Day 17

Friday, July 31, 2009

0700 Up and shower

0730 Wake up the kids

0855 Car is loaded. Ready to go - just need to take pictures first.

0910 Leaving Grandma's house

0922 Stop at McD's for iced coffee

0950 Carthage, IL - my birthplace. Felisa wants to know which house I lived in but of course I have no idea. I told her she would have to ask Grandpa or Grandma F that question.

1017 Back on track... I wasn't listening to GPS lady and was following the wrong highway. Oops! Only ended up about 4 miles too far north.

1025 Nauvoo. Stop at the Visitors Center, gunsmith's house and shop, 1840's school house, and brick yard. Picked up another brick to add to our collection.

1215 leaving Nauvoo

1235 Take a two block detour to drive along the Mississippi River in Dallas City. Felisa found a tire in the river.

1:25 p.m. Burger King in Monmouth for lunch. We are only about 30 minutes from Grandma's house - not making much progress, are we?

1:45 p.m. Gas, $2.49/gallon

2:05 p.m. No Starbucks! GPS Lady lied to me! Grr!

2:26 p.m. Ron called - he's on his way home from work then heading to the airport.

3:12 p.m. Ron called again. His flight has been delayed and won't be arriving until 8:15 in Milwaukee.

3:27 p.m. Culvers in Rock Falls, IL - the kids ate more yummy frozen custard and I got a burger and an iced coffee. I turned it into an iced coffee float with a couple spoonfuls of Bella's custard. Yum.

3:58 p.m. Called the cheese-making history center in Wisconsin. They are closing in a few minutes. Guess we won't be stopping there. No one is interested in Ronald Reagan's birthplace either (about 14 miles from here). So I guess we'll just keep driving.

4:03 p.m. Felisa killed the fly that was hitchhiking with us.

4:05 p.m. Uh oh - another fly is still buzzing around.

4:06 p.m. The toll road accepts EZPass. Woo hoo!

4:29 p.m. Corn truck (that's what Felisa told me to write in my scrapbook - it's a big semi full of corn on the cob!)

4:44 p.m. We have picked up a lot of traffic volume since we got on I39 north.

4:54 p.m. Stuck in a traffic jam outside Rockford, IL

5:15 p.m. Felisa needs to go to the bathroom. Of course. Because we just passed the last exit before toll and there is nothing ahead of us but lots and lots of traffic on an overpass. So instead I bail out onto the toll road going the other direction. Don't know how far the exit is going that way either but at least we would be moving rather than all jammed up. We end up driving 8 miles going the other way.

5:25 p.m. Walmart bathroom in Belvidere, IL. We passed the Chrysler Belvidere Assembly Plant along the highway.

5:42 p.m. Back in the car and back on the road. For some reason I am becoming insanely grumpy this afternoon. Maybe it's because we are traveling with a deadline today. I prefer to drive without deadlines.

6:03 p.m. Wisconsin - finally!

6:10 p.m. Gas, $2.45/gallon

6:19 p.m. More (*$#*^#( construction. I am sick of orange cones. They haven't caused significant delays, fortunately, but still. Ugh.

7:00 p.m. Stop at Fazoli's for dinner. Ryan finds it hilarious that the italian place has a drive-thru.

7:43 p.m. We have finished our dinner and through the magic of GPS lady, found a playground. Weatherstone Park in New Berlin, WI.

7:48 p.m. ABORT!!! This park has way too many mosquitos, is too sandy, and the swings are too high for the kids to use. How come GPS Lady didn't warn us?!?

7:52 p.m. Grandma D called and talked to the girls.

8:15 p.m. At the Milwaukee airport. The signage for the cell phone parking lot could use some serious improvement. I drove around the terminal loop like 3 or 4 times trying to figure it out. Also, if we park for longer than 30 minutes here we have to pay. Not cool.

8:34 p.m. Pick up Ron! While we were waiting, we saw his plane land. Fun!

9:34 p.m. Arrive at our hotel in Sheboygan. The pool has a water slide but it is closed to kids after 9 p.m. Bummer. Once we settled in, Ron took the kids on a field trip to the gas station to pick up some snacks.

Another long day on the road.