We were up early and showered .. again … and made our way to the casino.  It was empty … There was no one there but it was 9am on a Monday morning.  We found out that the whole casino was nonsmoking … Unheard of … Also a portion of the casino was actually a riverboat.  Although you couldn’t tell where the casino on land started and the riverboat part started.  We had coffee and played some machines.  While we were playing and my friend John Elvik called and we set to meet up around 6 pm because it was a 5 hour drive to LA Crosse from where we were.  We packed up and hit the road. 
After 5 hours and 307 miles we got into LA Crosse.  John was out and about for work but asked if we could stop by his work around 7 pm.  So we did some grocery shopping and drove to his work.  He is the head maintence guy at the local YMCA.  He gave us a tour … It is a HUGE place … It is a large fitness center and more.  We got to see pics of his 3 boys .. He has a big 17 year old and a pair of twin boys 15 yes old.  I hadn’t seen John for probably 15 yes.  It was great to see him and see how well he is doing … It was great catching up and we both wished we could have spent more time catching up but he had to get back to work and we had to find a place to stay for the night.
We said our goodbyes and hit the road.  I had another casino in mind, but bunny had found a rest stop actually on an island in the middle of the Mississippi river we could stay overnight at … how cool does that sound …. The rest stop was 20 minutes out of LA Crosse.  It was just off the freeway out of town, but when we got there the freeway was under construction and so was got confused and missed the turn off.  Then it looked like it was gonna be a huge hassle to turn around with the construction going on so we set out for the casino I had originally plan on.  But it was a 2 hour drive and it was already after 8:30 …
So we set out for Diamond Jo casino.  It was just gonna be a sleep over stop. 
The stop was actually in Iowa.  Bunny figured out that in Iowa they let you stay in a rest area for up to 24 hours.  Diamond Jo’s just happened to be next to A very nice rest area.  So we pulled into the rest stop and quickly hit the hay.  We woke in the morning got our coffee from the cafe inside this Great rest stop … See Bunny’s blog about this rest stop.  We were trying to decide where to aim for next.  The next stop on the itinerary was Mt. Rushmore.  Which we figured was 8 1/2 hours away.  It was around 9:30 am we were not sure what to do .’.