Day Log 07.29.05 Friday

This day seemed to be the one that we had feared the whole trip. We again got up early, was on the road for about 12 hours and only covered 495 miles. We stayed just outside of Toledo, Ohio Friday night at what has to be the worst Motel 6 in the country. This topped a day where we sat in traffic from 1 PM to 3:30 PM trying to get OUT of Illinois into Indiana near Chicago. We had decided to stop at Kirtland, Ohio so we needed to take I-80 up to the point it became a toll road. ( You all know what I think of paying tolls.) The toll road was being worked on which really made a mess of the area, mom’s pleasant personality, our time schedule, gas consumption, but luckily not the front end of the car. So for 25 miles around this so called pay to save area we moved along watching four lanes move down to one and no one wanting to make room for the next guy. After that and not having a pit stop for that long we aimed for the next pull off with thousands of other people. The traffic moved from stop to 70 and back to stop again in about five miles as cars piled up on the freeway. We were able to move around this in only about 45 minutes with out stained pants, but mom was getting pretty needy for a drink. The rest of the day was spent looking at the map, knowing we were not going to make it to Cleveland, Ohio and still speak to each other in the morning. We pulled off in Toledo, checked in and found a place to eat. Came back to the room and crashed. The problem being that this place had the outside doors to the halls on crash bars and door closers strong enough to stop a bull and heavy enough to close the door in a 100 mile an hour wind. Even mom had a hard time sleeping through people coming and going all times of the day and night. I just had problems with the toilet that leaked, head board that fell off, and non-smoking room that had a mattress from the pool hall next door. The good thing was the shower worked and the hot water was hot. Not a place I would give four stars.

We again did see some pretty countryside with lots of green trees, it is amazing how in a matter of miles this USA can change so much. We got back into the east where you can’t see off the road way any more, where as a day ago we could see 50 miles in all directions. People that have not traveled agross the states from one coast to the other have no idea that beauty comes in so many shapes, colors, and sizes. Where in the east rivers are wide and deep, and in the west they are swift and clear. This trip we were able to travel west across one set of states and back to the east in another and see different points of interest every where.