Day 4: Results Revealed

Hello again to all the faithful few. Thanks for traveling along with us and sorry about not being able to post yesterday. The hotel we were staying in had technical difficulties, but it was the cheapest place we could find in Erie (and it was still the most expensive stay of this trip.)

For everyone who hasn’t figured it out, the ticket was (in fact) bestowed upon Kim Rush. We enlisted help to police a comment from Jason Harris this morning saying that he zoomed in on a photo and could see the name Rush on the ticket. It is fun for us that you guys were so into it, but we did not want the votes to get spoiled. The tears in Kelcey’s eyes were still there from the first pictures we tried to take when she could not stop laughing. (She is the worst at keeping a straight face under pressure. Has anyone ever played “Honey, if you love me. . . give me a great big smile” with her?) Kim was pretty shocked to get busted, and for the record this is her first ticket in the USA . . . so the only one provable. No tears or anything, but she did appear to be bribing the cop at first when she tried to give him her debit card. In her defense again (by the way, who do you suppose is writing the post tonight?) her picture is on her debit card and she never uses any of the cards in Mexico. Kara adds . . . “She just pays cash.” No comment.

So anyway, how about a report from yesterday? We were trying to cover a lot of ground at an appropriate speed. Not much happened until Kim was driving again and we zoomed past a huge, speedy go-kart track. We thought it would be a safe and cheaper alternative to exercise the lead feet we inherited from our mom, so we turned around and took our break speeding around the track. This was not very fun for Kara, who was already feeling worse yesterday (puke count up to a total of 11 plus it would not have been safe for Kumquat.) Needless to say she was pit crew and groupie all in one. This stop was especially for Chris, since we girls hijacked his trip.

Kelcey and Kim were feeling increasingly nervous after signing their lives away and watching the other racers speed past the pit. When it was our turn to go, Chris took the lead and almost immediately spun out off the track. The first real curve was a hairpin turn and these babies could fly. Kim heard herself squeal like a grandma and Kelcey’s stomach flip-flopped as she did a double-take flying by . . . “Was that Chris?” . . . followed by. . . “Could that be me?” In spite of the spin out, Chris managed to lap us both twice. By the end, we were at least not afraid to open it up on the straight-aways and had passed one another a couple of times. Kara was a really good sport. (To flash forward, we are happy to announce that she is feeling much better today. She is very tired, but really a trooper.)

The other highlight of the day was that we completed the black-out of our travel Bingo game when we spotted a hot air balloon basket in the back of a pick-up. We are five away from finding a license plate from every state. Mostly we have just enjoyed spending time together. There has been a lot of laughing and remembering of events that could have gone long forgotten had we not been able to put our heads together on this extended party. We are having so much fun. A special thank you again to our parents for keeping our kids, our husbands for letting us come and Chris for letting us all tag along.

Tomorrow we will add about today (Niagara Falls), but for now we wanted to let you know that we are safe in our destination of Syracuse, NY and have clocked in at a total of 2, 920 miles.

Ticket Teasers

Make sure to vote in the poll box to the right there.

We considered sharing some interesting tid-bits on the ticket. All of the following facts are true and happened exactly as I am reporting them here. The offender attempted to bribe the officer by first pulling out their debit card. Chris took out his (unsightly) earrings, in an attempt to "blend in " and then had the gall to ask the officer for a candid photo passing in the ticket. Kara actually got out of the car and threw up (probably from the stress). We think that is what brought out the second squad car. Kelcey repositioned her shoulder strap to go over her arm, livin' on the edge. Kim took the picture of the two squad cars through the back window.

So you do the math here, people. As the four musketeers, we disavow all knowledge of these actions. (Well, until tonight when you can check in for the big reveal. Sorry, this is as exciting as it gets.)

Eat your checkers!

Despite any misadventure today, we still are enjoying the trip.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto! - Day 3

So, this morning we left Colby, KS around 8:00am and we were making really great time until about 10:15 when we were nabbed by the Kansas State Trooper. While a polite man, he declined a comment for the blog and refused to be photographed for our memories sake. One of us got a ticket today, but it is up to you to vote on who you think it was. (Actual results will be revealed in tomorrow's post).

For lunch we stopped at the Cracker Barrel, where Kara and Kelcey cheated their way through a checkers game.

I am way more tired tonight that I was yesterday, thus this post is not as detailed or as funny.

We ended up in St. Louis, MS, after crossing into Illinois several times in an attempt to park by the arch. We watched the Cardinals game and the sunset from the top of the arch. (Ok, so we know it doesn't really count n the way of watching the game, but we did stand outside the stadium while the Cards won and fireworks were shot off). We hunted for an open Starbucks, but apparently, downtown St. Louis closes at 8pm, so we missed them all. For Eli's sake, we did photograph a St. Louis City mug through the window while the two workers inside just laughed at us.

We are now about 45 miles into Illinois, at an Econolodge, trying the rapidly finish this post so we can hit the sack. Good night, and good luck guessing who got nabbed.

Also, we have about 836 miles left to go until Syracuse, and we have over 2000 miles under our belts.

Road Trip