Our West Coast Trip

Thursday, April 24th, 2025

Okay, so getting started on our road trip took a bit longer than we had expected. We were intending to attend the SCA event Awakenings 36, in Tylersville, IL, but when I went downstairs on Thursday the 24th to do the final preparatory load of laundry, I discovered that the floor of the laundry room was covered with black sewage water, backing up from the pipe leading out to the street. 

Scratch doing the laundry at home.

Leaving it to Phil to locate a plumber to clear the pipes out (our usual plumber wasn’t available, and the plumber he suggested was located at the far end of town from us), I took the laundry over to the laundromat. Coming home, I found Roto-Rooter (2 teams) working on clearing out the pipe and getting rid of the sewer water. 

Once they got the worst of the mess cleaned up (and ran a small camera through the pipe to be sure it was clear), they arranged to come over again the next day to thoroughly clean out the scale on the inside of the 55-year-old cast iron pipe leading out to the street.

On Friday, Roto-Rooter returned to do some massive cleaning, both in the laundry room and in the pipeline leading to the main sewer line. Because the water had seeped in between the floor tiles in the laundry room, all of the tiles needed to be removed, and the floor thoroughly cleaned. Meanwhile, the other Roto-Rooter team spent the day completely reaming out the sewer line, so that no iron scale (from rust) was remaining in the pipe to catch anything that might cause another clog.

Both teams were successful. The team working on cleaning the laundry room, though, had to wrestle with the problem of drying the excess water lingering there. The best solution turned out to be enclosing the entire area and setting up a very large fan, blowing air in the area. It was, indeed, great for drying, but it produced a very loud roar. The only way to escape it was to stay out of the living room.

By Saturday, both Phil and I were thoroughly tired of the constant roar. The Roto-Rooter technician came back, early that afternoon, and we had him take the fan away, and set up our (much smaller) dehumidifier to run for the three weeks while we were gone. That was much easier on us and on the cats. 

Now I was finally able to run one last load of laundry, and we packed our bags, ready to leave on Sunday.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

My sister came over to help us pack everything into my car — we wanted to use it because, as a Mazda3 with a stick shift, it would get much better gas mileage than Phil’s car. Everything *just* fit into the car, and Phil jammed himself into the passenger seat so that we all could go get lunch, then fill my gas tank. 

Watching Phil sitting next to me, I could tell it was a tight spot for him. We discovered that we had left a copy of our itinerary at home, so we headed back to the house. As we drove, I asked Phil if he thought he could take sitting there for the three weeks we would be driving. 

He finally conceded that it wouldn’t be great, so I suggested we switch to his Pilot — being a 2023 model, it gets much better gas mileage than his old Pilot. It’s also a lot larger than my car, so fitting everything in would be much easier.

And that is how we came to leave fully an hour later than we had planned. (And, in the long run, it’s a good thing we went back. We discovered that we had also never gotten my laptop into the car — not having it along would have made paying the normal cycle of household bills very difficult. A lucky call, all around!)

Once we got Phil’s gas tank filled, and finally got on the road, the first day’s drive was quite pleasant. Driving through southern Indiana and Illinois was easy, since we knew the area, for the most part. When we got into southern Illinois, we came across the town of Casey, IL, just as we were discussing dinner. 

The billboard on the highway lured us into town to see “The World’s Largest Pitchfork” — 60 feet long, and on display at the Richard’s Family Restaurant. It sounds like a reasonable place to eat, so we got off and discovered that Casey is also the home for 5 other “World’s Largest”, including a golf tee, a rocking chair and a softball bat. Casey *is* a small town, and apparently decided that the best way to lure in tourists would be to become the home of “The World’s Largest”. It’s certainly not hurting them.

After dinner, we headed onward, since we were spending the night near the St. Louis airport. (Crossing the

Mississippi well after dark eliminated any chance to seeing either the Arch or the river itself. Maybe we’ll manage it on the way home.) We got to our room by 9:30 PM Central time — on schedule for making it to Manhattan, KS the next day, and catching us up to our schedule.

Monday, April 28th, 2025

Monday’s driving started with getting through the traffic around the St. Louis airport, and then through the rest of the traffic in the St. Louis suburbs. (Suburbs always seem to go on forever when all you want to do is get past them.) Finally, the highway opened up, and we were able to make better time. 

As we reached the middle of the state, we came across billboards for Crane’s Country Store. It sounded like a good break from the road, so we got off and discovered that Crane’s was definitely a landmark. There was almost nothing else around for shopping in the area.

