Road Trip Day 2: 995 Miles

Saturday was the fateful day of this leg of the trip. I stayed with Mike and Gemma in Colorado on Friday night (and realized later that I, by the way, am a moron, but more on that later.) and I got up just after 6 AM mountain time and showered, getting the kids and I out of their hair around 7:10. We ate breakfast in the car and just drove. We hit Kansas about 10/11AM (depending on which time zone you’re in) and Missouri about 5-ish. I can’t tell you how happy I was to get to say, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” We got dinner from a McDonalds in Kansas City and headed towards St. Louis. There I sang, “Meet me in St. Louis.” It was a regular Judy Garland fest.

And on we drove into the night. And on, and on, and on and if I sound like a broken record, it’s because that’s how this trip felt. Just before Evansville, IN I realized that it was 1 AM and there was no earthly way I was going to make it to Louisville that night because I was falling asleep at the wheel. Two things to remember for next time: 1.Get out and walk around in the brisk air. It will wake you up for at least a little while. 2.Bring a tent so you don’t have to spring $70 for a hotel room for 8 hours. I got trapped in a smoking hotel room, because apparently Illinois is the last state in the Union to allow smoking in a public building and slept on what I could only classify as questionable sheets. On the plus side, day 3 brought the trips cheapest gas right at Evansville: $4.58 a gallon for diesel. I was dancing.