has been working like a dream today.
• Cady Cheese Factory:  I thought we should be innundated with cheesiness in Wisconsin.  Apparently, we were in the wrong part of the state because I never got any cheese the whole day.
• Wisconsin beer:  The Husband has a customer who mentioned a great Wisconsin beer.  After I read aloud at least 15, he didn’t recognize any, so I got bored.  We never did find that beer name.
• What is our current altitude:  There are websites that give you your current altitude.  At that point in Wisconsin, we were at 812 feet.  I was surprised.  I thought it would be higher. 
• Pitchfork steak fondue:  We’re hoping to have THIS for dinner tonight.  (Can’t wait for the write-up on that one.)
• What is the Wisconsin Dells:  I thought it might be an old favorite childhood song, but instead it’s pretty much a tourist-trap town.  Maybe the Gatlinburg of Wisconsin?
• BakerTilly: This company had some really nice buildings in a few cities along the way.  They’re an insurance-y kind of company.  Maybe tax?  I don’t know.  I quickly became uninterested when I realized they deal with numbers of some kind.  The buildings sure were pretty, though.
• Culvers:  We were looking for a menu because there are Culver’s billboards everywhere.  We realized we had already eaten at a Culvers and had been sadly disappointed in their butter burger. 

That’s basically the last 24 hours of Googling.  Bonus:  We still have at least 10 more days in this trip.  I cannot wait to learn more.