WFRV

We get another Early Start. Mike is a big fan and the only motivator of the
Early Start. The rest of us are Giant Grumps who hate to get up early and
moan and whine for a good hour or two. Of course we're happy when we arrive
at the campground before dinner rather than at bedtime, but when you're
repeatedly awakened to a nasty cell phone ring at 6am on your vacation you
can't be expected to smile about it. Can you? This morning is no different
but by 8:15 we've dropped off the rental car and are twenty minutes into our
trip. The rest of Ohio is farmland, mostly flat but getting hillier as we
near West Virginia. It's all corn, corn, corn. Tie it in a pretty bow with
corn syrup in the food supply and obesity. The downsides of civilization:
65mph speed limits, state police every third exit stopping speeders (not me,
of course), lots of vehicles on the road. Upsides: rest areas, lots of gas
stations, the option of healthy food (note I said 'option').

It's hard for us to believe that we only have a few days left until we're
home. Being gone for this long we feel like we've been gone forever and yet
we're also surprised we'll be home so soon. I'll be extremely happy to have
a washing machine and dryer, my own kitchen, and a toilet I don't have to
empty myself (or, to be totally accurate, that Mike has to empty). Our bed
in the RV is so small that Mike's feet hang off the edge which amuses me
when I wake up in the middle of the night from one of the kids rolling over
and making the whole RV sway. And the RV itself is so small that you just
can't make a mess, something the kids and I have been struggling with, and
Mike has been reveling in, since we left. When we get home I will create
piles of junk everywhere and gaze at them lovingly.

The last sixty miles of driving is up and down the curved mountain roads of
western Pennsylvania. Mike is observing the speed limit which is set for
cars not for large RVs and the drawers are flinging open at regular
intervals, not to mention Sam is getting motion sick. Finally to the
passengers' great relief we get stuck behind an eighteen-wheeler doing about
25mph. Finally the road evens out and we get to Gettysburg by 5:30pm, which
is great given the slow speed limits and extra-long stops we took today.
Unfortunately there's a long line at Enterprise and only one extra-chatty
woman working so it takes us a long time to get the rental car, then we get
lost on the way to the RV park, so we're not heading out to dinner until
7pm. Everyone's hungry and cranky but we find the restaurant, the
Farnsworth House Inn, without a problem. The Farnsworth is one of the few
Civil War inns still standing. One of its walls holds 100 bullet holes from
the Battle of Gettysburg, it was named after a general (don't ask me which
side), and it still offers items such as peanut soup and game pie. You can
imagine the kids' delight, although they managed to find something to eat.

Afterwards we try out a mini-golf place we saw when we were lost, Mulligan
McDuffer's Adventure Golf. The landscaping is beautiful and some careful
thought has obviously gone into the plant combinations (Tree Geek!), but it
is by far the hardest course we've ever seen with steep inclines, ditches,
and boulders everywhere. One hole is situated midway down a hill between
two good-sized rocks. Mike and I each take the maximum of six putts
although neither of us succeeds in sinking the ball; the kids each get a
hole in one. We return to the RV around 10:30 and really want to watch The
Daily Show and The Colbert Report so none of us gets to bed until almost
midnight. The Colbert Report is so funny that Ben is gasping with laughter;
this is an improvement over last week when Colbert made a joke about raising
kids and Ben actually spewed water all over the place. Now he's only
allowed liquids during commercial breaks.

# posted by LDW @ 3:30 PM