ANS: Day 2

Day 2 of the rest of our lives went more smoothly than Day 1, I think.  To begin with, I woke early and dragged the kids out of bed.  We had some breakfast (if you could call donuts and white toast breakfast?) and then were on our way by 8am. 

 I let the kids play with the electronics the first part of the day because I knew that while Illinois and Indiana would be boring (sight-wise) Kentucky would be (as Corbin says) "the bomb-diggity."  We have GraceAnne's Nintendo DS, my old iPhone loaded with kids' games and my new Nook.  I am stingy, though, so they switch hit between the two electronics and the new Crayola dry erase thingy.

We finally needed gas around 550 miles into our trip, so we pulled over to get some at a gas station in Indiana.  I may or may not have flipped out a little when I saw the price of gas (3.99/gallon) wondering if this would be the case for the rest of the trip.  I pre-paid and the kids used the bathroom.  When we walked back out, I noticed the car was leaking fluid in the front.  Since we have been careful not to turn on the a/c much, It seemed out-of-place.  As we got closer, I noticed the greenish tinge.  I figured I should check the coolant and went to pop the hood.  Except the pull is broken...and it's a newer (hahahahahaha...1996) vehicle, so I can't open it otherwise.  I turned, buckled the kids back in and did what I normally do lately: walked away and ignored it...I can't do anything about it for now.

When the gas pump finally stopped and I went to get the change, the leaking had stopped too.  I figured maybe the coolant was too full and when the heat of the engine made the liquid expand, it over-flowed.  Either way, I've been keeping a close eye on the temperature gauge and even when we are working the car hard on the mountains, it stays below half, so I think we're good.  Thank God, we don't need any car issues for this trip!!

 We ended up averaging 15mpg, which considering the age of the vehicle and the weight of our cargo, it's alright.  That was, however, all on flat land, so we'll see how crawling mountain roads affects that.




When we came to the border of Indiana/Kentucky, there was a long bridge.  As we came across, we were met by the amazing sight that is Louisville.  

These pictures suck, but I was driving...It *really* is a beautiful city!

As we got closer to 1, the kids started crying about "starving."  I don't know why they insist on calling me back to parenting when I'm so focused on getting somewhere, but whatever.  Insert food, receive further quiet for driving, so I started scouring signs.  I decided since we were in Kentucky, we should have some fried chicken, but not anything chain-y.  We found Zaxby's.  For anyone in-the-know, cue laughter now.  Oh well, it was tasty.

While there, I searched hotels in Morehead, KY and decided on a different spot.  I called ahead and figured it'd be $30 more than I was planning, but it ended up being the exact same price!  I was feeling proud about the find and that we'd be to the hotel by 2:30, when I checked my phone and noticed it was 2:28.  I guess I missed the time change.  We ended up landing at the hotel at 3:30, which is still decent time.  I managed to get the laundry done and take the kids swimming, which they had been begging to do since they found out our trip would be so long. 

Totally stoked

While I was messing around on the computer, I made some REALLY exciting changes to our itinerary and I cannot wait to share them.  Onward, Day 3!