Mississippi Road Trip Day 1: San Francisco to Monticello, Minn.

The rundown

Low point of the day: Getting up at 4 a.m. to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight.

Quote of the day: "I know something," says 4-year-old Dante after watching the safety video on the plane. "If the plane crashes these really cool slides pop out and then we get to go down them. Going down the slide looked fun."

High point of the day: We don't have to go down the slides on our flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We check into the Best Western Chelsea Inn in Monticello and drive to the small town of Avon for dinner, where we eat at Fisher's Club (radio personality Garrison Keillor is an owner). We stumble upon the Avon Day's annual parade—Shriners in go-karts, John Deere tractors, a high school marching band, Montessori preschool kids dressed up as vegetables. It seems as if Keillor should be there, but we never spot him.

Photo of the day: Fisher's Club, where we have dinner, overlooks Middle Spunk Lake in Avon.Plane flight: 3 hours
Miles driven: 120
Hours in car: 2
Weather: Warm and muggy, overcast

Expenses
Lunch: free, picnic with sandwiches from home
Dinner: $38.45 (Fisher's Club: two orders walleye; two mac and cheese)
Dessert: $17.14 (Fisher's Club: one slice rhubarb pie and a strawberry shortcake)
Total: $55.59

Random thoughts: We spent way too much on dinner, and we shouldn't have ordered two dessert! We'll have to watch our meal budget more closely on those days when we're also paying for gas and hotel.