Road Trip!

When we decided to go to Ohio for Jim's birthday we also decided to drive instead of fly.  We had the time and the car and Ben and I have always enjoyed making a road trip together.  So over the past eight days we've about 2500 or so miles to and from Columbus, Ohio, with a stopover both on the outgoing and the return trip to visit Ben's father in Indianapolis.  

Can you visualize the U.S. map in your mind and name the six states we were in?  

They are Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and, finally, Ohio. 

Do you imagine us driving pell mell across all these states, putting in ten to five teen hours behind the wheel each day?  We've done that in the past, but not this time.  Paul assured us he gets car sick and would have a miserable time.  So to make things easier on him (and on us; after all we are older now) we spaced out the drive and drove between four and eight hours each day.  

Paul not only survived the trip but seemed to enjoy it.  It's good to get away from home sometimes and it was certainly fun for him to see Jim and all the family who gathered for the big birthday bash.  He also liked seeing Granddad and Nancy, his wife, again.  

And he really liked meeting Granddad's new dog, Chloe.   This little miniature Shih Tzu pup weighs only three pounds at four months old and is a bundle of joy.  

Check out this video and I bet you'll smile, if not laugh out loud.   (If it doesn't play, try this address )

Our visits with Ben's Dad and Nancy were relaxing and fun.    

Nancy is a traditional quilter and I enjoyed seeing her quilts, most of which were made by hand and all of which were very well executed.   Here is a cat quilt that she finished recently, all appliqued and quilted by hand.

On the return trip we spend an evening in downtown St. Louis.

Our hotel had an excellent view of the Gateway Arch.

We had dinner at the Broadway Oyster Bar, a fabulous New Orleans style restaurant within walking distance of our hotel that we found on Trip Advisor.

As a matter of fact we ate very well on our trip, thanks to Trip Advisor recommendations.  Who would have though that there would be an amazingly good Thai restaurant a brief drive from our hotel in suburban St. Louis?  In the old days, you'd only know this from guidebooks or from talking with the locals.  Now that info is a click away.

Which makes me think of all the ways road trips are so much easier nowadays.  Cars routinely have air conditioning and zoom along at 80 miles per hour.  They also have satellite radios to keep us entertained and of course we have our games, movies, music, and books on our cell phones and tablets to keep us amused when we're tired of looking out the window.  And let's give a "Hooray!" for our GPS directions.  How did we navigate before GPS became ubiquitous?

We arrived home yesterday afternoon, happy to have enjoyed the trip and equally happy to be home.