Vacation Day 1: The First Travel Day

Well, that worked better than I had expected. Our vacation began with a day of driving. We left Lansdale at about 5:15 am and arrived out here around 7:30 local time. We were on the road about 15 and a half hours.

We arrived too late to get good lighting at the Arch.

Both breakfast and lunch were consumed while we rolled along. Sherry had them both packed up. A dinner stop in Effingham, IL provided a good meal and a break from the car. 

The kids after finishing their meal.

Sherry's pulled pork looked fantastic. 

For as much as a 13-hour drive can fly by, it flew by and I was pleasantly surprised at some of the tricks we used to make the time pass.

Sherry and the kids are working through a Rick Riordan novel on CD. While she drove they would play the novel through the stereo. 

I learned a lot from this wave of readings.

One of the best tricks for passing time on a road trip that I've seen in a long time. Thanks, Christopher.

I worked through many partially read issues of The Economist dating back to the beginning of the calendar year. A friend on my recent Europe trip brought a cache of New Yorker magazines he hadn't been able to get to so I decided to do the same with the two magazines to which I subscribe. I felt like I learned a lot on my ride (and now feel very happy to dispose of seven issues at a Missouri rest stop). 

Sam imported a game called word sneak from Jimmy Fallon's show, which helped pass some time as we traveled through Indiana and Illinois. 

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A rest stop in Ohio commemorates the National Road. 

I liked Ohio's way of welcoming and saying goodbye. 

There were a few ways in which the ride was refreshing and not just tiring. First, there was room in the car. We are allowing space for Joe to join us in Rapid City (Caroline's friend Marvin the sloth is using his seat in the meanwhile). The van does not feel like it's bursting at the seams as if often did when the kids were younger. The scenery wasn't dramatic, but pleasant. And the nature of the trip allowed us to keep the GPS away for the most part. We glanced at it occasionally (and that helped us avoid an ugly traffic jam in Indianapolis). But most of the day the directions were a simple as "70 West" and a GPS would've simply made it feel less like a vacation. 

Sherry navigates through downtown Indianapolis.