There really didn’t need to be anything else — Crane’s seemed to have almost anything anyone in the region might have needed. Their billboards advertised “Boots, Bullets, Britches and Bologna”. They certainly had an enormous selection of Carhartt clothing, shoes and almost anything else they might make. It was also full of nearly everything else anyone might need, including groceries. They also sell bologna sandwiches on white bread: “One meat + One cheese = 2 dollars”. It’s impossible to leave the store without buying anything, so we found a couple Carhartt items, and got a sandwich to share for lunch.

Getting back on the road, we head out through the hills of Missouri, letting the miles pile up so that we could

make it to Manhattan, KS, for the night. This was Phil’s home country, and he had a lot he wanted me to see. We took time off the road at Topeka so that I could see their home there, the neighborhood, and the high school that he went to by bicycle every day. He even took me over to the dam where many “experiments” took place. We had lunch at a diner that had been around since his college days. All in all, it was a nice way to see where he came from, and how much it meant to him.

We still had to get to Manhattan, though, so after taking some pictures, and driving around, we headed out. As

we got close to Manhattan, the skys got very dark, and the first drops of rain came down just as we reached our hotel. We managed to get everything out and into our room before the storm started in earnest — with rain coming in buckets and hailstones pounding down all over.

Fortunately, the storm paused long enough to let us get to the nearby BBQ restaurant, then opened up once again. Then, just as we finished eating and the restaurant was ready to close, the rain paused once again. (No, we didn’t have any control over the weather. It was all luck!) We managed to get to our car, stop and get a couple snacks for the room, and get back to the hotel before the storm started up yet again. (One of the remnants of the earlier storms was a loss of power for the stoplights near the hotel. Ah well, at least we were safely in the room for the night.)

Tuesday, April 29th, 2025

Tuesday morning was devoted to touring Manhattan, and particularly the Kansas State campus. K-State’s student population was, and still is, ~15,000 students. (Michigan State’s has been 50,000-55,000 for a long time. The contrast, for me, was rather striking.) It’s certainly a good, modern school, with individual buildings for all of the disciplines. I do regret that we didn’t stop and go into any of the buildings. I really wish we could have gone into the library — of course, it would have taken me an hour or more to explore it as much as I wanted. Oh well!

Leaving Manhattan, we were on the road, driving through the low hills of Kansas. Lots of farmland, all of which looked relatively familiar — there’s plenty of farmland in the Midwest, after all. The difference, for me, was the space involved — there’s *lots* of farmland in Kansas, whereas we have farmland regularly broken up by cities and towns. Central Kansas is nice rolling country, while western Kansas is much flatter. We finally got to Colby, KS and settled in for the night.

Wednesday, April 30th, 2025

Wednesday was another travel day, getting to Denver from Colby. More flat land, with gentle rolls that still let you see many miles ahead. We had been following interstates, for the most part, with the area around Topeka and Manhattan being the only real exceptions, since Phil was more familiar with the area. Today, we nearly made an exception going into Denver, but finally decided that we should stay on our original route since we didn’t know our way around Denver that well.

What was pleasant, though, was the fact that we got into the hotel early enough that we had time to find a laundromat, and get our laundry done. It wasn’t so much that we were running low on anything, as it was that we finally expanded our potential choices back to everything we had brought — always nice to have available. Dinner was at the LA Hot Pot & Barbeque, where we wound up cooking our own meal at our table. Maybe it will work better for me, once I have more experience. For now, I’ll pass on repeating it this trip.

Thursday, May 1st, 2025

This was the day that we really started sightseeing as such, crossing the Continental Divide (during a snow squall!) and discovering that the altitude was a bit higher than I could handle easily. We deliberately chose to go through Breckenridge, CO, a Victorian-era mining town that has turned itself into a popular ski resort. The Victorian homes remain, and are now the locations for many of the town’s stores and restaurants. Lunch was at Fatty’s Pizzaria (one of the few places open, since the ski season had ended the day before), and we got to watch the snow continue to fall while we ate.

Since we were in Breckenridge at the very tail end of ski season, many of the stores in town were closed, no doubt taking a well-deserved vacation after the skiers had left. We still had plenty of driving ahead, so we got back on the road for Grand Junction, CO. Dinner there was at the Blade and Bone “Mean Grill Wicked Spirits” — a steakhouse run by a local family, who had recently taken the steaks and the pork chops off the menu, due to the rising cost of both beef and pork.  They did still have ribs on the menu, so Phil had those, while I had salmon. (I really *should* know better than to order salmon at a steak house.) We stopped and got a couple small bottles of milk, and dessert was lemon Girl Scout cookies for me. I really shouldn’t have eaten 3, but they were so much better than dinner itself had been.

