Friday, September 10, 2010

Kentucky, and some other states that I can't remember

Another hotel with s-l-o-w internet.  Sadly, we promised the kids we'd stay in a really nice hotel for the last bit of our journey, but looks and reviews can be deceiving.  It is very hard to find a nice hotel with adjoining rooms, allows dogs, has a pool, and is NOT on the bed bug registry.  That being said, though, the kids had the best time at a crappy Days Inn in Mitchell, SD, because the pool had an awesome water slide. I am beyond tired, and all the anxiety of finding a place to live in Virginia and getting the kids in school is beginning to creep up on me. 

Yesterday was our longest car day yet, but we did stop briefly at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to go up in it and check out the museum there.  They take you up in a teeny tiny, windowless pod.  Henry and I were sorry we didn't have our Ziplocs handy, but we made it, and it really was breathtaking, looking out those tiny windows at the top at all of St. Louis. Or so I hear.   I was busy hyperventilating in the corner.

After the Arch, we drove though Kentucky and are currently in Lexington, where we saw a kid casually sauntering down the highway carrying a hunting rifle.  We had a great dinner in the hotel restaurant, where we tried southern-fried catfish and hush puppies (yum!, but what doesn't taste good that has been battered and dropped into a vat of oil?).  The waitress was really nice and we gave her a big, fat tip, which was good because she brought my purse to our hotel room.  I'd left it in the restaurant.  I know!  Maybe leaving my purse is going to be my new thing, instead of squirting hand sanitizer on my family members every time they touch a public handrail.

Today we're going to try to make it all the way to our housing in Falls Church, which is a good thing, because otherwise I'm going to have to buy us all new underwear, and I am not ready to step into a Wal-mart in Kentucky.  One thing about driving from coast to coast is how much easier it is to adjust to the time zone changes.  Although we were the only family eating hush puppies at 9:45 in the restaurant last night.

The kids have been unbelievably good.  It just goes to show that you CAN pay cold, hard cash for good behavior, and it's money well-spent, too. Three of them are complete misers, and have racked up a tidy sum of savings.  The other one, well, she has racked up a tidy sum of stuffed animals. Seamus has been good, too, but we fear he is showing signs of depression.  His wag has lost it's pep, despite the steady supply of midwestern treats we've been giving him.  He did corner a possum outside our hotel last night, and that seemed to perk him up a bit. 

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