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After preparing and packing all day Monday, we awoke at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday morning and left the house at 4:05. I had to go to 7-11 and get a large cup of coffee and a copy of the Washington Post. We hit the road at 4:30.
Ann tried to sleep but it took a while before she could settle down. I kept fighting sleep, too, until we got to Western Maryland. As the sun rose we realized that the trees in Western Maryland had already begun to change color. The morning light revealed a fog covering the low-lying areas. Several deer (live ones) stared at us as we went past.
We stopped somewhere in Western Maryland (Finzel?) and changed drivers. I decided to sit in the back of the van and watch National Lampoon's Vacation to celebrate our trip. I soon fell asleep and didn't awaken until just outside of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Our goal for the day was to get west of St. Louis and we had reserved a room at a Motel 6 about eight miles west of the city. After seeing billboards advertising inexpensive rooms throughout rural Ohio and Indiana, I decided that we could find a cheaper room farther away from the city. We called Motel 6 and changed our reservation from St. Charles to Warrenton, Missouri, about thirty miles west of St. Louis. Motel 6 advertised that the motel had "all new rooms". Yeah, right. More on that later. But I did save six dollars. Ha!
We drove Interstate 70 most of the way (except Western Maryland - Ann and I avoid Breezewood, Pennsylvania) arrived at the motel around 8:00 p.m. We traveled through Columbus, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and St. Louis. Road traffic consists mostly of tractor trailers; the drivers are mostly courteous.
The van we're driving is fantastic for making long trips. It's so easy for the passenger to stretch out in the back and get some sleep or watch a video that it's not nearly as tiring as normal car travel. We arrived at the motel feeling fine and ready for another long day of travel. Tomorrow we're heading to Hutchinson, Kansas to visit a college friend of Ann's.
The Motel 6 we stayed at was nice enough but when they advertised "all new rooms" I think all they did was buy a new mattress and box spring. The worst thing of all is that the phone system was so antiquated that I couldn't hook my laptop up the internet and I couldn't even make any 877 calls (toll free). I tried everything I could think of to link up with email but nothing worked. The front desk clerk offered me the use of the fax line at the front desk but it didn't help. I'll hook up tomorrow when we stop at Ann's friend's home in Kansas.
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