Miles: 342
Trip Miles: 2,300
Murphy's Law of Camping: If you pack the raincoats where you can't easily get to them, even if it isn't in the forecast, it will rain.
Memories:
TBA
The Run Down:
We knew we would have to make an early start of it since today was to be our last day of hard driving. I also had the challenge of using up the rest of our camping breakfast food. I was well into finishing up bacon, eggs, pancakes and cooked cinnamon apples when Gordon pointed out the dark sky in the north.
Between flipping pancakes, I ran to the car and filled the front seats with our camping equipment - - the car can't be packed up until the last thing to come down, the tent, is stowed away.
Danny was awake, but Grace slept through all our frenzy. Finally, Gordon simply dragged her sleeping bag out of the tent and she slept on while we packed up. (See picture below)
When the big drops finally began to plop down, we got her up and in the car. I served the kids breakfast in the car and while they ate, we got everything packed away.
The silver lining to our cloudy start to the day was that we had completely broken camp by 10:00: a record for us!
We pulled up to the park office to check out just as the sun began to peek through the clouds.
We steeled ourselves for a long boring drive. But after we made a stop at the wayside and picked up some Indiana tourist literature we happened upon a mention of a Chocolate Factory tour in South Bend Indiana.
Our navigator promised to get us to our destination with six minutes to spare before the last tour. However this meant driving for three hours without stopping. The kids eagerly cooperated and at 3:55 pm we were at the South Bend Chocolate Factory.
The tour was fine, the samples were great and the gift shop relieved us of the rest of our trip fun money. If our will power holds out, friends and family will be the beneficiaries of this little side trip. The high point had to be Danny's observation upon seeing the factory workers. He said: "Hey! These are big people." I think he was expecting Oompa Loompas.
We pulled into our roadside inn at about 6:00 with a sinking heart. It was an exact duplicate to the place we stayed in Canton. The dilapidated hotel supplies sprinkled around the back of the place made us even more nervous.
Imagine our surprise when we opened the door to our room (right off the parking lot) and found a wonderful surprise. The entire room was remodeled and while the floor plan was the same as our NY place, the decor could not have been more different. Everything was new and fresh and even stylish, right down to the orange towels in the bathroom.
I may be going on a bit here, but after four nights at a campsite following three days in the damp dank NY spot, this is pretty exciting!
We ended our day with a splurge and let the kids fall asleep to the Olympics.
Pictures:
1-5) Candy Factory Tour. Grace and Danny are holding replicas of the coco bean pod.
6) Grace sleeping through all the excitement. The tent literally came down around her ears.
7) Literal Car Camping: breakfast is served in the rain!
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