Sorry for the super late update...

We began day 2 in Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin and home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers. On our way into town we ate at breakfast at Ella's Deli, a quirky circus themed restaurant. While there, We enjoyed their overpriced bagels. After leaving Ella's we visited the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where we walked to the top of Baskam Hill and marveled at how Wisconsin had the balls to put a statute of Abraham Lincoln in front of Baskam Hall, considering how he's from Illinois. The union at the University was truly amazing. The union is situated on Lake Mendota and has a weird German theme. The union is also adorned with ridiculously liberal-themed murals of people who suffered injustices at the hands of the U.S. government. After we left the university, we walked down State Street and had lunch at State Street Brats. SSB is famous for their red brats and wisconsin fried cheese curds. Ryan and I slit a meal and throroughly enjoyed every bite. After lunch, we quickly walked to the state Capital building and did a quick tour, which mainly consisted of visiting the men's room. After we left the capital, we walked to the Orpheum theater to watch the Simpson's Movie, which was pretty decent, although it did seem like nothing more than an extra-long tv episode. After the credits rolled, we left the theater and Madison as well.

After leaving Madison, we drove to the Wisconsin Dells where I proceeded to thoroughly kick Ryan's ass in a game of putt-putt golf. The Dells is a pretty crazy place. It reminds me of International Drive in Orlando, FL. That wouldn't be all that weird, except for the fact that Orlando has a bunch of amusement parks which draws super touristy businesses. The Dells is basically just a river with semi-tall cliff walls that run alongside it. How that become the site of some huge tourist trap is still unknown.

Ryan and I stopped off of the highway at a place called "Culver's" for dinner, which is a midwestern fast food place. THe food was inexpensive and fairly tasty, but something about it felt off to me. I finally realized that what bothered me so much was the "white castle"/"IHOP" color scheme. The place was overly family friendly for a fast food place, which also seemed kind of weird. THe nicest thing about the place was that they served cheese curds, which Ryan and I found ourselves addicted to.

After we left the Dells and finished our dinner, I had Ryan stop at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, because I wanted to see what the campus looked like. It was dark and all I saw was that we drove down some large, steep hill. The campus was small, but nice. But seeing as how it was pretty dark by the time we got there, I'm affraid I don't have much more to report about Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Our next main stop was Minneapolois, Minnesota. The first place we visited in Minneapolis was the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. The campus was interesting. The main area of campus was called "Scholar's Way" or "the mall area." It seemed very well laid-out. However, certain things about campus were strange. To get to one library, students have to cross this massive bridge that takes them across some river. I noticed from looking at a campus map that most buildings are either connected to each other underground or by above-ground covered walkways. Ryan and I hypothosized that this is because the campus gets covered in a ridiculous amount of snow each winter. Our last stop on campus was the school union. After visiting the union at UW-Madison, we were terribly let down. The union didn't appear to have much history or tradition. After we left campus, we drove to "Dinkytown," the Golden Gophers' downtown located next to campus. First off, I will never be able to take a place seriously if its called something like "Dinkytown." Secondly, the town lives up to its name. It was tiny... probably only two cross-streets. We decided to eat lunch at a place called "Annie's." From the outside, "Annie's" looked like one of the coolest restaurants ever. It was all brick and it was elevated looking oversome train tracks. Once again, Ryan and I were let down. Once we walked into Annie's we found that it looked like it used to be an old bar that was full of character. Instead, they gutted the place and put up the most boring wallpaper ever. The place was probably the most boring restaurant I've ever been to. But Ryan and I came to the conclusion that maybe Minneapolis was just an ordinary place and they took pride in their plain-ness. We're not quite sure if that is the case, but that's our opinion and we're sticking to it.

After leaving the university, we drove downtown to see if we could find any intersting sights. We parked at the public library downtown, which was incredibly modern. Sadly, the library was probalby the nicest thing about downtown Minneapolis. We walked down Nicollet Mall, which was we thought would be something akin to Michigan Avenue in Chicago. We were sadly mistaken. Despite the fact that it was a Saturday, the street was nearly devoid of any life. Ryan and I thought that maybe were were in the wrong location, so we continued to walk the lonely streets. We happened across Block E, which is something like "Bayside" in Miami. Sadly, Block E didn't have the character that Bayside does. All Block E had was an Applebee's and a Border's Bookstore. The fact that they chose Applebee's as their big touristy restaurant said it all. That restaurant is terrible! Another interesting thing about Block E is that its situated about one block away from Augie's All Nude Review and the Gay 90's Dance club. For a family hang-out, you would think that the individuals who decided to build Block E could have found a better place to locate the venue.

