9:00 pm - Very frustrated. I'd blogged the whole day as we went, then *POOF!* the whole thing disappeared. I was working with it on my phone (which is totally normal for me) but I guess spotty internet & cacheing just got everything twisted. I'm going to do my best to recreate the day.
6:15am (give or take a few minutes) - Got on the Road with a couple of false starts of circling back to the house. First, I'd forgotten my picnic kit (kind of important to have backups for utensils, knife, etc - which may have been in the car already if we'd looked) and 2 - Anika had forgotten to get her winter Coat. I am NOT going to Chicago without anyone's Winter Coat... so first she checked her car, then we went over to her dad's..... which means he woke up when she came inside. But... we got away at a reasonable hour.
Goal for the day: get AS FAR as we can because we've got Chicago Cubs tickets tomorrow (1:20pm tickets... Sunday Game if you want to look for us).
So - start of the day is drizzly. I'm grateful for my RainX because the water is just dribbling up my windshield. We'd been warned about winds (and there was a big Tornado in Arkansas (I think) last night - so we had gusts early, but nothing bad. Got to Waynesboro's 3rd Exit & got gas.
Going west was like going back in time a few weeks. Redbuds were beautiful! And EVERYWHERE!
Drizzle continued through WVa. Got a nice picture of the Capital. Bridge into Charleston reminded me of visiting the Blume's when I was very young - now we're just Facebook Friends since we'd moved... they'd moved.... everybody's moved. <le sigh - story of my life>
Got to Huntington.. NO! WAIT! We stopped off somewhere near Huricane and picked up biscuits because we saw the TUDOR's BISCUIT WORLD Sign - and w'd already skipped out on 4 or 5 earlier in the State. THEN there was a TCBY Fro Yo (haven't even SEEN one in years, much less stopped in for the glorious variety I'd forgotten they had) - I got the Salted Caramel (just a kiddie cup!!!) - and the kids got chocolate things.
THEN we got to Huntington! THE ONE PURPOSE in that stop was for FROSTOP Root Beer - and chili dog for me. Kids got Burger things. All were happy & the Root Beer is Glorious - as always.
12:45-ish KENTUCKY! Sky cleared up, but the winds began in ernest. OHHHHHH my - sustained winds that were probably anywhere from 40-60mph I *think*.... it was just constant pummeling. Fortunately we survived (tagged safe on Facebook and everything).
No horses until we passed Lexington. Lots of Cows. A whole lot of gorgeous!
We did see horses before we got to Louisville - and some other things...
Crossed the bridge into Indiana - Gorgeous Bridges across the Ohio River there!
Indiana had been flooded.... the whole of Southern Indiana seemed to be under water for about 20 miles - not sure if that's just from this week's rani or if it's been going on a while. Finally got through that...
Oh, we go to Indiana about 4:30pm... maybe ?....
So this is when it did start to get silly - because the kids have never been to Indiana - and Clover mentions that it doesn't exist.... and I was asking how that was.... and apparently it's really a *thing*
http://www.mibba.com/Blogs/Read/600364/Indiana-Does-Not-Exist-I-Have-Proof-Culture-Month/
^^^^ it's worth reading
So Anika's been collecting pictures for Environmental - begrudgingly. Indiana Corn monoculture became a topic of conversation. Then I tell them about the TV Gingle for Indiana Beach "There's more than Corn in INDIANA" (there isn't really.... well... there's corn.... cows..... some soybeans.... but mostly corn)
THEN! Google Maps wanted to redirect us to avoid a SLOWDOWN! NOW... ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND NEVER TAKES A SHORT CUT IN INDIANA! We ALL know this from the Horror Movies where that happens... it ALWAYS goes VERY WRONG.
I said No... They said YES!
I was warning the kids that they would be abducted by traditionalist Mormans who would kidnap them for sister wives & sell them West. We continued to have fun with that for 20 minutes... but ended up uneventfully back on I-65 in time to see that a Warehouse had exploded all over the place, causing the slowdown.
There was another one of these closer to Lafayette, but it was a tractor trailer. Metal sheets balled up like paper & flung in sundry directions. Crazy stuff happening in Indiana winds today!
Next.... Speedway, IN. Got there about 6ish - did a driveby for pix at THE Indy500 Speedway (Greatest Spectacle in Racing BOO-YA!), then stopped at an Irish restaurant for dinner. OMG - AMAZING food. My fish & chips were great... but Anika's Bangers & Mash were OUT OF THIS WORLD! I think they used Guiness to make the gravy in the mashed potatoes. Realy the best ever!
Ok.... the LAST HOUR to get to Lafayette was definitely the LONGEST of the day. But we got here. Not somewhere I reserved... probably should have hit the Mariot instead of the Days Inn, but trying to manage costs. Oh damn... I have a couple of things we need to do, but will probably need to hold off until tomorrow night at Versey Days - I wanted to get the better online City Bus Tour passes and start reserving spots for things like Museum of Science & Industry, Aquarium... Observatory.... We need to get our time slots instead of just showing up.
Ok, going to save & update... then add pictures.... and save/update again. Going to back-up with text copy of this anyway. Tomorrow.... CHICAGO! and CUBS! and maybe some other things like Zoo. But maybe not too quickly.
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