And the new seeker is.....

That would be me. I have spent considerable time today vacuuming up fruit flies. They are too fast to smush with a napkin and I found them hanging out on surfaces that you wouldn't expect. Like my bathroom, for example. You would think that I use ripe fruit to polish the mirrors and doors. So I stood there with the vacuum hose in my hand, carefully stalking these pesky, tiny bugs. Tracking them visually when they fly around. Perhaps I should lend my talents to Gryffindor as Harry Potter's backup, except for the fact that I can't fly on a broomstick. Although, with the mood that my kids put me in, me on a broomstick might not be too big of a stretch. I have not yet figured out where they are reproducing, but in the meantime, I am armed, will vacuum........

feeling more at home

I've been finally hanging up more photos on the walls and it really has made more of the house feel like home. I especially like the one of Grandma's quilt and the Davies pictures I hung around it. I'm very proud of my family tree.

Random birthday greetings of the day

Here's my shoutout and Happy Birthday greetings to my favorite Syracuse and Steelers alum.

Happy Birthday to you today, Gary Anderson!!!

Some post-trip musings

As I slowly catch up on sleep, some of the misplaced details from our trip are coming back to me. For example, if you fill up your tank in Minnesota, they try to tempt you with gas, bait, leeches, tackle and worms. If you fill up in Wisconsin, it's all about the cheese, and if you need a place to stay over, you can choose accomodations such as Camp Whosyurdaddy, or you can drive through the towns of Dairyland, Cozy Corner and Swiss. With temptations like these, who needs to travel out of the country? Especially when you get to use a composting toilet like we did at Mr. Sykes' house. (Somehow I couldn't bring myself to take a photo of it, though.) I will say that even though you don't flush the thing, there was no stink like you get from an outhouse. Everything he's added on to his house, he's used recycled materials. Very cool stuff.

In Indianapolis, we drove past the new football stadium and it is gargantuan in size. It makes the RCA dome look puny and I would venture a guess that if you went to a Colts game there and got the nosebleed seats, you'd come down with a raging case of vertigo in addition to that nosebleed.

Home stretch, and it's a lonnnng stretch!

Left Indianapolis and headed to Louisville in hopes of seeing our great-Aunt Ann. When we got there, she was sleeping (as are many 90-something-year olds), so we went to grab lunch and come back. When we got back, she was still or again sleeping, soundly, so Maria left her a letter saying we had been there. By now, it was almost 3pm, so we were going to be hauling a$$ to get home. All the nights of bad behavior from various kids (not always the same one, they all took turns) had convinced me that no matter what, the next beds we slept in would be our own.

I have to say, I wanted to weep with joy when I saw the Welcome to North Carolina sign, however I contented myself with a fist pump and a cheer. Of course, the heavy rain that I got to drive through when I got back into NC wasn't so cheerworthy, especially east of Greensboro when I could barely see the dotted lines marking the lanes from the rain and fog. By the time I dropped off Maria and the girls, it was 12:30 am and we got all the way home a little after 1 am.

All in all, it was a successful trip, in spite of all the bad behavior, pukefest, potty stops, and gobs of driving time in the car. We saw Diana get married to Ken, drove in 8 different states, put almost 2400 miles on the car and managed to squeeze in some fun. I don't think I'll get the itch for a road trip for a while now, though. I am happy to be back home, with Chris, my own bed, food I'm used to eating and hoping to catch up on sleep the rest of the way this week.

The priciest gas we found was in Louisville, KY, not in Chicago, at $4.29 a gallon, and the cheapest was in VA at $3.89 a gallon. IN, NC and MN were just under 4 bucks, while IL, WI, WV, KY, and VA were over 4.

On our way home for sure now

Our side trips had us stopping for the night way before Rockford, IL, our original plan. Since Maria and I were not feeling too adventurous with 5 kids in tow, we opted not to check out the accomodations at Camp Whosyurdaddy off WI Hwy 53 and kept driving. We ended up an hour east of Eau Claire in Black Creek or something. There was a giant orange moose outside the hotel. We then made it as far as Indianapolis, staying in a hotel downtown with a primo view of the July 4th fireworks on the 8th floor. At that hour, it was really great to be able to just stay in the room and look out the window.

