Sunday, July 20, 2008

19 hours and 6 states later!



Whew! What a LEG! We left Hesston, Ks at 11:30 pm July 19, and passed into Missouri at 2:53 am. We hit St. Loius just before drive time...Meet me in St. Loius, Loius, meet me at the fair... this is the kids just before we woke them up to look at the arch. St. Loius held two interesting things that our Kansas bumpkin family were in awe of: 1) the St. Loius autobahn. Some sort of freeway-highway in the middle of the East and West bound highways, flanked by cement dividers. with security arms every once and a while...people were driving 90+ miles an hour! CRAZY! 2) A flashing highway sign that indicated that today in St. Loius was a YELLOW OZONE DAY, and you must reduce your travel...we found that fascinating as the only air pollution we deal with in Kansas comes in the form of methane gas from farm animals.



So...State Line #2 was Illinois at 6:43 am -- then breafkast on the road at a beautiful rest stop just across the state line. After a wonderful breakfast of blueberry muffins, grapes, oj and nutella bananas the kids *and okay the grownups too* had some fun climbing Illinois trees -- but those pics aren't going up here!





State Line #3 Ohio was at 1:51. Nothing much to say about Ohio,
because I slept through most of it as Jamey drove again, but
somewhere in Ohio Brianna and Avery (remarkably well behaved on the trip thus far) decided to pour out thier drink bottles into the built in cup holders in the RENTAL car to make a pond for an imaginary duck...not sure how that logic works -- but I'm sure it made sense in thier 5 and 6 year old minds. After cleaning that mess up we hit the road again to see the Ohio sites -- beautiful picturesque farmsteads, silos, colonial style homes and barns reminiscent of Warren Kimble paintings. Because we crossed Ohio from SW to NE it was the state we remained in the longest -- what a very LONG drive!

We passed through into PA with great relief at 6:57 pm on Sunday, 7/20! WOOO HOOO! We sprung for a hotel tonight in Erie, PA-- we knew we would need a comfy bed after a fitful night of sleeping turns in the car -- we swam in the pool, then took the kids down to Lake Erie to stick thier fingers in the water. It was beautiful and peaceful in the dark. Then we drove around until we found a local cafe called Dominicks that served breakfast 24 hours a day. It was very down home -- and great food -- it was defintely the real deal -- not the tourist experience.

So far so good! We are having a great time --- tommorow onto Niagara falls then to a campground not far from there -- easy sailing for a few days!


5 comments:

kathleen62 said...

Wow! We get to follow you along! I love it!!! Have a memorable trip! Love, Aunt Kathy (PS did you know that if you type too fast and mix up the letters in 'aunt', you end up with 'a-nut'? Hmmm...I'd better be more careful!! HA!)

dove947 said...

What great pix! I almost feel like I'm traveling along with you. This is so fun. Your writing is delightful and I could almost hear you singing "Take me to St. Louis...Louis..." ;)
Have fun!! Love Mom (Diana)

Grma Zona said...

WOW! How great. You're a great writer and photographer! Love the photo of the kids sleeping. Keep it coming! Have a great time! Love you! Grma Zona

cabaysinger said...

I had a similiar incident in the Rav one day. Avery took his golfish crackers out of the baggie they were in and filled the baggie with water from his water bottle to make a pond for the fish. Remember they helped me bring home goldfish in an extra large baggie for the pond. I'm sure this is the inspiration behind all the pond play. However they made no spills - pretty good for pouring from a water bottle into a baggie while going down the road. Sounds like the trip is great so far. have fun!!! Love Mom(Cheryl)

Unknown said...

We love looking at your pictures and being able to read about your trip! I'm glad you took a vacation and you are having so much fun! P.S. We might be moving to Wichita in 3 weeks...crazy!