Friday, July 16



Up early and headed for home :( Most of the day was pretty uneventful, and we planned to stay in a Flying J truckstop for the night. We stopped at a Culver's for lunch, because in Wisconsin the man at the KOA highly recommended it. We thought it was good but not exceptional. Better than McD's, anyway :)



Late afternoon, we stopped for fuel and as we pulled off the interstate, smelled a terrible sewer/sulpher type smell. We thought it was the area we were in. As we were stopped, Rick noticed a flat tire on the trailer on the driver's side. We pulled out of the way so he could fill it, and checked about tire repair places. The next exit had a tire repair shop, so we headed 6 miles up the road. We noticed that the smell followed us!



Took some time for the tire to be repaired, then on we went. We stopped mid-Iowa around Des Moines at a former Flying J, now Love's to sleep. Tire was doing fine.





Saturday, July 17



As we got ready to leave, as Rick tried to start the truck for travel, we discovered the source of the smell. One of the truck batteries died. A call to AAA for a jump, with plans to find a Sear's Automotive to replace the batteries, a long wait in the hot, hot heat (thankfully Haley and I relaxed in the trailer in the AC), and a service man who loved his job and brought batteries to replace rather than just jump the truck, and we were off by about 11:15.



About an hour later, just as we passed a rest stop that Rick decided to skip, a couple in a car frantically motioned for us to pull over. They watched as, just past the rest area, the repaired trailer tire blew apart. We were stopped on Rt. 70 with traffic blowing by at 75 mph, with a blown tire on the highway side. The nice man stayed and helped Rick change the tire in the hot, hot heat, and after about 20 minutes we were on our way and looking for a place to replace the tire so we had a spare. We found one with the tire we needed, but there was a 3 hour wait, and we were still in Iowa in late afternoon! We decided to wait.

We continued to Indianapolis, IN, where we stopped for the night. As we crossed into Indiana, we encountered a gianormous thunderstorm. We skirted the clouds, but just after stopping for fuel, the rain started. We were with the storm for 70 miles. The sky turned greenish-yellow, and the lightening bolts slammed down all around us - not one at a time, but 3, 4, 5 at a time. There were fingers of lightening slashing straight across the sky - we have never seen lightening like this. We waited for the twister to drop from the sky - fortunately that didn't happen!

Se stopped at a Flying J, settled in, and I went to explore a little farmers market set up at the store. It was 11:00 - I asked when they closed, and they said they were open 24/7! Thier relief would be there about 4 am. I bought a bottle of blackberry cider to use in my smoothies.

While all of our adventures were going on, Abbie and Jeff were having their own adventures. They were to take off from Minneapolis at 4:08. She called about 3:50 saying the plane was having some kind of problem. The pilot turned it off and back on (sounds like our 'Service Engine Soon" light issue that we've had all week!), and when that didn't work, they had to go back to the terminal. But - they couldn't go back because there was a thunderstorm. They were convinced that they would miss their connecting flight from Phila to Baltimore, and were thinking about Plan B.

We next heard from them when they touched down in Phila with 1/2 to make their connecting flight. However, they could not get to the terminal, and ended up missing their connecting flight. They had made arrangements for Jim and Lisa to pick them up in Philly and get them to Lancaster, where Jeff's mom would meet them, but they cancelled everything and sent Jeff's mom toward the Baltimore airport to pick them up when they arrived in Phila in time. They found a flight to Harrisburg and booked that, leaving Philly at 10:50, and told Jeff's mom to head there. As they got on the shuttle minutes later, they got an e-mail that the Harrisburg flight they had JUST booked was cancelled! Back to Plan B - Jim and Lisa graciously said they'd pick up Abbie and Jeff in Phila - met Jeff's mom in Centerville to take them to Hanover to collect their car and dogs. They finally got home at 2:30 am!


Sunday, July 18

Woke up to showers, which didn't last long. We have been blessed with sunny weather this trip - very little rain, and hardly any while driving (yay!). We had a LONG drive to get home, about 600 miles. Not fun driving, since we are back in populated areas, and the closer we got to home, the narrower and more crowded the roads became. Ugh! In the past 2 days I read 2 books! We arrived home about 8 pm.