Day 2

Day 2 – Tuesday – June 22, 2010

0545 Wake up. See daylight. Check the clock. Decide it is too early to get up and go back to sleep.

0715 Wake up. Bella is awake. It is time to get up. Maybe if I hurry I can get a quick shower and we can be out of the room by 8:00.

0810 Headed down for a delicious breakfast of hotel eggs and what is that?!? Is this a cheez whiz omelette? Ick. Guess I'll stick with the sausage patty and a cup of coffee.

0840 Done with breakfast and leaving the hotel room to check out. Clearly my 8 am departure was overly optimistic.

0854 Car is loaded back up. We are so out of practice – this is taking forever!

0858 Went back to the front desk to check our room bill. Should've been paid with points, not the credit card. All fixed now. Time to hit the road.

0912 Traffic is moving very slowly this morning. No one seems to be in a hurry at all. On a different note, the new seating arrangement seems to be working out for the kids but it's a bit louder for me. Bella and Felisa talk and laugh (and occasionally argue) all day long in the back seat. So far they seem to be sleeping less in the car since they can play together instead of being one in front of the other. Ryan gets pestered a bit more since he's stuck in the middle row and ends up as the middle-man, passing things and messages back and forth. But he seems happy enough.

0913 Look – a Sonic! And I'm not even stopping. Aren't you all proud of me? Such restraint…

0917 Great Dane puppies for sale. Shall we stop and pick one up?

0920 Johnny Appleseed Roadside Park

0954 Felisa wants to stop for lunch.

1003 Raindrops.

1011 Columbus. Finally. I am feeling very behind this morning. Not sure why. Maybe it's because we usually make it at least to Columbus on the first day and this year we didn't. That's what the scenic route will get you – behind schedule!

1106 Mad River

1115 Gas, $2.85/gallon and lunch at Taco Bell. Apparently we won. We are victorious over the tacos! Back in the car, I get my laptop out to charge Ryan's MP3 player while we drive. I was hoping the USB car charger that works for the DS would work for the MP3 player also but it didn't. In hindsight, it would have been better to go back out to the car last night to get the charging cord. Oh well!

1153 Great Miami River. Why are there so many Miami things here in Ohio? Miami of Ohio University and the Great Miami River. I wonder if it's related to the Miami in Florida.

1154 Jets on the overpass in Dayton and a space-themed relief mural on the retaining wall. Cool!

12:14 p.m. Leaving Kroger and Starbucks. The girls want to watch a movie. Amazingly enough they asked at a good time. We are stopped and I can get all the cords out and get things set up. Everything seems to be working fine.

12:25 p.m. Having a hard time finding my way back to the highway. Ryan is messing with the DVD player, trying to get another set of headphones hooked up (which is distracting) and there is policeman following me which is making me nervous. I have no idea what the speed limit is in this town and don't see any signs around.

12:26 p.m. On the on-ramp, another policeman has someone pulled over. They're everywhere!

12:48 p.m. Indiana. Finally! See what I mean about being in slow-motion today.

12:49 p.m. Oh yeah. Now I remember the RV billboards lining the highway in Indiana, just across the border from Ohio. I think there is actually an RV factory or museum or something in Indiana somewhere.

1:10 p.m. Wilber Wright Road. Maybe we should plan to stop one of these years and check out the Wilber Wright museum.

1:11 p.m. A huge bunch of sunflowers lining the highway.

1:17 p.m. Thinking of things to see on our trips… maybe we should check out the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this year since the Olympics are fresh on our minds from the winter. I've never seen it myself either.

1:28 p.m. Nameless Creek

1:48 p.m. Passing the Mammography Mobile. I thought it was a blood drive van at first but it's not.

1:49 p.m. Another construction warning sign, this time for 65N. I already opted for the downtown route rather than the loop which I had planned to take because of construction warnings for the loop. I may never make it through Indianapolis.

1:54 p.m. A red light. Which everyone is treating as a stop sign. They stop, look for traffic, then turn left. On a red light. Oh, I just now got it… maybe it was because it was onto a one-way street? Is that why everyone was doing it? I did it also but only because I didn't want to cause an accident or road rage but not following the local customs! And to tell you the truth, I can't remember if it was a one-way street or not. Hmm…

2:08 p.m. Finally made it through Indianapolis. This is one of my least favorite cities to drive through. It always seems like such a hassle and such an obstacle. There is always tons of traffic around here too.

2:10 p.m. Water going over a dam.

2:18 p.m. Ryan is reading his Boys Life issue for July. Apparently July is National Hot Dog Month. Yummy!

2:23 p.m. Felisa is asking how much longer. She is not impressed at all with my tirade about how it is still 3 hours (she had just asked less than 30 minutes ago) and how we are still in Indiana and how once we finally get to Illinois, we still have to drive all the way across it to the other side.

2:45 p.m. Stop at Burger King for a snack. Or is it a second lunch? They have a new pork tenderloin sandwich so I give it a try. Not bad. Felisa asks again how much long and I tell her Jo says it is about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Fill up with gas also before we get back on the highway. $2.85/gallon. Hopefully this will be our last stop before Grandma's house.

3:04 p.m. Back on the road again. I am starting to think we are never going to get there. Maybe that's why Felisa keeps asking –she can sense my hopelessness.

3:18 p.m. A couple guys are hanging off the Hanging Rock billboard. It looks like they are trying to get it hung up but it's pretty windy here. They fit right in though – maybe they should stay there. Just like the cows on the Chik-Fil-A signs.

3:27 p.m. A billboard of farm animals smoking. "It looks just as stupid when you do it."

3:34 p.m. Illinois! (and time zone change – oops, forgot about that)

2:39 p.m. Felisa asks how much farther . I tell her 3 hours and wait for the reaction. Jo forgot to remind us of the time change when she asked earlier. She takes it pretty well, considering.

2:52 p.m. Cows in a truck, on their way to the slaughterhouse I'm sure. Bella and Felisa tell me that they "saw a cow's butt". Great. I wonder if the butt obsession will last for the entire trip because I've noticed a recurring theme already, listening to them play.

3:49 p.m. Market report on the radio… soybeans, etc. Must be in farm country!

3:57 p.m. Listening to an NPR story about drive-in movies. That would be fun, as long as it's not too hot and there aren't any mosquitos!

4:03 p.m. News report of wildfires in Colorado. Uh oh. Hope it doesn't affect our time in Durango and Mesa Verde.

4:23 p.m. Illinois River

4:25 p.m. See a gigantic windmill blade on the back of a semi, on its way to be installed.

4:36 p.m. Caterpillar Factory

5:16 p.m. The fields and ditches have all been very wet today and there is a flood watch in effect for Peoria and the Illinois River. Guess they've had a bit of rain lately!

5:20 p.m. Road closed. Uh oh! Sure hope Jo can find us an alternate route.

First she finds a dead end road – Cucumber Hollow. Looks like it used to go through but doesn't anymore. Hit the detour button. End up following some back gravel roads between cornfields.

5:30 p.m. Pass a donkey and some cows and now we're back to a paved road. And the road closed sign. Ack!!! Press the detour button again and hope for better results.

5:37 p.m. Orange construction sign for a one-lane road ahead. Will we ever make it to Grandma's house?

5:54 p.m. See the checked flag on the screen – we're almost there! The kids are all clapping in the back.

5:58 p.m. We're here! I open the door and Ryan jumps out and breaks into a run. Excess energy from a day spent in the car perhaps?!

Grandma takes us to dinner at Ponderosa buffet. Yum. Then back home for a little tv and relaxation then bed.

Good night!