Driving into the Sunset

So packing went quite slowly (because there was so much to organize and pack), and both Patty and I were up quite late last night. We'll just say that we were both still up at 5am. Anyway, Patty continued our packing adventure in the morning, generously encouraging me to sleep in until almost noon.

My original plan was to leave around 1pm in the afternoon. In the end, we didn't get everything done and ready to go until around 4pm, and didn't get on the highway until a little after 5pm.

The kids had a late night last night, so they promptly fell asleep once we got on the highway.

Emma wearing her sunglasses and a pig neck pillow while eating a sandwich for dinner.

At around 5:30pm: All the kids were saying how excited they were to be on a road trip and going to California.

At exactly 7:35pm: Emma reflected and said, "Mommy, I'm tired of driving to California."

The driving (like this blog entry) was uneventful. Western Illinois on I-88 is a beautiful journey through the gently rolling hills of a pastoral wonderland. In other words, it's just a lot of corn and farms. Very few cars were on the road. The Quad cities must not be a popular Sunday destination. One highlight for the kids (besides the three cars we saw pulled over by police) was crossing the Mississippi River, which we did around 8:20pm.

The Mississippi

Our late start meant that we didn't arrive at our hotel near Des Moines, Iowa until just after 10pm. It took a while to get the kids settled and washed up and in bed. I think everyone (including Patty) is now asleep, and I need to go join them soon.

I apologize for the lack of interesting pictures or content in today's blog entry. However, tomorrow is a new day! We may visit the Strategic Air and Space Museum, and our Monday evening destination is Ogallala, Nebraska.