Day 42- Our Final Day

Day 42

We all ended up sleeping pretty well in our budget hotel room. The air was a little too chilly for me, but I was not about to complain. I know that I take the a/c we have in our home and our car too much for granted.
As usual, Ed was up long before the rest of us. No surprise since he spent most of the day before just hanging out in the room. He took a shower and got himself some coffee until I got up. Once I was ready for the day we let the kids sleep in, as we have before, and headed to the registration building that had the "deluxe continental breakfast" they served. I can't compare it to the breakfast buffet that the last hotel we stayed in, but at least they had the typical carbs (cereal, bagels, pastries, muffins), coffee, and juice. For a no-frills hotel, we were pleased with this offering. The kids came and joined us by 9:40; they knew that this was their only breakfast option (we were not stopping elsewhere) and it was over by 10:00.
After we ate, we went back to the room and got packed up. This is when I discovered that the extra money we spent on getting a fridge for the room was not really worth it. Sometime during the night, it stopped working. At least most of the food inside wouldn't have gone bad. It was mostly to have our drinks cold. I didn't want to take the time to go complain about it, which is not usually what I would do. I think I was just worn out from the past couple of days; it was just easier to let it go. I went downstairs to the ice machine and got all of our drinking cups filled. We each had one with masking tape labeled with our names so we could reuse the same ones each time. No reason to continually wash out cups that just had water and/or ice in them.
Ian and Ed went out to the parking lot and got the camper hooked back up to the van, and then we started loading back up. We drove out of the lot at 10:50 without having a clear plan as to our next stop. This was a first for our entire summer trip. Ed continued insisting that he could drive us all the way home. Ali and I said that this could not happen. Not that he couldn't actually drive that far, but that he couldn't do it without complaining and making everyone unhappy because of being tired or stressed. He swore that this would not be the case. 
We conceded and said that we would just wait and see how far we could get. I had my handy AAA guides with me, so that if we needed to find a place along the way to stay, I could easily look them up and make the call as we drove. I put Home as our destination in the GPS. The ETA showed that we arrive at 9:45- about an 11 hour drive. The GPS had us traveling south on country roads through small towns and cornfields. After driving on this trajectory for about 15 miles, Ed insisted that I pull out the map to see where the major freeway was. I found that in order to get to I-75 we would have to travel west one Hwy. 224 from Attica to Findlay. From what I could tell by looking at the atlas, it was about a 30 mile drive, but having never driven that road before, one could only guess the actual distance and time it would take. Ed was willing to take the chance in order to connect with the freeway much further north than the GPS would have us doing. Once we began on this new route our GPS was not happy. She continued to try to get us to take a U-turn and go back. We had traveled more than 3/4 of the way to Findlay before she gave up. She configured the new route, but still did not indicate getting onto 75. The new time of arrival: 11:20. Great; we just lost an hour and a half by going the "fast way home taking the freeway." You think a lesson would have been learned by now: Follow the GPS! Apparently not. So, once we found the town of Findlay we were sure we'd find the freeway signs, since the map clearly shows it being right beside 75. I needed a magnifying glass to be sure though.
We stopped for gas at the Kroger in town, hoping that we could make it much closer to home before we had to fill up again. Instead of asking the attendant where the freeway entrance was, Ed hopped back in the van saying that he could find it. You know where this is going. We drove through and around the town looking for signs where there were none. The GPS was of no help. She wanted us to go to another highway. It may have led to 75, but we didn't want to take any more chances. We saw some views of liquor stores, smoke shops, and run down homes - not really what we wanted to be viewing today, or ever. I asked Ed to stop at the smoke shop to ask directions. He wasn't happy about having to stop, but he did, and was told that Main Street was just a few blocks further west and we would see signs there for getting to 75. We did just that and there was a big sigh of relief from us all when we finally entered the freeway 10 minutes later. Ali and I just looked at each other, since Ed's earlier promise already been broken and we were still in Ohio. I held onto my AAA book and hoped for the best.

I hadn't seen Ed drive this with the trailer during our entire trip. I think he was secretly wishing that it would magically vanish if he pretended that it wasn't there. I know that he was trying to make up for lost time and remarkably our incredible Honda Odyssey has pulled the camper with ease for most of our trip. We enjoyed the landscapes as we traveled south into Kentucky. Through every major town/city we passed, I read aloud the interesting information that the guide book had written about it.  
We didn't stop to eat along the way; we were surprisingly not hungry. We just snacked on nuts and chips. We stopped at a couple of rest stops, but not anything else until we needed gas again in Lexington.

Ed was not seeming to be tired and ready to prove that he could make it the distance, even though we were passing through rain which is always more difficult to drive in. But we kept on heading south; the kids either watching movies or reading. I have to say how impressed I've been about what good travelers they've been. There have been the occassional teasing episodes and loud banter between them, but nothing major. As it got closer to sunset, I continued looking at the map and planning where we could stay. There were several places in Kentucky and Tennessee that looked appealing. Before we could think about stopping for good we realized that we needed to stop somewhere for dinner. Snacks and/or fast food would not do. I found a few good reviews for some restaurants in towns that were up ahead. I read the descriptions and they all sounded good to us. I think we were hungry. I chose the Shiloh Roadhouse in the town of London, Kentucky, just north of the Tennessee border.

We were so glad that we stopped there. The menu had something on it for everyone and all of our meals were delicious. I don't think it was just because we were hungry either. We even decided to splurge and get a brownie sundae to share for dessert.  It didn't take long to finish. Ed had coffee for his dessert. We were off the road for about 45 minutes, so now the GPS showed we would be home just after midnight. With Ed's new caffeine buzz he was determined to make it home. I don't think he wanted to spend another dime on a hotel room or sleep on another mattress that wasn't our own.

With the exception of having to stop one more time for gas in TN, the rest of the ride was uneventful. It was dark and occassionally rainy and the kids were all quiet, keeping themselves occupied. Ed didn't complain, even when we ran into some traffic, which thankfully didn't last for much more than a mile. We cheered when we passed the sign reading Welcome- We're Glad Georgia's On Your Mind. We knew that we only had an hour and a half until home. We were actually going to make it from northern Ohio to Kennesaw in one day in what could have been less than 11 hours, but actually ended up being 13. We got off the freeway at the stroke of midnight and 10 minutes later we had pulled into our driveway- exhausted, but safe and sound. Home Sweet Home. An amazing cross country adventure completed- 24 states in 42 days.

An Epilogue is to follow once I know approximate mileage traveled, travel costs, as well as information about what we found when we opened the doors to our home after being gone for 6 weeks. I'll also include the fate of our disobedient camper.