Mississinewa 1812 (part 1)

Well folks, I'm back!!  What an amazing trip it was and boy oh boy do I have stories for you.  Let me tell you the story of our trip, probably in a few posts.

Thursday morning, bright and early before Big D woke up, JM and I left town for our trip. Destination: Mississinewa 1812

We packed the night before, had all of our documents and cash in order and had composed the most EPIC road trip playlist ever in existence.  We made it through the border without incident and we were officially out of our country and on vacation!

Our first stop was Cabela's in Grand Forks.  Big D is, well, big.  At 6'7" tall, he is ridiculously hard to clothe.  Most stores, including our Cabela's, don't stock his size all that often if ever.  We managed to find him a winter jacket that was half price AND in his size.  He was so happy about it, that last night after I got home and gave it to him, he had to try it on with the rest of his hunting gear to see how he looked.

We stopped for lunch in Fargo, and then headed on out to Minneapolis.  What awaited us there was amazing!!

Neither of us had ever been to a Jo-Ann's Fabric before and boy were we pleased with what we found.  I spent quite a bit of cash, but came out with at least three times the fabric I would have at any fabric store up here!!  My favourite find was this bird fabric.

I was in love with it for one reason only.  Last Christmas, I went to the Manitoba Museum with my family.  In one gallery, called The Nonsuch, there was this little painting.  I've been going to this museum my entire life but somehow managed to miss it until that trip.

Since then, I have been taken with the idea on how to draw from this for a quilt. I had done a sketch for an applique to make a small wall hanging.  I think it will now be incorporated into a full sized quilt using all these wonderful fabrics.

(the top right and bottom left fabrics are more gold than the peachy colour they appear to be in this picture)

I still need to find some green fabric to pull in all the colours from the painting, but I think I'm off to a good start.

After Jo-Ann's Fabric, we gassed up and headed to JM's sister's place for dinner and a quick visit.  It was so lovely of them to let us dine and dash and it really made a huge difference.  It was the perfect break needed during a long road trip.  Wisconsin was quiet and we talked and listened to music.  We were getting more and more excited as we neared Illinois realizing we were almost in the home stretch of our trip there....when we hit Chicago.

I live in a fairly large city, not the biggest in Canada but large enough.  We don't have freeways like some Canadian cities, but I'm no stranger to highway and interstate driving.  This was beyond anything I could have prepared for.  Despite having the GPS, JM ready with toll money and him being the calming voice in the car as I lost it trying to navigate this twisty turning multi-level high way system, we came up with one way to sum up that portion of the trip.

After our heart rates returned to normal and we managed to calm ourselves down, the rest of the ride was uneventful.  It was beautiful as we approached Marion, Indiana and the site of the Battle of Mississinewa, the sun came up over the hilly countryside.  It was absolutely breathtaking!

Day one of our trip was over, but we had finally reached our destination.  We likely would have made it a lot sooner, but it was nice to stop along the way to shop and visit.

I hope to have a second post up soon with the events and sights of Mississinewa, but it's WAY too much to have as one post.  There is so much crafty historical goodness!!!