June 29th - Day 17
We started this morning at Illinois Beach State Park along Lake Michigan, north of Chicago, and finished the day at East Harbor State Park on Lake Erie, halfway between Toledo, OH and Cleveland (another LONG day of driving). Tomorrow we head out for to see our third great lake in 3 days. Before leaving on today’s drive, Becca and 3 of our kids were able to get their feet wet in the Lake Michigan. Hopefully they’ll be able to start the next couple days in a similar fashion.
A few highlights from the day:
Shortly after breaking camp and heading out this morning, we stopped for an early lunch in Barrington, IL with Becca’s Great Aunt and Uncle (Barb and John). While our visit was short, it was great to see them and catch up since it had been about 4 years since we last saw them.
At lunch, I looked at Google Maps to see the quickest way to get to where we were going. Based on traffic at that time, it took me around Chicago and not through it. However, when I checked again when we got back into the RV, it then had me going directly through the heart of the city. Not wanting to extend our drive time longer than needed, I took the bull by the horns and pointed my bus towards downtown Chicago. Considering that I was only honked at once, I think I did pretty good (I needed to merge, they didn’t want to allow me to merge, but I was going to merge anyway). We also enjoyed that added bonus of seeing the skyline as we drove through (the city of Becca’s birth).
Today we crossed into another time zone; Eastern Time. When trip planning though, I neglected to take into account changing time zones when I was determining how far we should drive each day. So far, every time we changed time zones, I had long drive days scheduled, which means we get to our destination an hour later than planned. Tonight it was 8:45pm and a 9:30 dinner! I’m thankful that when we cross time zones going back, we’ll gain an extra hour.
If time allows in the evenings after putting kids to bed, Becca and I sometimes go on a walk, leaving Aubrey in charge while we’re out. Tonight we decided to walk down to the beach access on Lake Erie, approximately a mile from where we are camped. As soon as we got to the lake, we received a text from Aubrey saying that Obadiah was screaming because he wanted us to take him to the bathroom. Not wanting him to keep his siblings up and really not wanting him to disturb others in the campground, we jogged back. And yes, I was wearing my Birkenstocks. When we got back to the RV, Obadiah was already asleep (LOL). Maybe I jog too slow in Birkenstocks?
A few pictures from the day:
