That didn't happen.
Packing a mini van by yourself takes a lot longer than I thought it would. Besides the numerous trips down stairs with stuff, I had to play "tetris" when packing to fit everything in...a plan that mostly worked til it was discovered that I didn't leave enough room for my brother's (he accompanied me on the trip) suitcase. The closest thing to pull were my dvds and cds - bummer.
I had planned to have lunch with a friend before I left town, but after bumping it back a few times it was clear that it wasn't going to happen. Time was not on my side...by the time I signed my papers leaving the apt, stopped to say "Hi" to my friend I had to cancel lunch plans with and got to my brother's to pick him up it was about 4pm.
It wasn't until we were well on the road that I realized I had forgotten to make time to bring comfort food from home with me - namely, Eileen's Cookies and Valentino's Spaghetti Sauce. My brother said those could always be sent by mail...
So I started the drive to Des Moines. We got there about 6pm and stopped for eats @ Wendy's and topped off the tank (btw - Dodge Grand Caravan's have GREAT gas per mileage!) Then we switched and my bro drove. The original plan was to make it as far as Toledo, Ohio the first night but because of the late start we then decided we'd just call it at
midnight and stay somewhere near Chicago.Little did I know, my brother had taken a Spike pill (caffeine) in Des Moines and wasn't ready to call it quits when midnight approached. We stopped in Peru, IL at a Steak & Shake about 11pm. (24 hr chain restaurant that I'd heard about but had yet to experience - the shake was good, the burger...well, I've had better...)
We stopped at a gas station in Ohio about 2:30am and my brother thought reaching Toledo was still a possibility so he kept driving - with extra inspiration from the Rocky Balboa soundtrack. He kept driving until we saw signs on the side of the road that said - if lights are flashing, animals are nearby. I commented that if they put that much money into warning people about potential roadkill it must be a big problem. My bro decided it was time to call it a night before we had an unfortunate meeting with one of those said animals. So we pulled off @ Fremont, Indiana (Flashes of Nebraska came back in town names throughout the trip - Fremont, Bellevue, Peru) and called it a night, er...morning at the Super 8 about 5:30am.Although the tolls were a pain on the trip a toll guy did prove helpful to us when he asked us where we were headed and told us our first hotel choice (Holiday Inn Express) was expensive and there was a Super 8 in the area and even gave us a coupon!
When we checked in the gal asked us if she thought we would be ready to check out by noon - yep. We took off the next day about 11am.
I started the drive but didn't last long we pulled off a couple times before I finally relinquished my driving duties for a while.
We hit Barkeyville, PA about 3:45pm and stopped for a bite to eat at King's Restaurant. Their dessert speciality was the "Frownie Brownie". Neither of us had one but I was intrigued by their marketing efforts - Our desserts are just decadent, they're downright mean!
My turn to drive again - PA seemed to go on FOREVER and it didn't help that it would rain hard off and on during the drive. I can't imagine taking a fam vacay thru there - no telling how many "Are we there yets?" a child could spit out in that time. Ugh.
PA does have great scenery though! Unfortunately at that point we felt there wasn't a whole lot time to spare to hop out and take pics. We just pushed thru as it started to get dark. And then FINALLY NY. And then the trip really got interesting as we ran into lanes that were way too narrow and attempting to read directions in the dark since an overhead light was making it hard to see the lights of the cars around us. But we made it!
And then we waited...my roommate-to-be misunderstood and thought I was coming on the 10th so we had to wait an hour and a half for her to get off work and get to the house. I bawled. So incredibly tired and the sibling bliss had worn off several miles back.
But things started to get better as my friend in NYC stopped by to offer his place up for us to sleep since he had air conditioning - adding that once we got unloaded we could just crash instead of then having to fish out bedding etc.
By this time the roommate had arrived and all helped to unload the van - it went so quickly! Then we got the van returned - the Avis lady said,"You drove all the way from Nebraska?!" Yep.
And then it was off to lay our weary heads sometime after 1am and rest a bit before site-seeing in NYC the next day.
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