Friday, May 2nd, 2025

Another day of sightseeing, before we started the journey to Salt Lake City. We went to the Colorado National Monument — described as a mini-Grand Canyon. Having not yet seen the Real Thing, I can’t actually verify this description (hopefully, we’ll find a way to fit in a visit in a week or so), but it was indeed a great way to spend the morning. Admittedly, we started out by stopping at every spot we could, taking pictures of the views and being delighted by the pictures we were getting, including that of a tiny lizard that I happened to spot. 

Since the route through the Monument was 23 miles long, we finally realized that we couldn’t keep up that way if we wanted to get out and on the road on any sort of reasonable hour, so we sped up — taking pictures after longer intervals, and just enjoyed the scenery. It took

us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get through the 23 miles of roadway in the park (Rim Rock Drive and Monument Drive combined), so a quick lunch at a local eatery, and we took off for the night’s destination, Salt Lake City.

Saturday, May 3rd, 2025

The route today was long — 5 hours-worth of driving — so we didn’t want to get too bogged down with the morning’s sightseeing. However, it was easy to choose what to go see. When you are in Salt Lake City, you have to stop and see the Great Salt Lake. Very interesting and worth the time: hyper-saline, which enables anyone to float more easily. 

At the entrance to the Great Salt Lake State Park (and Marina), there was an odd building that looked like either a mosque or a very elaborate Dairy Queen. It turns out that it is The Great Saltair, a concert venue with the option of either indoor auditorium seating or an outdoor concert amphitheater. Very interesting! I’ll have to put pictures in, once I sort them all out.

Leaving, we got back on I-80 and headed toward Winnemucca, NV. Along the way, we stopped for a break at a Salt Flats rest area, which happened to be *the* Bonneville Salt Flats. There were quite a few people out walking on the flats, and it’s amazing to see just how much salt has

been deposited in the area. The area even has a measured mile, where quite a few land speed records have been set, only to be broken with the next upgrade in technology. Definitely worth the stop, even if Phil hadn’t realized that we would be coming so close to this.

After that, we went back to driving through the Utah, and then

Nevada, wide expanses. It’s definitely a different experience being surrounded by so much open space. And our evening destination, Winnemucca, is one of those towns that you pass through — it’s not for staying in. Tomorrow’s goal is Klamath Falls, OR — essentially, the jumping-off point for our drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. We’ll be able to slow down and really enjoy the coastline, soon.

Sunday, May 4th, 2025

The motel we were staying at was not our normal Comfort Inn chain, and the complimentary breakfast was not exactly adequate, so we went out to one of the local restaurants, the Griddle. Apparently our timing was very lucky, as we were seated immediately. Very soon after, though, I heard the hostess promising wait times to almost everyone — it turns out that this must be one of The Places for Sunday Brunch, as it filled up quickly and completely. And everyone seemed happy to wait.

We soon discovered why. This was The Best Meal we’ve had so far this trip! I had a Lemon Blueberry Belgian Waffle (with whipped cream, but that certainly wasn’t needed) that was absolutely delicious, and I was able to make it a combination meal, and add 2 eggs and 4 pieces of bacon, to make sure I had enough protein. (I may try to come up with a version of this at home.) Phil had a pork chop with scrambled eggs, and sautéed mushrooms & onions, and enjoyed it, as much as I enjoyed mine. The final surprise was the orange juice — hand-squeezed(!) and amazing. And the coffee was good enough that we each got a cup to go on our drive.

Finding a small restaurant like the Griddle in a small city (well, “town” I guess) was the highlight of the day, and actually made the rain that started up as we headed out of Winnemucca somewhat less depressing. It rained for a couple hours, as we drove on U.S. 95, then Nevada State Route 140, and we saw very few other cars on our route. 

All around us was the emptiness of the Nevada high desert: brown grass (such as there was of it) and scrubby bushes, covering the rolling hills, (formerly) dry washes and uprisen outcrops. We saw a few (*very* few) houses and barns, signs indicating wandering free-range cows and foraging elk (and later along the route, signs for horses, donkeys and desert bighorn sheep), but saw little other signs of life.

