We arrived at Jess's parent's house too late for our family barbecue so instead I got up at 6:45AM EST to drive to my parent's house for breakfast. My brother Pete drove down from Pittsburgh and my brother James drove over from Hanover with his wife and two kids. They spent the night after the canceled party to hang out for a few hours. The morning sun was bucolic and I took a few snaps on the way to the Franklin house:
Pete cooked up some delicious Clams Casino for breakfast which we ate along with the traditional eggs and bacon. After breakfast and saying good-bye we packed up and headed out towards Bloomington, IL at noon. We had an 11 hour drive ahead of us, and have figured in about 1 hour of rest stoppage per 4 hours driving which would peg our arrival at 2AM EST, 1AM CST. Having four drivers to switch between the Tercel and the truck makes things pretty easy. The driving experience between the two is hysterical. I couldn't believe how high up I was in the truck. It felt like I was driving a house from the second story. We've had to speed up on the downhills and drive the pedal to the floor to get up the mountains anywhere near the speed limit. If the Appalachians are giving us this much trouble, the Rockies are going to climbed at a snail's pace. We're taking our time and enjoying the drive as much as possible.
Driving through the straight, flat highways and expansive sky of Ohio is always nostalgic for me as I spent over a decade living there in Columbus and Cleveland. We passed under a storm system that had caused some tornadoes a few days ago but we just got a quick rain, though the clouds were the most ominous I've ever seen.
Before leaving RI, I bought some 18 mile radius walkie-talkies which have been a godsend. I was concerned about communicating between the two vehicles while driving through bad reception areas, but even beyond that they've been an extremely fast and convenient mode of communication. Keeping the truck in sight isn't always easy, especially in the mountains.
We've stopped at several truck stops to fill up on diesel and stretch our legs. The truck stop culture is always entertaining. My favorite so far was "Crazy D's" in Cambridge City, Indiana.
I walked in to pay my bill and the cashier was behind the register smoking. I haven't seen that in ages. We parked and ate at the adjoining restaurant "Pop's Country Kitchen" which had sections for smoking, non-smoking, and truckers. Do they really smell that bad? I had the "Egg Mess" which was scrambled eggs with ham, veggies, and hash browns. We also shared a plate of biscuits and gravy. We left at 11PM CST for the last 2 1/2 hr drive to Bloomington and after switching sleepy drivers a few times, arrived safely at Matthew's Dad's house at around 1:40AM CST.
Here is the online gallery for day two!
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| Day 3 - PA to IL |
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