Life is NEVER Uneventful

This morning we "slept in." Okay so for as early as we've been getting up for the last week it was definitely sleeping in. HOWEVER, for me, sleeping in is running into the double digits. This was definitely not the double digits. We decided to "sleep in" until 7am and then get ready and get on the road. Reasoning? In case it had snowed and the roads were crap, someone else could test them out before us. Nice huh? However the first thing to dawn on me as I arose this morning out of bed was that we were an hour ahead so it was still 6am for us, we've only been on this whole one hour ahead thing for not even 24 hours! Doh! Oh well, "sleeping in" still sounded good in my head. Breakfast was warm and cozy at the Holiday Inn Express. I got to use (yes, once again!) the Express Pancake Maker! I was ridiculously excited. I even took a picture and video of it's greatness of creating and plopping out a pancake. It was magic, once again. Great way to start the day!

We emerged on the roads, that were pretty well dry at 8:30. We quickly determined that a Starbucks would be a good addition to the morning and to our well being. That was not going to be an easy quest it turned out. No Starbucks logos were magically appearing on the exit signs like they have the last two days...much to our dismay. So to the Garmin we went! We found a Starbucks in Bloomsberg, PA. Oy. We knew we would have to go off of the I-80 visual for this one but we could taste the warm coffee already so in search we went! It was only a mile or two, what could it hurt to explore a new community a little. Well it turns out a lot. This Starbucks located in Bloomsberg, PA was located in a University Library and was closed because school is not in session right now. WHAT.ARE.THE.ODDS. I mean really? The one Starbucks we choose in the US and it's in a University Library? You've got to be kidding me! They weren't even open to use the bathroom! So we had to go to some grungy gas station that had one bathroom (you know, the kind that men AND women use) and the sink didn't even work! You had to go in the back room to use the sink. The level of hygenity I felt in that place was overwhelming.

Back on the road we went. No coffee to keep us awake, but alas we would survive. Lunch rolled around and shockingly there was not a large selection of fine fast food restaurants to choose from. We ended up having lunch at Wendy's. It wasn't too bad really. The tea was slightly disappointing but it's bound to happen. The afternoon for me was one full of anticipation. It held the anticipation of knowing that there was only about 2 1/2 hours left of the drive, knowing that we would FINALLY be there, and knowing that tomorrow I finally get to unload this car and see out of the back end!

The drive was pretty, I was glad I was driving the parts that I was, the hills were curvy and windy. I was reminded of the roads in the Ozarks that make me sick when I'm a passenger. And I was told once or twice through the drive (ahem) it sure would be a beautiful drive in the summer or fall! And it would be. It was pretty even in the winter slightly salted with snow.

We finally arrived in Connecticut. We saw water, old towns that started running together, and just followed where the GPS told us to go. We finally ended up in Hamden. Such a relief to be there! There is an entire strip of shopping all together close to where I live that will be ever so convenient. We found the apartment complex and drove around it. I'm very pleased with it. It's up around some other neighborhoods and apartment complexes and it looks nice. It's not a dump which is a great relief! Whew!

After that we decided we'd better venture out on our way to find a hotel. If I had known then that this would be such an undertaking I might have just brought a tent and a heater, I think it would've been easier. LONG story short we drove to 5 hotels and finally stayed at the fifth one. The third one (per Garmin) ended up not even being a hotel, it took us to someones house! So after driving around for an hour and a half we finally ended up at the Hyatt Place Hotel and it's very nice. The room is relaxing and luxurious which is perfect for the end of a 3 day trip.

Next came the task of going somewhere for dinner. Of course we went left when we should've gone right and had to make a couple of turn arounds to find a restaurant but Chili's sounded amazing tonight, specifically a salad from Chili's and their raspberry tea. So we get to Chili's, we order and I get a tea, we split their queso and I order my Quesadilla Explosion Salad. For those of you who don't know, I HATE beans. So I read everything very carefully (especially things that sound like they'll have beans in them) to make sure I order "no beans." My salad said nothing about beans, so I just asked them to leave the cheese and cilantro off the salad. My salad arrives just as ordered, only they've added BEANS! :o Oh the shock and horror that swept over me. I was so anticipating my perfect delectable salad and now it was tainted with bean juice. Not only were there beans everywhere, they were those stupid little rabbit turd beans. So I had to pick through my salad and get all those darn beans out so I could eat my salad in a bean-free environment.

