A Week On The Road...

[crimsonquill]

I'm sure some of you folks noticed that I was missing from the boards here for a whole week...

I needed a vacation... and it seemed my timing was good because my mother-in-law & wife needed company on their trip to Wisconsin. The bad news was that I was going to be trapped in the passenger seats with the kids (my son and nephew) while the other adults took the seats up front. Thankfully we decided to rent a Dodge Caravan which gave us tons of leg room and luggage space. So while my son was playing his Nintendo DS and my nephew was watching movies on his video iPod, I was able to just doodle in my writing journal and watch the occasional DVD on my mini-player.

Friday - August 3- We left our house to my in-law's farm where we would pick up the Caravan and crash for the night after having a big pizza party.

Saturday - August 4 - 7 AM came quite early for those of us who sleep in on the weekends but we all managed to load up the Caravan and prepare for the first part of a very very long drive to come. While my wife and her mother listen to the radio and various mixed music CDs, I somehow managed to keep from going crazy from my son and nephew's constant tickle fights and needs to beat each other up after playing pranks on each other. I somehow realized that after passing the age of thirty-five that my tolerance of teenagers going crazy around me just  doesn't hold up anymore in closed quarters. I think we finally reached Indianapolis, IN around 9 PM at night. We thankfully had reservations at a nice hotel with more then enough space (bedroom, sitting room, big bathroom, and a small kitchen). After getting dinner at the local Bennigan's - the kids and I decide to hit the large heated indoor pool until we finally exhausted ourselves enough to sleep thru the night.

Sunday - August 5 - 7 AM we quickly packed up our room and had breakfast on the run because we had a major site seeing agenda ahead of us - The Indianapolis 500 Speedway. Of course we visited the gift shop, museum, and had the bus tour on the actual speedway itself which was great for my nephew and son who are huge race car nuts. We gathered our booty and then hit the road again because we needed to plow thru Chicago and then make good pace until we reached our final destination of Tomahawk, Wisconsin. I think we hit the city limits of Chicago around 2:30 PM and oddly the radio station we were listening to decide to play the Shaft theme as we passed the Sears Tower. I had flashbacks of my last visit to the "Windy City" during the 2002 WizCon and got to meet my best friend and shop around my old script bible. My thoughts kinda wondered for awhile until we left the city limits and realized that I would be missing WizCon this year because I'd be going back home during that time. Around 9 PM that night we finally pulled into Tomahawk in front of my Uncle-In-Law's house - we all had a quick dinner and then crashed for the night because the fun was only going to be starting.

Monday - August 6 - 8 AM we got up and finally got to sit down to a big homemade breakfast. We needed all of this fuel because today we were hitting the road AGAIN for a trip to Minnesota to see THE MALL OF AMERICA! Okay, sure it's just another mall - but the amusement park in the middle of the mall sounded great because my son and I have been dying for a trip to a major amusement park forever now. Thanks to the hospitality of one of my uncle's daughters we were able to crash at their place and split our visit to the mall between two days. We decided to do some site seeing along the way and reached the Mall around 3 PM so we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and the walked around the mall getting the layout of the stores we wanted to hit the following day and what exciting stuff was waiting for the kids (and me) in the amusement park. We headed back our host's house for a grilled dinner and went to bed (kids in sleeping bags in a tent in the back yard and the adults in various guest rooms and couches).

Tuesday - August 7 - 8 AM started off our day with a quick breakfast and then headed back to the mall for Part 2. The kids and myself (being the adult chaperone) got wrtistbands for unlimited all-day use of the park which believe me had me VERY sore for the next few days afterward. Sure the rides were not nose bleeders or had that giant layout that places like Kings Dominion or Six Flags have but they managed to squeeze alot into the middle of that mall. Thankfully I was relieved after a late lunch so that I could do some shopping of my own along with my wife. I managed to get numberous T-Shirts at this one place that was filled with more stuff then I could afford. We tried to stay away from stores that were common to every mall but I did stick my head in Hot Topic to see The Posiez dolls that my friend from LiveJournal makes. We staggered to the van after 5 PM and resigned ourselves to the long ride back to Wisconsin and our beds which waited for our aching bodies.

Wensday - August 8 - We Started off with a brunch food fest which suited us fine since sleeping in was so appealing. We all decided to stay in town and just do local things and visit since the previous two days had us running around so much. I decided that putt-putt golf with the kids was a good start and then we all decided to try out the local driving range since they had a dollar a bucket deal running that weekend. Ow! My arms and back were sore already but I managed to hit around 250 Yards and I have only done this kind of thing once before outside of Wii Sports Golf. The evening was spent chatting around the dinner table and then watching a few DVD movies. Everyone else went to bed around midnight but some of the younger adults including myself decided to have a Doctor Who marathon since I had my collection with me.

Thursday - August 9 - As much as we hated to admit it.. our visit was over once an early breakfast was finished. We had a LONG drive ahead of us because my wife wanted to make Ohio before night fall. We packed up the caravan said our goodbyes and then hit the road once again. More DS, more iPod, Radio Stations, CDs, and DVDs with endless road ahead of us for hours. Finally we reached our hotel in Ohio around 11 PM and we all pretty much piled into the beds, rollaway cot, and sleeping backs into a long deep coma for the night.

Friday - August 10 - Today was my wife's day - Why did we travel all the way to Ohio? She wanted to finally get a Factory Tour of Longaberger HQ and then walk the shopping areas there to get some deals - especially since she sells the stuff occassionally. Sure my mother-in-law, nephew, and son found themselves keeping occupied with the tourist stuff there.. I was left carrying lots of boxes and bags. Just call me the pack mule. After lunch we stuffed everything into the van and then gunned the rest of the ride home. I believe we pulled into the farm driveway just after the sun went down and we had to unpack the rental car quickly so that we could return it that night. Lots of chats about what happened during our trip and exchanging of souvenirs to those unlucky few who decide to stay behind. I think we put on a DVD from Wisconsin Tourism and then everyone passed out where we were sitting.

Saturday - August 11 - Recovery Day - Plain and Simple. Everyone slept in until around Noonish and then we all elected to have brunch and just relax today without worrying about rushing home until later in the evening. My son and I packed the car just after dinner and we had a quiet ride back home and managed to get unpacked just before The Simpsons came on TV. Everyone headed off to bed around 10 PM and I finally got online after a whole week of being netless and surfed until my brain went numb.

And that chaos was my week in short verse...

- CrimsonQuill

[Uncle Yuan]

Man, you should have mentioned you were coming to town!  I would have shown you much more interesting things than the MoA!!

Sounds like a very full trip.  I'm glad you had a good time!

[stumpy]

Sounds like an eventful trip. It wore me out just reading about all that! Sounds like you had fun.

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

Quite the trip, and quite the record of the trip!  Anyways, welcome back CQ!