We hit the road on Sunday August 3 at noon EDT, 1206.1 miles on the trip counter, in search of a Dunkin Donuts. After driving around Terre Haute for about 20 minutes without finding one, we hit the highway, hungry and crabby.

We stopped at a McDonald’s and got burgers to tide us over.  We never did see any Dunkin Donuts in Indiana.

We saw this cropduster flying low overr the highway. Yep, we’re city slickers.

It seemed as if everyone and their brother was out for a Sunday drive. And we just wanted to get home as fast as possible. In Indiana, the speed limit on I-70 was 70 mph. However, I seemed to keep getting stuck behnd people driving 72 in the fast lane, so I had to keep changing lanes to go around them in the “slow” lanes.

We finally made it to Ohio at 3:30 pm EDT, 1374.0 miles (almost 462 miles from Columbia).

We saw an interesting sign at a rest stop describing Interstate 70.

The closer we got to home, the happier we got. Got to the Corp. limit of Columbus at 5:23 pm, with 1464.1 on the trip counter (552 miles from Columbia). 

Happier still:

We saw a truck with a fun sign on it:

We made it to the southwestern suburbs of Cleveland near dinner time, so we decided to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Medina. Yummy!

At 8:00 pm, with the trip counter at 1587.5 (about 675 miles from Columbia), we got back in the van after dinner. We had less than an hour to go, and the sun was setting on our way.

With Sue at the wheel, “we made good time” and arrived home at 8:46 pm EDT.  The trip counter read 1628.3.  This meant we were 716.2 miles from Columbia, and that we had travelled 422.2 miles today.  (If you subtract our wanderings to find a Dunkin Donuts, and our excursion into downtown St. Louis, the trip is probably about 675 miles total.)

The Bambinos seemed happy to see us. Meerkat clawed some furniture to express her delight that we were home.

We showered them with hugs and kisses.

Naturally, they sniffed all of our belongings as we unloaded the van.

We made a few calls to let everyone know we made it back OK. Then, we went grocery shopping and returned the minivan, after fueling it up one last time. We are glad to be back to driving a much more fuel-efficient car!

All in all, we had a great time on this trip!

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On Saturday morning, August 2nd, we had breakfast at the Hampton, checked out, and then headed over to Patty and Chris’s house for a brief visit.   Bruiser was wide awake and roaming!

On this Saturday morning, Cinnamon had discovered the wonderful view from the bay window in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t catch a photo of him while he slumbered, but you can see he was happy!

Chris had a lunch meeting with a colleague, so we chatted with Patty for a little while after Chris left.  Then we took some final photos.  Of course, we had to have one of the sisters together!

Finally, we said our final goodbyes and pulled away from the house.  Patty gave us a final wave to send us on our way!

We left Patty and Chris’s house, and went into downtown Columbia to take a few more final photos of things we missed the first time through.  Near the current County Courthouse are these four columns.  These are the columns from the original Boone County courthouse from the late 1800’s.

Behind those columns are some displays for veterans of every war from the Civil War to the current Iraq conflict, listing names and honoring those who gave their lives for our country. 

Then, over a wall, on the rear edge of an outdoor amphitheater, is a giant piece of sculpture called “Jamboree”.  Here’s the plaque on the side of the granite base.

And here’s the sculpture.  It features various animals playing different instruments. 

We particularly enjoyed the statue of the cat playing the accordian!

The main strip through downtown Columbia is … BROADWAY!  So, since David hosts a radio show about Broadway music, it seemed appropriate to take his picture “On Broadway.”

The picture below was taken along one of the sidestreets.  It is a public bench.  There’s also a different design on the other side.  Very unique benches in Columbia!

Eventually around 2:00 pm CDT, we hit the road, eastbound on I-70, headed towards St. Louis.  It took us a little under two hours to get to the St. Louis area, where we had planned to do some sight-seeing.   Along the way we saw this great series of six billboards.  Each board had one of the letters of “MIZZOU”, the nickname for the University of Missouri! 

As we approached downtown St. Louis, we had to cross the Missouri River.  So, here goes!

Not long afterwards, we saw the famous Archway of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.  Here we are preparing to exit the freeway to visit the park. 

We found a spot in a parking garage right on the waterfront of the Mississippi, and started to take in the scenery. 

The first thing we noticed was that the water level seemed a little high.  Our clue to the water level was that there is supposed to be a road in front of that chain fence! 

Here’s a better view from the side.  No passage!

This next photo is really interesting.  This is the very top of a statue that is submerged in the Mississippi River.  The statue is called “The Captains’ Return”, and is a statue of Lewis and Clark.  All we could see was the top of the statue above the water line.

This is what the statue really looks like when the water is at the correct level!  (Courtesy of the St. Louis Beacon website.)

Here’s another sign of the high waterline. The steps really should go down to the waterfront road which is submerged here.

Along the river was a floating barge where you could catch a ride on a helicopter for scenic views around the area.  Unfortunately, the gangplanks up to the platform were completely submerged.  The sign here on the South ramp to the barge says “USE NORTH RAMP”.  And the North ramp sign said “USE SOUTH RAMP”! 

Finally, a view of the arch from the waterfront.  This is taken looking West at the arch. 