Having seen nothing of worth, we left downtown Minneapolis with heavy hearts. We were feeling fairly disappointed with our visit to "Minne," but then I remembered hearing some good things about the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Ryan and I drove to the MIA and suddenly the clouds opened up and the sun shone down. Our luck had changed. The MIA was a great museum was great. We especially appreciated the fact that the entry cost was FREE, as well as the parking. The museum had both classic and modern art, so there was something for everybody. I used the men's room at the museum and saw a curious note on the back of the stall door. It requested that individuals who use needles should dispose of them properly so as not to potentially injure any members of the janiorial staff. I'm guessing that means that Minneapolis had a bit of a drug problem, but perhaps I'm just being a negative guy. Bottom line, don't go rummaging around any trash cans if you're ever in Minneapolis because you could walk away with AIDS or some other crazy disease that occurs when you come into contact with unsterile needles.

But enough about Minneapolis. We left and were on our way to South Dakota to see the Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. Before finding some random Kampground of America (KOA) place to stop at, we stopped and had dinner in some small random town. We had originally planned on getting some $6 filet minon for each of us, but the deal only ran from Monday through Thursday. So rather than paying full price for some probably questionable meat, we decided to try our luck at the "Pizza Ranch." The place was amazing. The pizza was delicious and the staff was cheerful and attentive. Two Thumbs up to Pizza Ranch.

The next day we drove to the Badlands National Park. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about that place. On the one hand, the scenery is unique. On the other hand, its a whole lot of the same scenery and there isn't much wildlife around except for a massive prairie dog town. Prairie dogs are pretty cool for about 10 minutes before you realize that they're basically just squirrels who are unlucky enough to be born far away from any place where trees exist, so they're forced to live in holes in the ground. Its rough being a prairie dog. Anyway, after leaving the park, we headed to "Wall Drug," located in the town of Wall, South Dakota. We had high hopes for this particular store because they started advertising while we were still in Minneapolis, which was 355 miles away. Once we got there, we were in awe of the store's grandeure. Well... not really. The store advertised free ice water. They didn't disappoint. They also advertised fresh donuts. Let me just say that Dunkin Donuts has nothing to fear. We left Wall Drug with nothing more than an upset stomach due to their crappy donuts. We then headed to Mt. Rushmore.

Magestic Mt. Rushmore. Wow... WHAT A BUST! Folks, don't believe the hype. Every postcard you've ever seen of this place is completely misleading. The thing was tiny. We were expecting four giant heads that would take up the view of our entire windshield. The heads were just a speck along a massize hill face (The Black Hills to be precise). We drove by this famous monument before getting the hell out of there at warp speed.

We then headed to Deadwood, South Dakota. Despite being somewhat commercialized, Deadwood was pretty decent. It still had somewhat of an old-timey feel. The city is basically filled with nothing but terrible casinos and even worse restaurants. We stopped at the Diner, located in Caddilac Jack's casino, where we had their French Dip sandwich... their speciality! It was a small step above the sandwich you could get at Quizno's. After eating our sandwich, we stopped and played a game of Blackjack, where I quickly lost $!0. Thanks Deadwood for taking my money!

One last thing to mention about South Dakota. I have never been to a place with more bugs in my life. For whatever reason, as soon as it turned dark, all the bugs decided it would be a great idea to just float around above the highway. We must have ran into a hundred bugs before finding our campsite on the first night in South Dakota. The sheer volume of dead bug explosions on the windshielf of our car forced us to stop at a car wash and spend $9 on the most intense car wash I've ever experienced. Even after the car wash, the windshield still wasn't clean. The lesson from this story is, if you're ever driving through South Dakota, spend a few bucks and buy a wind/bug deflector for your car. You'll be glad you did!

We then left South Dakota and headed to Wymoming!

-The Guys