Days 7-10

Day Seven: Naperville, Illinois

We had a short drive day today, a 2.5 hour trip to Naperville (which is west of Chicago). We stayed with Jim and Amy in their nice, new house. Jim was transferred to the Chicago office in May and told us what it's been like, adjusting to a new city and job.

They took us to a nice dinner at Walter Payton's Round House, yes, THE Walter Payton, Ethan's most favorite sports star. The restaurant had a one room museum dedicated to #34 and what better place than that to use as the backdrop to our Day 7 photo. :) (The restaurant is in Aurora, IL, where my mom, grandparents, aunts and uncle went to college. )

Day Eight: Youngstown, Ohio

460 miles later, we stopped for the night in Youngstown. We crossed through Indiana and almost made it through Ohio but needed to stop for the night. It was a long day and we were dead tired, so we ordered pizza in our hotel room, watched Grey's Anatomy and took our day 8 photo.Day 9: Grove City, Pennsylvania and Flemington, New Jersey

We drove through Grove City, PA today, which is Ethan's mom's college town. We stopped at the Grove City College campus and took some photos. Marcia, these are for you. :) Here we are in front of her dorm.

Here is the chapel, along with the inside. It was being decorated for the holidays.

We headed out to New Jersey for our last night of hotel living. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Clinton, NJ. It was quite a place---it seemed like a town hangout, there was a nightclub/bar in the lobby! We skipped that and went to Ethan's cousin Joel's house in Flemington for dinner. He and his wife Tracy have a great farmhouse with lots of outdoor space for their 3 kids to make use of. Ethan and I are heading there for Thanksgiving and staying until Saturday morning.

Day Ten: Brooklyn, NY

Crossing the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.

We finally made it! After 10 days of driving and staying in hotels, we are finally inside our apartment. Granted, we are sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags but we made it to our destination in one piece. No speeding tickets, no accidents, no flat tires! It was a fun road trip and we saw many things we had never seen before---national monuments, mountain ranges, historic towns, and pick-up trucks full of deer.

I had never seen a hunter's deer carcass before, but after driving through the Midwest, I have seen my share. Just one of the observations I made during my ten days on the road... :)

Luna did a great job on the road trip. Thanks to the drugs the vet gave us, she slept most of the day and had fun exploring each hotel room we stayed in. However, when we got to our apartment, she freaked out a little and started a new routine of hiding under the covers of the sleeping bag. Hardwood flooring and and empty apartment make a loud, echo-ey combo and Luna didn't like that very much. The first night, she spent part of the night curled in a ball at the end of my sleeping bag, with me in it. I had my very own foot warmer.

More to come later about the movers delivering our stuff and the unpacking process...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!