Day 2

 Our day began in South Bend, IN with a flat tire.... but never fear we had anticipated such folly as over preparedness is the cure for anxiety. 

Once the tire was changed out we were ready to hit the road with a 9 hour drive ahead of us for the day.


With stops along the way the time to our destination was sure to be longer; but we had a plan in place.  No longer were we going to spend extra time perusing the truck stop shelves and languishing over rest stop vending machines.  It was going to be in and out with no time to dilly dally. However, at our first stop we noticed another tire low - a valve issue.  In order to make haste we pulled out our 2nd extra tire (that's right, we had 2) and popped it on the bus, and we were off. 


For those on the bus that had never ventured out of the original 13 colonies, the plains of Ohio and Indiana were a Wonder.  The wide open spaces that allowed you to see for what seemed like days. 

Though it looked so lovely outside, when the doors of the bus opened up we were enveloped in a plume of heat and humidity.  Big Rus said, "It feels like Hell out here! I didn't know it I get so hot out our here." 

Malarie clutched her pearls and replied, "I didn't know that you had been there, interesting. "

To which Willa replied, "What the sigma?"




The rest stops do have lovely sculptures. 















And for me things have changed on the plains, as a child driving all over the country we counted "oil pumpers." Just 6 years ago, when Jen and I took our trip East The Adventures of Jen and Sal there were oil pumpers, now as far as the eye can see are wind turbines. 






We arrived at the hotel and the children were super excited to get into the pool and stretch their legs a bit. 








After the pool, a little dinner and off to bed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 12 - Estes Park and on to South Dakota

Image
 We had a leisurely morning at the YMCA, Mal and Aidan went on an early morning hike, Jeremy and I walked up to the main lodge for coffee and the others got some much needed rest.  It was around this time that it was mentioned that the brakes were feeling a bit off.  Actually, I think it had been mentioned earlier that during the drive through Boulder the brakes were "mushy."  Knowing this we headed into the town of Estes to do some shopping, checking things out around town and a bit of a break inventory.  Here we have the side by side of Mal's face while Aidan and Jer assess the break issue and another of Aidan and Jer making sure we were all good up front... The Consensus is to carry on... and so we left Estes Park and headed of to South Dakota and Mount Rushmore.  On the way out we saw some pretty awesome stuff: And we decided to meet up at the Welcome Center in Loveland, CO   Meg and Cowboy got a lock and put it on the Love sigh outside of the...
Read more

Day 13 - Leaving Rapid City to hit Wall, SD and to head back East.

Image
 We woke up early to get on the road, this is is a 13 hour drive day. So we headed to Wall, SD, home of the famous Wall Drug store... From here we thought it was going to be just driving.... We were supposed to get to outside Chicago for the night, but that was not to be the case.  We drove for a while going along just fine.  We stopped at a Walmart to pick up snacks and Jer got some supplies to solve the break issue once and for all, we filled up with gas and were on our way.  After a couple of hours we pulled over for a bathroom break and a driver change so that Jer could get some sleep, but that was not to be. As I was walking around the front of the bus I noticed a stream of fluorescent green coming from under the bus.  I went to the drivers side door, and poor Jer who was already laying down was summoned once again.  He asked, "What's up?" To which I replied, "I don't believe this should be happening..." as I pointed to the antifreeze on the pavement....
Read more