We came across a very small crossroad called Denio Junction — a gas station, a small two-story motel (with maybe 20 rooms) and a souvenir and convenience store. They get points, though, for having a Little Free Library out in front, and all sorts of beautiful rocks and minerals from all over the world for sale on the shelves inside — some fossils, as well, although I only noted vertebrates, not the invertebrates I studied. (I’ll confess the most tempting sample I saw was some beautiful green crystalline fluorite from the Congo — large enough that it took both hands to lift.)

Coming into Oregon meant another change in the scenery, as the surroundings became more mountainous and the road provided us with warning signs for 8% downgrades for long stretches — 3 miles, 4 miles, even 6-8 miles. (We had SiriusXM as we drove, and the Underground Garage happened to play Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” — which I enjoy greatly — as we were going down one of the 8% downgrades. Phil found the juxtaposition of the two rather weird…..)

Eventually, we moved from open high desert scrub bushes to mountain passes that closed in and gave us rushing rivers tumbling downhill next to the road, pastures of horses and cows with ponds and lakes enlarged by recent rains, and distant mountain peaks once again covered with snow.

After topping several passes, we finally moved into a large basin filled with rich farmland. We got to Lakeview, OR, where we were able to get lunch at the local Burger Queen. Once we left there, we saw more farms, more conifer stands (some already cleared) and ultimately Klamath Falls. Tomorrow, we finally see Redwoods, and maybe even Pacific coastline.

Monday, May 5th, 2025

Leaving Klamath Falls, we plowed through the Oregon countryside, with its many farms, tidy fields and gurgling brooks and rivers. (Not too surprisingly,) California has a checkpoint at its entry points, to see if anyone is bringing in any potential risks or invading threats to its agricultural crops. The guard on duty was a nice older gentleman, and quickly waved us through. 

Cruising down US Highway 101, we quickly reached Crescent City, where Phil stopped at the local tourist bureau, and picked up a map of the Pacific shoreline. Following the map, we located the Pacific shore road, and began bouncing along the cliffs to see the waves crashing on the rocky shore, even seeing a collection the seals on the beach.

Driving through the Grizzly Creek and Humboldt Redwood State Parks and the Redwood National and State Parks, south of Klamath between US 101 and the coast, we found ourselves surrounded by giant redwoods. (I’m not sure we ever actually achieved the Avenue of the Giants, but it didn’t matter — there were plenty of redwoods around us the entire afternoon.) We also came out of the forests every so often to find that we had also found the coastline, down below us on the rocky beach.

By the end of the day, we were on the cliffs above the Clam Beach County Park, and looked down to find yet another herd of seals on the beach — quite a large herd for the narrow slit of a bay that they were dipping themselves into.

We ended the day at Eureka, CA, knowing that there were plenty more redwoods to see the next day.

Tuesday, May 6th, 2025

Back on the road at Eureka, we headed out to the coastline again and into the redwood forests. It was difficult to wake ourselves up with all of the travel, so we stopped in Redway CA, and discovered the Signature Coffee Co., with both tasty coffee and some delicious pastries. The rest of the morning was spent driving up and down the S curves of the hillsides within the redwood forests, with occasional sections of roadway that was along the rocky beaches in the area.

Eventually, we moved further inland on CA 101, then took a turn onto CA 128, so that we could explore more of the rolling hills and the vineyards down the Alexander Valley. It’s also a good region for fruit orchards, and we stopped at a fruit stand along the side of the road, picking up some dried apple slices and some ripe cherries. We finally ended the day at Santa Rosa, CA.

Wednesday, May 7th, 2025

Now that we had gone down the Alexander Valley, Phil really wanted to show me Napa, and then to drive through Napa Valley. Napa itself was a modest little town, so we ducked into the bookstore on Main Street, and I finally got to browse a nice little bookstore, and find a few interesting books. Then we drove down the Napa Valley, back and forth on the crossing roads that divided the huge fields of

vegetables, currently being harvested by groups of one or two dozen per field. We also saw the many different vineyards growing throughout the valley.

When we finally reached the end of the valley, we headed out to get further down the coast. This time, we drove a wide ring around San Francisco, hoping to avoid some of the traffic jams associated with the region. (Of course, it really didn’t work. Oh well!)

We finally ended at Monterey, and tried to have dinner at the Old Fisherman’s Wharf there, but couldn’t find a place to park anywhere near the wharf. Ultimately, we shifted our search for dinner to the Main Street through Monterey, and settled on an Italian restaurant. Afterward, we drove down to the beach west of downtown to watch the waves coming into the shore and grab some pictures of the waves as they crashed along the shoreline. A good way to end the day.

