Stop 20: Platteville, WI--Final stop!

Our original plan was to travel to Milwaukee for this final stop but Jackie lives in Platteville and got word of our passing through and invited us to visit her. Jackie is the good friend of Andy's uncle, Jerry, and we haven't seen Jackie in far too long so the idea sounded great to us! We canceled our reservation in Milwaukee and got a hotel room in Platteville.

Sarah has struggled with looking for things on this trip.
Andy thought this sign was a fair representation of her abilities.

The drive from Elko New Market to Platteville was only (only?) 4.5 hours so it seemed like a breeze this time. We were cruising along and only about 45 minutes away from our destination when we saw the dreaded red and blue lights behind us. We were on a country road and legitimately didn't know the speed limit. Andy pulled over and was informed that it was a 55mph zone. He was going a smiiiiidgen faster than that (20mph over) and the office was going to ticket him. Sure enough, the officer returned a few minutes later with a shiny, white paper in hand with a court date or bail option if Andy preferred that route. Andy told Alex that he "earned" 6 points for that little offense so in Mario Kart, he'd be winning. Too bad Wisconsin doesn't play by Mario Kart rules.

We were feeling less than pleased with Wisconsin when we saw a 10-foot statue of a mouse holding cheese. Andy loves cheese. Sarah loves cheese. Alex just loves snacks (except cheese--that will actually kill him). So Andy u-turned and went back to visit the dairy seller for cheese. Ten minutes later, out came my family with blocks of cheese to take home to Ohio. And we got a photo of the giant, cheese-loving rodent. Somehow spending tons of money on cheese doesn't soothe the burn of the speeding ticket for me, but cheese cures all ills for Andy, so there's that.

We arrived in town, dropped our stuff in the hotel room, and got everything ready for bed so we could spend as much time as possible with Jerry and Jackie. Then we drove the 5 short minutes to her house and were treated to another delicious dinner, games, crafts, and wonderful company. Jackie was so very generous to us and the kids. It was a wonderful evening and we're all ready to return to Camp Jackie as soon as our schedule allows.

Our final hotel load in!

Dinner was delicious!

Alex noticed a beautiful sunset at Jackie's house.
We tried to catch as many sunset as possible on this trip and Alex was still on the lookout to the very last night.

The girls made crafts with Jackie (who is a craft aficionado!).
These are beautiful paper flowers.

We had a wonderful visit!

We returned to the hotel and everyone got ready for bed. In typical road trip fashion, I was the last one up awake. I cleaned out the old snacks from the van (it was a staggeringly large amount), got ready for the next day, and updated the three most recent blog posts. It was our last night in a hotel for this trip and it was nice to be in the quiet for one last time. Tomorrow we would drive one last, long drive together to close out this amazing chapter. I was thankful and humbled by this experience.