Driving. Man the US is big

Departing Denver

By golly, we are en route!

We shipped a few boxes of luxuries that we won't need immediately. Other than that everything 2 people own, as well as ourselves and a 70 pound golden retriever, are in a 2004 Honda civic. We estimate the living space in our 36' boat to be about 200 ft2. There will definitely be things we buy once we get there, once we see what we're dealing with.

We left Denver about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, and headed east on Rte. 36. Remarkably, 36 goes in a straight line from Denver to Indianapolis, where my aunt and uncle live. It took about an hour more than driving the interstate. This route, however, was really pleasant, and interesting! It didn't feel like a chore, or boring, so even though it took longer to get there, it actually felt pretty short because we were entertained by looking out the window.

The first night we stayed at Prairie Dog St. Park in Kansas, after not going 1/2 way to Indianapolis. We started late, we were tired from the stress of packing and leaving, and it was getting dark. We pitched our tent at sunset and were just breaking out some mini champagne bottles as a departure gift when the fireflies came out to join us! We each grew up in firefly country but haven't seen them in many years, since Colorado is so high and dry.

Almost firefly time!

Monday we drove across the rest of Kansas (holy moly that state is big!), crossed Missouri without incident, went over the Mississippi river into Illinois at the town of Hannibal, MO, almost missed the exit leaving Springfield, IL, had a surprisingly good dinner at a Mexican place in a strip mall in Decatur, IL, and made it to Indianapolis at 11:30 after getting into eastern time.

My aunt and uncle (Lynn and Jim) are as generous and welcoming and hospitable as ever, and was very interested in our plans and the boat. Tuesday morning Jim helped us clean up the car battery and educate us on how batteries work. Apparently some of our acid had capillaried (yup, I said it) up the posts and out onto the case, and was conducting some electricity. Not a big deal in the short term, but it would run the battery down if left alone for a couple weeks. Which is exactly what we found when we got back from Alaska. Having it diagnosed and understood was really nice. So we cleaned it all up, refilled the water, reinstalled, and were on our merry way.

Mid afternoon Tuesday we left Indianapolis for Cleveland, to visit Jenn's brother Steve. We drove through a couple of rain storms, and made it safely and happily to Cleveland.