Thursday, May 8th, 2025

Starting out in Monterey, Phil suggested that we take advantage of the chance to take the “17 Mile Drive” around the Monterey peninsula, probably one of the most expensive (and, no doubt, exclusive) neighborhoods around. Being right on the Pacific, the first area we saw was the shoreline and the birds and mammals living there. The very first area had posted signs about the black oystercatchers nesting in the shore rocks, so identifying them was very easy. There were also seagulls perched everywhere, pelicans swooping past in flocks, and small ground squirrels. As we moved along the coast, we found more seals and sea gulls.

Then we started moving through the residential area and golf courses — there must be at least 7-8 golf courses, including the well-known Pebble Creek Golf Course. There are also plenty of new (and expensive) homes being built around the golf course. (Phil described them as the sort of homes that architects would consider their masterworks — they’d kill to be able to build homes like these.)

Leaving Monterey itself, we had a quick lunch at a local hamburger stop, then headed south on CA 101, which went down the middle of the state for the most part. (We wanted to go along the coastline, particularly through Big Sur, but there was no way to connect with major highways further south, due, I believe, to some roads disappearing under mudslides.) This was another stretch of “just keep driving” — we had originally planned to stop at Santa Barbara for the night, but Phil couldn’t find a Comfort Inn in the area. Ventura presented us with better options, so we ended up there, in the Amanzi Hotel — getting to it through the traffic jam that is the constant state of LA traffic that delayed us somewhat, but we muddled through, and found that it was almost on the shore with only the CA 101 freeway and the Amtrak railway between us and the beach.

For dinner, we went to Eric Ericsson’s Fish, on the pier just on the other side of the freeway from our hotel. Due to the physical layout and logistics of the area, we still had to drive to get there to get past the highway. The pier was an interesting location for the restaurant, and it had obviously been there for a long time — the massive boards used to build it were deformed from the years of exposure to the salt water. (Among other things, every knot in the wood was swollen, and the overall effect was to create an interesting tripping hazard.)

After dinner, we walked further out on the pier, and took pictures of the waves coming onshore, in the last of the of the sunset glow. Very pretty effect, and one of my favorite pictures to take. Finally, we had to admit that the light was gone, and it was time to go back to the hotel for the night.

Friday, May 9th, 2025

Starting out in Ventura, and waiting until 9:45 before we left (in hopes of finding some relief from the traffic — no, it didn’t work), we’d headed toward Joshua Tree National Park. We took a break in San Bernardino for lunch at the In-N-Out Burger, as Phil wanted me to experience a “typical West Coast burger” while I was able. (My reaction — meh, I should have had them take off the onion and much of the lettuce. Oh well.) 

We made it to the southern exit for the park after 6:00, and got to our room in Desert Pines after 6:30 PM.

Saturday, May 10th, 2025

Heading out from Desert Palms, we left with weather promises of 108 degrees, enough to discourage almost anyone’s appetite. There being really no way to avoid the heat, we set forth with the car air conditioning on high, and tried to keep the car running (and cooled) whenever we hit a place to pause.

Stopping at Blythe, CA, we had lunch at the Del Taco — Phil wanted to be sure that I experienced all of the West Coast standards while I had the chance. They seemed like decent enough tacos and they didn’t erupt out of their shells, so I was actually able to eat all the contents without having to retreat to a fork.

Driving through the Arizona countryside, we finally saw some Saguaro cactus — surprisingly, we hadn’t seen any while in the desert areas of California. At first, they were widely scattered, then more and more appeared, until they often dominated the rolling hills. Among them were other, lower bushes and small tussocks of grass, all on top of a base layer of pale tan dust. The desert is not the landscape to expect to find any organic material. 

Driving around the bypass for Phoenix, we found quite a few iterations on the same design for distribution centers: multiple (often quite a few multiple) loading bays for semi-trailers, with what looked like several floors of manufacturing or logistical control offices above them. Given the repeating color choices, my guess would be that the same company built these in quite a few locations.

Ultimately, we got to the north side of Phoenix, and had to deal with the confusion of construction along I-17 northbound. As it finally turned out, the northbound traffic was being routed onto the flex lanes on the southbound side, and we were able to get to Camp Verde, AZ with very few problems. Dinner at La Casita was great, although coming back to the hotel to finish the laundry was less than exciting. At least we are restocked on clean clothing, now.