I know it sounds extreme and dumb but I really do hate the taste and even smell of beans. So I must have had my head looking down so long picking out those stupid beans my nose starts to run. My nose did not stop running (and I started sneezing) for 2 hours! How ridiculous is that! If they only knew all the trouble those beans caused........

After the beanful dinner we went to the local mall and walked around, scowered for sales (found few) and came back to the hotel room to rest. I have a feeling we'll be turning in early again tonight, but we've had a full day.

I can't say thank you enough to everyone though for all the prayers and well wishes for getting here safely. So blessed to have so many people thinking about us and praying for us! Mwah!

Chicago....Cleveland....Pittsburg....So many Signs!!

Day 2!

Day two had an early start! Some genius that stayed in the hotel room before us had the alarm set for 4 am so we woke up at 4 am to that ridiculous "bzzzzzz! bzzzzzz!" Not my favorite but not the worst either. Needless to say I will always check the alarm clocks in hotel rooms in the future. I would have to say that one of the highlights of my day happened first thing in the day. We were provided with a continental breakfast and they had a pancake machine! (insert angelic music here) This amazing machine made two pancakes in a minute! It cooked the pancakes fresh (all inside the machine so all you could do was wonder at all the magic that was happening inside) and spit them out onto a plate for you in just one minute! Who's the genius that came up with that!?!?! All you have to do is press a button! I'm still in pancake awe.

After breakfast we set out on the driving adventure that would be labeled as day two. I drove for a while and mom rested. So I happily put on my earphones (still not sure if that's legal or not) and listened to one of my all time favorite movies - Armageddon. I can see the images in my head I've seen that movie so many times. We stopped at a travel truck stop and got some Starbucks for some rejuvenation. That is ALWAYS a good idea! Driving by we just "happened" to see a road sign for an outlet mall and my fingers were just so curious so I looked to see if that outlet had a Coach and they did so that was the "post-coffee bathroom break." How convenient right!?!?

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful....right! Mom thought she lost her white gold bracelet so I made some phone calls to track it down. Thankfully it was found later this evening in a bag, it just fell off. There was great anticipation (on my end) over the Pennsylvania state sign (I'm trying to get a picture of them all which has been an epic fail) and the camera battery died at the last second and we missed the picture. We had seriously had the camera ready for about 20 miles waiting for the state line.....it was sad. I found out what my new address is for my apartment I'll be staying in. How exciting! And I tried perfecting my backing up skills.....that didn't go so well. It ended with me in laughing hysteria and mom yelling "go park over there! Knock this off!" In the end I parked crookedly (is that a word?) but within my lines!

Now it's time for a little bit of relaxation once again. I think we have our route determined for tomorrow and it looks like it'll be about 6 1/2 hours to Hamden/New Haven Connecticut. Tomorrow the adventure continues!!

To the Windy City!!

And we're off! Mom is starting the adventure out to Connecticut with me. We left the house at about 6:55 am, I left Omaha through shimmery eyes. I will admit I was getting pretty homesick before I even left town. Sounds lame but I love my home. The day included a stop at the Outlet Mall which was for one store and one store only - Coach. Walking into Coach each time is like a child walking into a candy store....or now-a-day an electronic store. After that we ventured down the road to Iowa City and sought out a Carlos O'Kelly's. Due to some complicated Internet research I did recently I found out that there are only Carlos O'Kelly's in a handful of states. So I HAD to get my last meal there in. We went off the garmin laid path a bit but found our way back to the beloved I-80 East.

Following one of our bathroom stops we found that the Garmin stopped working. Which at this point in the journey is not a problem. However, when we get closer to Connecticut and while I'm there I will DEFINITELY be needing that bad boy! So when we arrived in the great town of Lansing, IL tonight we quickly sought out the closest Best Buy which conveniently was across the street.

So not only did I buy a Garmin at Best Buy (after many questions and testing the old one, the employees resuscitation efforts were impressive however), we went to Wal-Mart out of curiosity and found the next "grade" up for $30 less! Okay, those that know me well know that I hate really detest Wal-Mart but I will give a kudos shout their way for the $30 savings on this one. So back we went to Best Buy to return the lesser "grade" more expensive Garmin.

After a early morning and long day in the car, dinner and relaxation sounded like just the key. So back to the hotel we went. And this is me relaxing ;) The end of day one on the road!