I like road trips, I do. It’s fun to drive through middle America and see other peoples’ normal.
I can’t say I enjoy the subpar motel stop and trying to keep my child from crawling under the bed. Maybe my suburban self has caught up with me. The Peace Corps gal in me would have called that luxurious, right? Ick.
Taj is a trooper. We spent 14 hours in the car yesterday with 3 stops. We did jumping lacks at pitstops to get the wiggles out and despite some lady telling me, “that’s what Mountain Dew is for,” which I didn’t understand, we mostly made it with no major breakdowns. Healthy snacks free flowing throughout the ride, two movie showings on the MacBook (Wall-E and Ice Age) and some Pandora Children’s Indie for some singalongs, we did it! Day twos 5 hour drive is so nothing. We got this down.
There was a major accident involving two semis during a construction section of Ohio I-80, leaving traffic to a standstill or very slow crawl. We crawled to the rest stop at a whopping 10-15mph for a much needed peebreak and the camaraderie and easy-going ness of the thousands that joined us at that stop was a good distraction from moving 10mph on the highway. Back on I-80, we were of the first group to sneak through on the left. Felt a wee-bit bad to watch the people stuck in the partitioned right lane tailgating, but luck was on our side. This time.
We chose to not eat lunch at the rest area but instead to stop in a small town. If you choose non-chain restaurants, you might get something fabulous but you also run the risk of finding complete mediocrity. We chose Mexican because of the outdoor patio and the large bike riding parking lot next door for Taj. Food was mediocre so I won’t call them out, but the patio, weather and wiggling-getting-out bike ride were a perfect lunch stop.
We’re looking forward to visiting lots of siblings, cousins and family friends and then heading down to NC and GA and then back to IL.