Sunday, May 11th, 2025

This was one of the Goal locations for this trip — getting to see Tilla was more important than seeing the Grand Canyon. (The Grand Canyon has had lots of pictures taken, and is well-documented. Tilla is part of our family, and deserves to know that she always will be. Ergo, skip the added hour-and-a-half detour, in order to see someone who matters.)

Our next stop was in Winslow, AZ for lunch. I think the town is still grateful to Glenn Frey and the Eagles for writing the song (“Take It Easy”) and mentioning their town. There is a red Ford pick-up permanently parked there, just so everyone can take pictures of it on the town square. (And, yes, everyone does take the pictures. The place was filled with people.) Lunch was very good – I think we ate at the Flatbed Ford Café — but we needed to get back on the road.

We got to Albuquerque, NM around 7:30 PM local time. I texted Tilla and, since Phil was completely worn out from all the driving, she came over and joined us at the pizza parlor in the parking lot of the hotel. We had a great time talking, finding out how Milo was doing settling into school in New Mexico, how Tilla was enjoying her position at Kirtland (and how well her boss was backing her, and all of her colleagues, in ensuring their jobs were not at risk from DOGE purges). I hope, someday, we’re able to get her back in Flaming Gryphon, but I think they will do well out there for now.

Monday, May 12th, 2025

Monday was Route 66 Day — since we had spent so much time in Winslow, AZ on Sunday, on the way to visit Tilla, we started looking at all of the Route 66 material around us on Monday and began to specifically seek it out. For the most part, Route 66 is either merged with Interstate 40, or it runs generally parallel, veering into more wild country along the way. This carried us through Santa Rosa, NM, Tucumcari, NM (which shows many signs of having been generally abandoned, once the interstate took away much of its traffic), and Glenrio, TX (at exit 0 on the NM/TX border). Once in Texas, the highlight of the drive was passing a huge cattle feedlot — with thousands of cattle in large corrals/pens. We arrived in Amarillo, TX, and had a lovely steak dinner (of course) before settling in the hotel for the night.

Tuesday, May 13th, 2025

After two+ weeks of driving, this was the day we shifted into “Let’s just get home” mode. Once we arrived in Tulsa, OK, we rearranged our route so that we could get home more quickly, instead of going across Arkansas to Memphis, then to Bowling Green, KY

There’s a lot of space out there, in both Texas and Oklahoma, and we had seen quite a bit of highway, already. It was time to go more directly toward home, and get some respite from driving for hours without really seeing anything new and noteworthy along the way.

Wednesday, May 14th, 2025

And so we started the drive more directly toward home, and arrived in Sullivan, Missouri that evening. (It says something about our route, I think, when one of the highlights I took a picture of was the Route 66 Welcome Center. Otherwise, there was just a lot of highway, relatively filled with cars and trucks all sharing the same goal – rolling along the interstate, up and down the generally gentle hills, and getting to St. Louis as directly as possible. Sullivan, being the outermost southwest suburb of St. Louis, seemed a reasonable compromise for distance for this day. 

Thursday, May 15th, 2025

Leaving Sullivan, we picked our way carefully around and through the St. Louis traffic. We got there mid- to late morning, so the worst of the morning rush hour was past. That’s not saying much, though, as the traffic through any major city is going to be fairly heavy all day, especially as we approached the bridge over the Mississippi River. *Everybody* wants to cross it, seemingly all at the same time. 

At least after that point, we were back in more familiar territory in the Midwest, with generally rolling hills on either side of I-64. While we haven’t been through far western Illinois and southern Indiana all that often, they are states we know, so we could relax on the drive and enjoy the scenery, comforted by the fact that we were finally nearly home and would get there the next day. We arrived in Louisville, KY in time for dinner, and after settling into our hotel (one last time), we headed out to The Hungry Pelican, a restaurant I remembered from a past trip to Louisville quite a few years ago. There was still one left (apparently many of them closed during the intervening years), and the food was a delicious as I remembered. We’ll have to go there again, the next time we attend an event in that area. 

Friday, May 16th, 2025

Since we were only a little over two and a half hours from home, we didn’t rush to get on the road in the morning. The drive on I-71 was very familiar from past trips, so we spent the time cruising along, and got home in early mid-afternoon. That left us plenty of time to unpack the car before dark, and start the process of adjusting to being home. The cats all definitely approved of our reappearance. 

And thus ends our epic journey. Definitely long, but also very enjoyable. We may not do anything like this again for a while, but I’m very glad we managed to do it now.