After my brief nap I was up and on my way through Minnesota once again. We met up with our old friend, the Mississippi River. It's amazing that it stretches so far. And that we've made it that far.
Just after crossing that river we were in Wisconsin. I don't really have anything to say about Wisconsin except they really live up to their cheesy rep by advertising it everywhere.
We soon began seeing signs for Chicago and this was the first time that I felt like I was back in mildly familiar territory.
We entered Illinois as I was speaking to a Verizon representative about why my phone was not receiving text messages properly. I wouldn't get anything for a few hours and then I'd get about twenty at once.
In an attempt to avoid rush hour traffic while simultaneously satiating our growing hungers, we stopped at Olive Garden for a last hurrah with the gift cards we had left. I got the same old delicious portobello mushroom ravioli and soup. I ate a bunch of breadsticks and saved most of the ravioli for later. We also got dessert this time. Chocolate Almond Amore, I love you. Amaretto, Bailey's Irish Cream and Kahlua mixed into a milkshake... enough said.
We got to drive through Chicago, sadly only stopping because of traffic. I would have wanted to see way too many things if we stopped anyway. I got this nice shot of the Sears Tower over my shoulder as we drove away.
The traffic was short-lived and we were moving at the much slower speed limit of Indiana in no time. The tolls began. Indiana's tollway was fare (...) but there was worse to come..
I really like this rest stop bathroom. This is something we see a lot of.. rest stops and public bathrooms in general, I suppose.. but not something that shows up on here very often. This is worthy.
We drove through Ohio (the sign was too dark to get a shot of) and Pennsylvania, whose combined tolls were in the neighborhood of forty dollars. Really? It's free to drive everywhere else in the country but to cross the mostly flat farmland of the east coast is half a C-note? Something's wrong.
I got a little sleep between Ohio and PA as Joanna drove, but I was soon back behind the wheel where I belonged. I'm pretty sure this is the only picture on this trip of me driving. We hit some more traffic when we got closer to Philly just to make us wait longer.
This last part of the drive just seemed long. That's how it always is when you get closer to home. Once we saw the Welcome to New Jersey sign we were home free.
9,306.3 miles later my car was back in the driveway where it began. And I didn't plan on taking it out for at least a few hours.
We cleaned out the car and separated our belongings before cleaning up and relaxing inside for a little while. It's good to be home.
Total distance: 1212.5 miles. I think I can say with authority that we have a winner in the distance competition. And in.... just under 24 hours. Not too bad if I say so myself.
