U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #1

After an erratic night with us all sleeping, waking, and sleeping at different times we made a reasonable start and had the van fully loaded and ready to go at 8:45 EDT (7:45 local).  These pictures fully illustrate the Priddis expression "traveling heavy":

The first "leg" went smoothly and after almost exactly an hour we pulled in to the Pilot just after turning north on US 41 from I-64.  We topped up (1/2 tank) with gas, bought surprisingly tasty Subway omelet flatbread sandwiches and large cups of Pilot coffee.  Then with John still driving we headed north, and north, and...north!  Zoe was surprisingly good and mostly just lay in her bed between us, but once in a while she liked to get the cobwebs blown away:

The picture really doesn't do justice to the way her fur was blowing in the wind.  Later, with Marissa driving a leg north of Terre Haute she had another chance & using the outside mirror John got a more or less front view:

Apart perhaps from driving across Kansas there can be few less interesting drives than Hwys 41/63 from the bottom tip of Indiana to a little south of Chicago.  It was also very windy, but at least it was sunny.  We knew the upper part of the state had some wind-power activity, but we were completely unprepared for the massive extent of them - horizon to horizon, north-south and east-west:

Eventually "Portia" told us to kick right and over to I-64 and on to I-94 and eventually to I-196, so the latter stages were slightly higher in speed but much denser in traffic.  Throughout the day we made periodic stops for all the normal reasons and eventually Portia guided us into our motel for the next two nights at around 5:30 PM.  The room is very nice & convenient and we had a bonus, not only do we get a free breakfast but late afternoon/early evening we get free pizza, which with a little supplement from our road food took care of tonight's need for food.  Afterwards, we took Zoe for an extensive walk around this large complex with lots of grassy areas & finally settled down for the evening.

Since John pulled out of his driveway with the trip odometer set to zero the van has racked up 693 miles so far, so a "local" day tomorrow will be welcome.