Cars are packed. Directions printed. Snacks ready. CD on blast. 1719 miles to Estero, FL.

After a lot of time spent preparing for our trip, my wife and I began this afternoon and will arrive at our final destination by Thursday night. My wife begins her new job in Naples on the 7^th and I will start to workout at the Twins complex on the same day.

Today we drove from the Twin Cities to Beloit where we are staying with my host family from the season, the Hatchs. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met and we were excited to stop at their home.

Within 30 minutes we had exited Minnesota. The drive was fairly uneventful as we only stopped once to get gas.

The ironic image of the day was the water tower in DeForest, WI. It appears to be protesting the large trees behind it.

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As they did throughout the entire season, the Hatchs cooked a big dinner for my wife and I. We had prime rib and cheesy potatoes, quite the meal after a day of driving.

Tomorrow we will drive through the entire state of Illinois, part of Kentucky and through Tennessee until we get to Chattanooga, where we will stay the night. We plan to check out a miniature Washington Monument and Superman’s hometown, among other things.

I will be tweeting pictures of some of our stops (@apettersen1) and will blog the happenings when we get to our hotel.

Hope everyone had a good New Year's Day!