Side trips, part 2

After we left Duluth, we ventured down WI 35 to Turtle Lake, where Maria's friend Faye's dad and little brother live on 110 acres with dogs, cats and horses. (Maria figured since we were up there, she'd repay him 71 cents she owed him.) :-) Mr. Sykes was so warm and gracious to us, feeding us some homecooked chow, giving us each a large bottle of maple syrup that he tapped and made himself, and later, taking us about 9 miles from his house so the kids could swim in Pipe Lake. Wonderful man. He even offered to have us stay over, but we opted to drive on. Mr. Sykes also has the coolest house I've ever been in. It's like an adult's playhouse and I don't know how to describe it and do it any justice. He keeps adding on to the house however his imagination guides him. It was a great stop and a lot of fun.

More fun side trips

Our way home involved a stop in downtown Duluth to have breakfast with a brother of Maria's friend Faye. We ate at a little place called Amazing Grace Cafe. Decent food there. We then walked around a bit, Mark showing us the lake and the aerial lift bridge. We actually got to see it in action, as it raised up to let a couple tour boats pass under it. Pretty cool to watch. We got a gorgeous day to be there and this part of Duluth by the water and all the hills and such reminded me a little bit of San Sebastian, Spain. (Weird association, I know.) I know the winters are probably not ideal, but Duluth is a really pretty town, especially at this time of year.

Fun in Minnesota

The weather in Deer River, MN, was beautiful. Sunny, 70's, lightly breezy. Matthew over the 2 days we were there, caught 6 northerns right off the dock. AJ took the kids out in the boat and the girls caught one as well. There were also fish that got away, of course. :-) Chris' dad took Maria, Kristen, Dale and Dinah out in the boat the second day for a ride, too. We also did smores by a campfire, and the kids got to ride the 4 wheeler around the property, as well.

Taking the long way around

While on the way from Louisville to Chicago for the wedding, I got an insanely impulsive idea in my head, especially when you consider we only packed clothes for getting to Chicago and home. It pretty much went like this: "hmmm...only another 9 or so hours past Chicago and we could be in northern Minnesota visiting Chris' parents at their fishing resort!" Maria, being the happy nomad that she is, thought I was not nuts and why not? She did not try to talk me out of it at all. We just had to get the hubbies on board with it, especially since we were not taking them with us. That ended up being easier than we'd anticipated so we were now returning home to North Carolina by way of Minnesota. :-) Wacky, I know.

Of course, when you travel with 5 kids, nothing ever goes to plan or schedule, and we discovered that those 9 or so hours of driving time became much closer to 13 with all the stopping. There are a couple of stretches of road that just feel like they go on and on. Heading west, then north on 90 to get out of Chicago and Illinois is one of them. The stretch from the Wisconsin border to Eau Claire is the other one for me. Once we got on 53 to head north, it didn't seem as bad. We opted to steer clear of the Twin Cities with traffic and the construction as they rebuild from that terrible bridge collapse, so we entered MN at Duluth. I was a tad disappointed at our welcome at this border. Every other state we went through, we got a Welcome to _____ sign to greet us. Not this time. All we got when we drove over the bridge from Superior, WI, into Duluth, was a small sign saying "entering Minnesota". Lame, lame, lame.

we interrupt the trip update for just a moment...

Happy Birthday to Uncle Jon!! He is looking quite debonair and not at all like 70! May we all look this good at 70!

Another great wedding

Diana and Ken timed their I Do's perfectly. The rain held off until right after all the photos were done. The photographer had the most annoying, squeaky little voice and she drove everyone up a wall. But it looked like she took a lot of pictures, so the happy couple should have some nice ones to look back on. Us girls got to have a limo ride to the wedding, so that was really fun. I'd never been in a limo before. Diana looked positively regal, too.


Here's a few pictures taken from the reception.