August 10 – WV, MD, and home

Well, I had us up and out of the campground by ten of eight on Sunday morning, and we drove through Kentucky without much happening.

We switched drivers a few times, and finally made it to West Virginia.

West Virginia for some reason is actually larger than Maryland (OMGWTF), so we drove in WV for a few hours (four and a half, according to the time stamps).

Then we entered Maryland! Hooray!

We hit a bit of traffic, and took a sneaky detour, and two hours after crossing the Maryland line we finally had our first hint of home.

We made jokes the whole time about finding a place to camp and what we would have for dinner tonight and har har aren’t we hilarious?!

The answer is yes.

We got home, emptied the trailer into the garage, emptied the van into the living room, and promptly went our separte ways. Thank goodness. Dinner was a casual affair, and we all went to bed in our own beds finally, after 33 days on the road.

Except mom had to go sleep on the couch downstairs to shut the cat up who couldn’t quite believe we were home.

August 9 – Wash U and Sarah’s birthday!

Today is Sarah’s birthday. Hooray Sarah! She turned 17 today, and we gave her presents over the Lucky Charms provided by the hotel for breakfast. Yum.

We visited Washington University in St. Louis after breakfast. I got all excited about college (my own, not Wash U, although it was really nice), and we all liked Wash U.

We had lunch at the van (yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches, and whatever else was in the fridge and might go bad), and then left town. I got to see the arch!

Cars kept getting in my way, and I didn’t have a sock, so you’ll have to be satisfied with just the arch. How sad.

The states started to get smaller, so we hit…


and

(I don’t know why Illinois is so dark)

We crossed a few rivers.

And spent the night outside Louisville, KY, where children apparently have no respect for strangers camping, and run by and smack tents and scream without their parents getting in a fuss about it. Apparently.

August 8 – Kansas and Missouri (more driving)

We spent the night in Oakley, KS, and had breakfast at some weird trucker stop where they served my oatmeal without any raisins or brown sugar, and when I asked for it the woman looked surprised, like I hadn’t been promised raisins or brown sugar by the menu. Outrageous. =P

Anyway.

We left Oakley and drove like mad.

We saw more wind farms.

These are so pretty! How can anyone think they are an eyesore? I love how white and weird and wonderful they look.

Basically that was it. It wasn’t an interesting day. I don’t think we stopped for lunch. We got very good at eating marshmallows and tortilla chips and M&Ms for lunch on this trip. Yum.

We got into St. Louis somewhat late and had trouble finding a place to stay. Camping was too far outside the city, and hotels were way hard to find. But we were settled, finally, after much drama and my demanding that everyone stop telling me how to drive and look for hotels instead.

We got to watch the 2008 Puppy Games (dad was disgusted, while the rest of us squee’ed at puppies), and then we had a late dinner in the Italian restaurant (fancypants) downstairs, while watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

Hooray Olympics!

Then we went to bed.

August 7 – UC in Boulder, and Kansas!

Sarah had this day booked for college visited. We visited University of Colorado in Boulder!

(I sat in a coffee shop and blogged for HOURS. I frequently look like this, too.)

Then we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, where we’d tried to go the night before.

Then we all piled back in the van and left town. Here’s a terrible picture of Boulder:

And I finished my second pair of socks! Woo hoo!

Here’s a bad picture of Denver:

And then we entered Kansas.

Kansas was pretty nice! Not as flat as we all expected (but still flat). Rather pretty. Nice weather. Big sky.

Although, give me one good reason these clouds are so freaking low. What the heck?!

Kansas has corn.

And silos.

In the evening, we found a place to camp (sexy, I know),

and watched the shadows get longer and longer as the sun set.

Very pretty.

Other little things that mean alot

There we were in Rockdale, our last day, trying to get the heck out of Dodge, (or the Kozy Kountry Inn, or something awful, and it was an awful Inn) and someone, by mistake, locked the doors to the rental car.  Fortunately, my father taught me to leave the window slightly down in very hot weather, so I had actually left a large “crack,” since we were parked in front of our room, and we were about to start packing the car.  Since Sarah’s arms are the longest, she tried to reach the button to unlock the door, but not long enough, and she is just getting over the bruise that caused.  But Elinor rigged up some yarn with a slip knot and “lassooed” the button, tightened up the slip, and pulled the button up!  Amazing.  See, all that yarn was a good thing.  Ann