The Home Stretch

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Katherine would not get out of bed.

Later, she told me to write that sentence to describe the beginning of the day. She is tough to get up in the morning when she stays up late! Eventually we got her up. Bethany, on the other hand, hopped out of bed very willingly.

We packed our suitcases, loaded up the van, and got out of the Bloomington Super 8 at 10:22 a.m. after a nice continental breakfast. We drove east into Wisconsin, stopping for lunch at a Red Robin in Eau Claire. This was our family's first time at a Red Robin, so we were excited to try it out. We felt it was just okay.

After lunch, we continued cruising along I-94 to I-90 which we took to Chicago via Madison and Janesville (where we picked up a newspaper for Debbie's sister Judy!) We drove through the absolutely crazy Chicago rush hour traffic on the bypass 494, stopping for supper at a little oasis built over the road (Daniel, Katherine, and Debbie ate at McDonald’s, Bethany at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and Jon ate Panda Express again.)

We got back on 494 around Chicago. We took the express lane to I-80 and were making really good time until we came to a DEAD STOP for 45 long minutes. Finally, things started moving again. It was getting late, so we tried to get a hotel in Portage, Indiana, but they were all sold out, so we went on to South Bend and stayed at a Super 8 that was nearly impossible to find! They had a pool, but it was too late to go swimming and we were all exhausted anyway.


Thursday, July 10, 2008

We got up and had hot waffles for breakfast. Yum! Then Jon and the kids took a swim in the hotel's heated indoor pool.

We checked out at 10:59 a.m. (just in time!) and hit the road for Ohio. We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at a Burger King along the Ohio Turnpike for lunch. Then we drove a few more hours and arrived safely home at 4:52 p.m. having driven 5338 miles and being gone from home for 440 hours. What a trip! It's one we won't soon forget (or recover from!)

I'll share my thoughts about the whole trip in my final post tomorrow . . .