the davenport trail – day 7

We started the day with yummy breakfast at The Runcible Spoon with Francis & Adrienne and Jeff & Maggie.  It was great to spend a little more time with everyone before we got back on the road. 

It was still a ways through backcountry Indiana before we hit the interstate again.  I took a nap and woke up to Will pulling into this place for lunch:

Just in case you don’t recognize it, it’s a Sonic.

We didn’t do much exciting this day.  We pretty much just drove, stopped to feed either ourselves and/or the baby, and keep going.

We saw The Gateway Arch from the interstate.





So Missouri has these weird roads that are letters.  There does not even seem to be any rhyme or reason to them.  We even saw one that was “UU.”  Can you imagine how confusing that must be to include in directions?

Person A: Turn Right at Double U.
Person B: So turn at W?
Person A: No, Double U.

Ok, so maybe it’s not that funny but you can see where it might get confusing.

We got to our Hampton Inn in Columbia, MO (not realizing that it’s the home of Mizzu) and decided to let everyone have a stretch break.  Miss P really likes this.

“Mama, lemme see.”

”Dad, she won’t let me see.”

She’s finally starting to react if you blow raspberries on her belly, not that any of the pictures Will took showed that.
With all the homecooked meals we’ve been getting from friends this was actually our first trip to Cracker Barrel (which we affectionately refer to as “Crack House'”) for the whole trip and Baby’s first trip ever.
 
She voiced her approval by sleeping so that we could enjoy our dinner.

We really wanted their dessert special – mixed berry cobbler with Blue Bell Blackberry ice cream – but we were too full.  Since we could walk to the Crack House from the parking lot of the Hampton, Will went back later to get us dessert to go.
Yummy!

the davenport trail – day 6

We had had an interesting night.  Not terrible just requiring more diaper and pajama changes than might have been necessary normal.  We ran out of pjs, diapers and wipes.  Totally gunning for parents of the year.

the evidence.

With the Michiganders begging us to stay and go to the beach – oh so tempting – and feeding us blueberry pancakes, we struck out in search of the notary so that we could finish up our closing papers and get them back in the mail.

I know the house was cool but I still don’t know why I felt that Baby P needed a blanket when I knew that I was handing her to Liz who’s a furnace.

Babe fell asleep while I ate my pancakes.

It would have felt silly to get pictures of us signing our closing papers (Kristen was the instigator for the picture from the night before) but we got them all signed and notarized (by a slightly exasperated notary at the UPS store) and given over to FedEx.  Our important business complete, we set out for Indiana.

not before snapping a pic of Texas Township.

We drove on state roads through most of Indiana and saw some interesting sights.
 


This model of the visitor’s center is Indiana’s Cache Across America.  Will was a little more hesitant to open the thing to be sure; that was my job. 

Requisite picture as required to log the CAA. 

I decided to finally take a couple of pictures of the packed car.

The cool drive-in that we passed. 

Wish I knew were this was.

After some anxiety from our friends, we did finally make it to Jeff and Maggie’s in Gosport. They live out the country and it was so nice out there.  Miss P had a small meltdown but nothing serious.

The view from their driveway.

Will using the “let’s take her outside” tactic for calming a wailing babe.

Ben, their adorable chow mix pup.  He was SO very friendly.  You walked up and he rolled over for a belly rub.
Maggie, Jeff, Francis, Will with P, and Adrienne who is inspecting the baby toes.

There were horses next door!

She was nice and calm by the time dinner was ready to be served outside so we grabbed the bouncer chair from the car and had her hang out on the grass.
 


Our accommodations in Francis and Adrienne’s “library.”  It was a little bright for Miss P so we did a little “cover the canary cage” trick and she was out in a few moments.

the davenport trail – day 5

After several days in Ohio, it finally came time to leave.  In another counter intuitive move, we headed back north.  This time to Michigan.

Along I-75 I had to snap a few pictures of some familiar, yet different, roadside landmarks.

The Flea Market now has bizarre giraffes all over the roof:

Butter Jesus, Touchdown Jesus, whatever you liked to call it is absolutely no more and so far is not being replaced:

Then we pushed on to Pure Michigan:

First we stopped to visit with the Briggses who were friends of ours in Virginia but moved back to Michigan late last year.  When we arrived Miss V was asleep…

Hard to believe that she’s already a year old.




V saying bye bye to P.  It was super cute!

Aw, Guinness.

Next stop, Kalamazoo and Auntie Lizzie!

Bells Brewery The Eccentric Cafe.  Probably one of Will’s most anticipated stops of the trip.

It’s a baby in a bar…

In case that last one wasn’t obvious enough…


Will’s sampler.

Will and his 2 gals in Kalamazoo.

Kristen is the baby whisperer and keeper of the baby since we left the cafe to check out the store and were informed that if we tried to get back in with the baby, the bouncer chick wouldn’t let us back in.  And we did get booted later.

Accommodations at the lovely “Hotel Weber” so nice and cold….

Will and I spent a lot of time signing as many of the closing papers as we could before the morning when we needed to go to the notary.