is there any more pie?

“Rain” is a four letter word.

This was the first half of day three.  We ended up pulling over, with a lot of other cars, to wait out the worst of it.  But the storm went on and on and on….

We had a good driver, though.

Story Man (Son #2)

Between storms we stopped for gas and saw a historic marker: Birthplace of John Wayne!!! And only 14 miles south of the interstate!

I bought a John Wayne coffee mug.

And then another horrible thunderstorm hit. Have I told you how tired I am of rain and thunder and wind and lightning?

Ten hours after we left our hotel, we crossed into Nebraska!!!

How do you know you’re in Nebraska?  Check out the license plate!

(Anyone know who recorded that song???)

I shall have to think about that.  In the meantime, let me tell you about day 2.  We were still in Pennsylvania, of course.  500 miles from home, but still in Pennsylvania.

Sigh.

I started out the day behind the wheel, as I’d been awake since 5, was the first person in the breakfast room and generally anxious to get going.

The men in my life weren’t moving as quickly.

I drove through rain and construction for the first hour, then it was just cloudy.  We entered Ohio and Son #2 (who wants a new nickname–any suggestions???) took over.

Somewhere near Indiana the sky turned dark.  As in, “Auntie Em!  Auntie Em!”  I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Dorothy pedaling past on her bicycle.

Scary stuff.

And then the thunderstorm began.  I was so glad I wasn’t driving.  Here’s what it looked like:

This is what we saw of Indiana.

We followed the semi with its flashing lights for almost an hour.

And then, FINALLY, it was over.

We finally made it through Indiana and half of Illinois, racking up another 492 miles before reaching a Hampton Inn and a Crackerbarrel restaurant.

I decided to relax in the indoor pool for a while, while my son went to the exercise room to use the treadmill and Banjo Man caught up on work in the room.  It was just me and the inflatable blue whale bouncing around the pool last night, until Son #2 came in to ask if I had looked out the window lately.

Yep, another storm raged outside the huge windows.  I hadn’t even noticed, except for wondering why the overhead lights were flickering (that was lightning, my son explained, suggesting I get out of the pool).

Once he knew I wasn’t going to be electrocuted, he borrowed a deck of cards from the woman at the front desk and we finished off the day with an hour of Pitch.  I won.

(Banjo Man thinks we drove through two thunderstorms on Wednesday, but I’m too tired to remember clearly, except to say that it was a really awful day and we were happy to be off the road at 5:30 pm.)

I am not a big fan of Pennsylvania.  It’s a very, very wide state.  It takes many, many hours to drive across it.  There is traffic.  And huge semi trucks.  And confusing road signs.

Banjo Man was not pleased when, while driving through construction in Scranton, to see that the GPS had died.  I was asleep, having driven the first 150 miles of the day.  Of course we got lost, having missed some kind of crucial turn and possibly a detour.

We learned the fuse to the cigarette lighter had blown, meaning the GPS with its lovely pink line identifying our route, was not charging.

Son #2 produced a map and calmed us down.

Banjo Man returned to the back seat, where he had set up an office and study area.

He has decided he will leave the driving to us.