We survived Ohio

At the baseball game, Jordan bought a hot dog but could not find onions. Anywhere in the stadium. Then the Indians had a hot dog race in between innings: a ketchup, a mustard...and an onion. 

I almost caught a foul ball two minutes after we sat down. 

At gas station, we saw a kid on a bike get hit by a car. He shook it off after a couple of minutes and rode away while the driver checked to see any damage to her car. 

Car pulled off highway and little kid without pants peeing (jordan asked if i could not say peeing, so imagine I wrote going to bathroom) in a ditch. 

Haven't seen any CA license plates. Until just now in NY. 

Trees, farms, ag countryside. 

Indy was pooped after visit with Tricia. 

We've finally learned how to pack our car. 

3075 miles down!

INDYana

- sleep

- old truck stop/strip club that Paul used to drive by during commute to Indianapolis is now closed 

- Paul did not use his crutches all of Indiana

- Jordan reminded of driving in indianapolis in a yaris, in snow, feeling like a bug that what going to die (rental)

- also reminded of trip to Indiana to look at Purdue with mom

- while on conference call, Jordan took notes on top of passed out Indy on lap

- realized we forgot to note earlier, that somewhere between Kansas and Missouri, Carl's jr became Hardee's. 

- lot of cops

- we achieved east coast time zone. Will finally stop losing time while driving 

- Indiana...um...

*photo not available

At the corner of progress and history, Illinois

- sunny skies and green rolling hills 

- great visit with Tricia and tyler in Peoria. Indy tries to pick a fight with Tyler's part dog part wolf, kiba. Note: while Kiba is in crate. Bucket-pig makes lots of cute weird noises and shows affection by sneezing in your face. 

- college home of Reagan 

- central Illinois, land of personalized license plates

- visit to Danville where Paul had the best baseball summer of his life after graduating college. Went by Danville dans baseball stadium, drove by where Paul lived, and got coffee and bagels at the java hut, Paul's go to place 10 yrs ago

- Danville: hometown of gene Hoffman 

Missouri

- rolling hills and very green. Rain subsided - much appreciated

- home of a lot of people (j.c. Penny, Disney, mark twain)

- drove through Hannibal, where Samuel Clemens grew up. Windows down, Indy went nuts. She's great on highway, sucks in town. 

- Hannibal is the best named town we've gone through so far 

- Pizza Hut

- they have the 'newest and oldest show caves'...not sure what that means 

- Monday morning at 9 am and no traffics in Kansas City. 

- saw an old brown beat up gmc truck, driven my an old man, with 'shaguar' scratched into the paint. 

- abf/upack - you suck. 

- mileage: 2175 miles in. Little less than 2.5 hours of driving left for today. 

Impressions of Kansas...

As we leave Kansas City (pictured below) and the State of Kansas, a few impressions/observations:

- rain

- pro-life signs every 50-60 miles, on average

- home of the presidential Eisenhower museum and library. Which, thanks to this American life podcast (we've listened to many), we discovered that Eisenhower had the CIA develop a fake radio station, radio liberacion (which broadcasted from Florida and Nicaragua), to overthrow the existing guatemalan regime due to differences between the government and United Fruit. We love our cheap bananas. 

- also thanks to This American Life, scared the crap out of myself (this is Jordan) talking about how to and not to have 'coming of age' conversations with your children

- KS is home of the heartland's premier wine region.  Who knew? 

- ton of antique shops advertised on billboards

- corn

Show me what you got, Missouri. 

Indy

Indy has been rockstar dog so far this trip. As soon as we start driving, she pretty much plops to position and sleeps/chills the next 7-10 hours.

Garden of the Gods

Jordan Astrid and Indy.