Heading Home – Wednesday & Thursday

Well, Daryl went off to the airport on Wednesday morning, and Kyle and I went back to sleep for awhile. But it was one of those times that once you wake up, you might as well get up. Now this was too bad that I couldn’t fall back asleep, because we had quite a bit of time to just kind of goof off this morning. But we did manage to take things a little slower, and I double and triple checked the room before we left. Then one more time, I checked it again. I don’t know why I don’t have enough confidence that you can actually pack everything without having to check the room multiple times, but I guess I don’t.

So we’re off. Now I was excited to have our adventure begin to head back home. Kyle usually has a lot of jokes and laughs a lot, so I knew that it was going to be a good time. But 6 states in two days, Yikes! Well it was just us on the open highway and the Chevy Impala heading to Iowa. OK, so I have no idea how many different radio stations we had listened to, but it was anything from the ‘Frog’ radio that really didn’t play too bad of songs to just about anything else. We got a good laugh out of the Frog radio because when you’re radio announcer’s name was Jeremiah the B, you just knew that it was going to be some topics on the radio that you’ve never heard before. I didn’t quite catch what his name stood for until Kyle said, Jeremiah  the Bullfrog – remember the radio station was called the ‘Frog’. OK, so we got to listen to the Frog station, and other stations that had country (which we got pretty good at some of the lyrics), and then you could throw in some rock music. But what station gave us the most topics to discuss on our trip? Well, that was an easy one – it was the Public Radio stations when they had guests on. Now some of those guests were pretty out there, but some were interesting to listen to and usually started a pretty good conversation.

So about now we were getting hungry and stopped at one of those Travel Stops that sells just about anything. We needed gas, Diet Coke, and something to eat. While we were standing by the counter to have our food made, I looked over to the chalk board and it gave me an idea of what we should do on the way home. I mentioned it to Kyle and he smiled and he said why not? And off we went. The place that we was heading to wasn’t too far away and after we passed it the first time because their sign is so small, we finally found it – we were standing at the one… the only…

Did you guess this is where we were going? The Jell-O Museum

The people in the Museum were really knowledgeable about Jell-O, and there used to be a factory in the town. Jell-O was created in 1897, and in 1902 the business was bought for $450 by a Leroy neighbor. The factory was in Leroy from 1910 until 1964. I would tell you more, but I just didn’t want to spoil it for you, just in case your’e going there. After buying some Jell-O stuff, you know T Shirts, posters, other stuff…, we were off on the road again. Still smiling to ourselves because we made the stop. Next thing to talk  about was if we should go to Niagara Falls. We were around 16 miles from there but decided not to go. I had been there on the Canada side, and by this time we were just hoping to get some miles under us. So down the road we went and then guess what we saw? We saw the RV and Motor Home Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. I’m not making this up. The building looked beautiful from the highway and after doing some research, it’s really kind of a big thing. It started in 1972 and has representatives for the Executive Committee and the Board from all across the Nation. Who knew right? Well Kyle said, ‘Oh no, it’s closed’ But secretly I didn’t think he really wanted to stop.  It seemed like every road that we went on I swear was under road construction. I don’t know if all the roads could go bad at once, but I don’t think we went on any that wasn’t getting fixed. When we were by Indiana, and in some road construction the weather was getting pretty ugly. I was trying to remember when I watched the Storm Chasers on TV just when the tornado formed and both Kyle and I were hoping that we didn’t have to put that knowledge to the test. Just as we were driving between some cement barriers, the radio stopped and we heard the Emergency Broadcast alarm go. OK, not cool. They were announcing that there was a storm with high winds and potentially large hail just about where we were driving. Then the rain started. And when I say rain, it was like someone was dumping buckets on us. Kyle did a great job driving because the semi in front of us was being pushed around with the wind and with all the rain, we couldn’t see a thing. Much less just trying not to hit the cement barriers. The radio recommended that you seek safer areas, but have you ever tried to get off an Interstate that has you in a construction area? Yea, not going to happen. But it eventually got lighter as we drove, and we were thinking that we were just on the outskirts of the storm. I was just glad that it was over and then we continued down the road. We ran into really bad traffic in Cleveland because they merged our Interstate with some other major highways and to say it was a traffic jam would be a mild statement. But soon we were out of that also and now to get through Chicago. It was later in the evening, so even though there was traffic, it wasn’t as bad as the Cleveland jam. Now finding someplace to crash for the night. We stopped at a hotel in Joliet, IL, but no hotel had any rooms. OK  But they said there was some more down the Interstate about 15 miles. But they were also sold out and started to help us find a place in the next city about 20 miles down the highway. We were lucky because there was one room left and we took it. The hotel was just remodeling and I think we were the first one to use the room that they gave us. It was really nice and we slept very well. We left around 8 am the next morning, and it didn’t take long until we saw the World’s Largest Truckstop. We still had some stuff to drink and eat in the car, so I just snapped a picture as we drove by.We pulled into Lawler around 12:30 PM and started the process of unpacking the car. It seems like we took more out of that car than we put in.

What an adventure the last couple days have been and how lucky we were to be able to have it. I know that it would have been even better if William could have gone with us, but that just didn’t happen. I hope that I did a descent job describing our time while we were in New York. I used the IPad and sometimes it wasn’t the easiest to type. So for all the typos and misspelled words these past few days, I apologize.

What was the new food for today? Kyle went and got groceries and made a fresh fruit spinach salad. Not only was it kind of pretty, it also wasn’t too bad.

As for tonight? Well the cows were left out on the grass for the first time this spring and they’re loving that we’re home.

No Ears, Sassy, and Ed in the pasture for the first time tonight

William is gone to a training class but will be home tomorrow, Kyle – he started a bonfire and is busy reading his book, Reno is sitting on the front porch, and the peacocks are screaming because Daryl just started a tractor. It’s good to be home.