4 days and 11 states later

After our glorious week of fun in the sun we spent 2 nights in Salt Lake before hitting the road. The night before we left we went to dinner with friends and Jeff presented them with special little gifts he made just for them. (Photo collages he made for them of us. They were thrilled!)



Sunday before we officially left the state we had breakfast with my family in the morning and stopped in Midway for dinner with Jeff's family. Just before we got to their house we stopped to stock up on snacks and drinks for the days ahead and when I got out of the car I stubbed my toe on the car tire---After the half my toenail turned black, unattached itself from my toe except for one tiny strip, turned white and magically reattached itself.--Well not anymore. I looked down to see my toe nail sitting belly up next to the tire! Eww.. I have been a toenail less monster ever since.

Anyway, we said our goodbyes and hit the road. About 8 hours later I was hating life and Nebraska as a whole after going to 3 different gas stations and 2 hotels only to find out Nebraska doesn't have any bathrooms to speak of. I literally danced in the parking lot almost in tears while jeff peed on the road (men don't know how easy they have it!) and filled the car with gas. Finally we found an open gas station with a real live toilet and sink. It was my own personal heaven for 2 minutes and then I got out of there as fast as I ran in and we hit the road again. We spent the night in North Platte Nebraska and made it to Chicago the next day around 11pm.


Nothing but us and the open road



Crossing the Mississippi River

We spent 2 fun nights in Chicago, visited with family, shopped til we dropped in the city and then once again to my excitement and Jeff's dismay we hit the road!


Chicago




Feeling good after a day of shopping in the city




Chicago White Sox stadium


Lake Michigan


Really cool Bahai temple outside the city

Had I known what was to follow later in the afternoon I'm not so sure we would have left Chicago.. EVER. Around 3pm Jeff and I are minding our sweet business listening to a book on tape when our car goes out of control and I swear we hit an elephant, with steel legs. The second we stopped we both instinctively already knew what had happened, the tire blew. We pulled off and made sure each other was ok before getting out to assess the damage. Jeff's safe was enough to tell me it was a lot worse than it felt. Sure enough not only did the tire blow but it took my blinker light and whole front left fender with it. It was a tangled mess on the side of the highway. We got towed and ended up taking a 3 hour detour in a small town named Holladay, Ohio where we met some very nice folk and got 4 new tires for my tiny and mangled car. At first I was pissed. I was really mad and all I could think was I knew something like this was going to happen we should have sold the stupid car and cut our losses... blah blah blah. And then I realized how lucky we were and that it could have potentially been a lot worse! I thanked my heavenly father for the safe trip we had had thus far and Jeff and I decided this was his nudge for us to get new tires on my car now instead of waiting until the fall like we had planned. We ended up laughing about it for the next 3 hours while my car got fixed and came away with a good attitude about the whole thing. But that didn't stop us for too long and we were back on the road. We had a quick dinner pit stop with friends in Cleveland and then drove through the night and got home to CT around 0600 the next morning. We went right to bed we were both exhausted!


Two face (harvey dent) as I like to call her now. The Terminator if you're asking Jeff.


what was left



very sad watching her get towed


We were able to get four new tires and get back on the road, we even stopped and were lucky enough to pick up my hubcap but can you even imagine the looks I get driving that baby around town and with Utah plates to top it off!