That would be:
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio. We also visited Washington, DC. To be fair, the time in Kansas was all at 70 mph for 20 minutes. We stopped in all the other states, either to sleep, eat, or stretch.
What prompted this modern odyssey across the Eastern half of the country? I wanted to see home for the first time in about two years. If you remember, it was about a little over two years ago that the great Chick-Fil-A run began. At that time, we were getting rid of the Cadillac Catera that no one wants. Just to let you know, my father sold it in February of this year.
My wife was very supportive, especially as I wanted to spend time teaching our children about my side of their heritage. So, after two days of furious activity, we washed everything we own and threw it into suitcases the day we left. Mrtool housesat for us, he saw the interrupted state we left the house in.
Prior to this, some meticulous planning had been done to research every rest area between here and NC. I knew where we could stop at any given time. I also knew where all the Chick-Fil-A’s were. A man has to have priorities in order before such a massive undertaking. My wife did her usual spatial geometry trick to get everything to fit into the car. We packed a cooler with whole milk, two quiches, luncheon meat and ice. Two Whole Foods bags had all the dry food (two boxes of cheerios, raisins, and who knows what else.) We were ready.
The caveat in all this was that we had to use the back seat for some of our stuff. This meant that if she wanted to sit in the back with the children, we would have to unpack the backseat into the passenger side front seat, not a trivial matter. Still, we felt that this was the best that could be done. I mean, we have a double stroller, six bags/suitcases of clothes, food, games, and books. For those that may not know, we own a Ford Taurus. It’s not a Cooper, but it’s not a Town and Country, either.
We planned to leave that morning, but my tax refund arrived that morning in my bank account. This meant we could pay off everyone before the trip instead of after. I then spent the next two hours paying off everyone you can think of. All the medical bills are done, finished, paid in full, never to see the light of day again. We also have met our deductible for the year, to boot. We paid off our one little credit card completely and we caught up on a couple other bills as well.
Now leaving at 2pm, I said that we had to make it to St. Louis at all costs. You’d think I’d know better than to make such statements having been a part of a church that said this since its inception. Still, I guess the training is very hard to undo. My wife had a better idea, but I didn’t listen until the next day. Lesson learned: listen to your wife. Anyway, we were off to the great frontier at 2pm, ready to meet what faced us.
It was about 3pm that Dancing Bear, our daughter, decided that the car seat was not her friend. She voiced this complaint pretty much until we made it to Bobber’s house in St. Louis at 12am. Brother Bear, our son, decided that sleeping was better than listening to his sister complain. This, of course, meant that he was wide awake in St. Louis. We made a complete tour of all the rest areas in Missouri on our route in vain attempts to appease Dancing Bear. She was happy at every stop until we put her back into the seat. As a result of day one of our trip, I have decided that I will never ever complain again if there is a crying baby in a restaurant or plane.
The cooler was in the trunk, but thankfully we had to stop every thirty-forty minutes anyway. Most of the good stuff was eaten by the time we arrived at Bobber’s. One of the games I brought cannot be played in the car and my wife and I traded complaints of tiredness.
This was the worst day of the entire trip.
Arriving at Bobber’s, he met me in the driveway and helped me unload the car. We were given the basement. My wife needed to pump immediately, so Bobber and I got everything in while she setup. Both the children decided that the basement was the most fun place in history. My son was bouncing off the walls.
Bobber and I talked for two hours about all kinds of things. ICoC a little, politics, the trip, the kids, etc. We had so much fun, but finally the family constitutions gave out – we had to sleep. Early next morning, I got up. Bobber’s wife talked to me about breakfast only to segue into more discussions with Bobber all through the rest of the morning. I enjoyed hearing ideas about religion and politics as well as the paleolithic diet. That particular morning, we were not following the plan as waffles were made, much to the delight of Brother Bear.
We ended up talking about Ron Paul, the role of government, equality vs equity, the Constitution, food, where are they now(ICoC edition), liturgy, Democrats, slot car race tracks, Debian, Slackware, and other things. I saw the HQ of http://kc0dxf.net and the garage sized slot car track. I had a lot of fun, but I began to say good-bye at 9:15am in order to get on the road.
My wife and his wife joked with each other as 11am approached that this good-bye could take another hour. We left at 11:20am.