Here are the steps from the waterfront up to the base of the memorial.  We learned later that there is a plaque on these stairs signifying where the water rose to when the Mississippi flooded the area a couple of years ago. 

Here’s the view of downtown St. Louis from the top of the stairs, looking West.  This was taken directly under the arch memorial. 

And here’s a view of the arch from a very, very closeup perspective.  Makes for an interesting geometric conversation starter!

We visited the gift shop in the museum area, located underground beneath the arch.  The park security staff did their job thoroughly, passing us through metal detectors, stripping us of all jewelry and belts!  We bought the obligatory T-shirts to show we were tourists, as well as an interesting book on the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

The underground facility was jammed with people … imagine a busy underground “Grand Central Station”.  We didn’t have time for the tram ride to the top of the arch on this trip.  Maybe next time we’re out here. 

Once we made our way back to the surface, we circled around to view the arch from the West with the sun at our backs, looking East.  Nice view!

And here’s another perspective from a little further north. 

We found a pond / reflecting pool on the grounds of the memorial and saw these ducks quacking their way around the area. 

Eventually, we made it back to the van after approximately two hours of sightseeing.  Time to get back on the road!  At 6:30pm CDT, we were leaving St. Louis.  This is a photo of us preparing to cross the Martin Luther King bridge over the Mississippi River. 

And there’s the mighty Mississippi flowing underneath the Eads Bridge. 

After crossing the Mississippi, we were in Illinois!  Yay!  6:37 pm CDT. 

Lots of towns and exits with interesting names in Illinois.  This one had us remembering the a movie from the 1980’s:

Farmland, corn, farmland, corn, farmland, corn …

On this Saturday, we got as far as Effingham in Eastern Illinois (or F-ing Ham as Chris had named it) and stopped at a local restaurant for dinner.  (8:57 pm CDT)  Dinner was delicious, desserts were great, and the meal was relatively inexpensive.  David and I decided that this restaurant would be the equivalent of “The Frackville Diner” for the Caban family.  The Frackville Diner is along the route between Rockville MD and Hamilton NY, where the Cabans always stop to eat and are considered to be regulars.

We tried to find a room at the Hampton in Effingham, but they were sold out, as it was Saturday night.  We jokingly considered the Effingham Motel, but … well, let’s just say we rethought our choice after driving by.   

The next city up the highway was Terre Haute, Indiana, so we called the Hampton there, but they too were sold out.  Finally, we were able to book a room at the Holiday Inn in Terre Haute, and we hit the road.   This was a really cool photo of the highway signs at night!

We entered Indiana at 10:18 CDT, and immediately lost an hour by crossing timezones!  So, it was really 11:18 pm Eastern.  We got to the Holiday Inn at 11:30 pm, EDT.  Our trip counter read 1206.1, marking 294 miles since leaving Columbia. 

We unloaded the mini van and hit the sack!

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Friday, August 1, we woke up and started uploading pictures to Flickr for people to look at. Patty called around 11:00 am and we drove over to the house to meet up for a day of more sightseeing in Columbia.

Once we arrived, Sue had to snuggle Ms. Toast. Cinnamon was out and about as well. Patty’s cats were still hiding.

We thought this would be a good time to present our housewarming gifts to the happy couple. Sue had prepared a “back to school” pack for Patty since she will be attending graduate school in just a few weeks. She’s now fully equipped with her ‘Hello Kitty’ notebook and crayons!

We also gave them a cat hair roller to lift up all the animal fur that’s sure to coat everything within a short time. Four cats and a dog are going to make it one furry place to live!

We also gave Patty & Chris a set of nice picture frames for their wedding pictures.

After checking up on the animals one last time, we headed out for lunch at a nearby Culver’s restaurant. Culver’s is a chain restaurant currently only in 17 states, primarily in the center of the U.S., in most of the states between Ohio and Arizona.

This was our first time there (Sue and I, that is). It’s basically a fast-food hamburger joint, with a special twist in how they butter the burger rolls, and use fresh (not frozen) beef. They also have good fries and creamy fresh frozen custard. Good and greasy. It screams out for a Homer-Simpson-type tribute(”mmmmm, butterburgers”), and it’s one of Chris’s favorite places to eat.

After lunch, we were off for more sightseeing. Our plan involved two major stopping points: a local park, and shopping the galleries of downtown Columbia.

The local park we chose is on the southern edge of Columbia, just west of the Mizzou campus. The park was called the “Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at Baffle Gardens”, and featured access to a former-railbed-turned-recreation-trail.

We started by walking up and down a small portion of the recreation trail, called “The MKT Trail”. The MKT is Columbia’s premiere trail. It’s a 10-foot wide trail built on the old railbed of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad. It’s an all-weather surface that provides opportunities for walking, jogging, running, and bicycling.

We saw some very pretty flowers on the trail. Not sure what these are!

The MKT trail features a lot of bridges. It was really humid this day so we only went about one mile down the trail before turning back. Here’s Patty and Chris mimicking one of their wedding photos.

A Lizard! Our cats would have had a great time chasing this little reptile! We think his name was George.

After walking back to the parking area, we stopped to take in the site of the Martin Luther King Memorial Gardens. It’s a very pretty site when all the flowers are in bloom. These flowers are on the way to the actual memorial.

The memorial itself is a set of 8 pillars of increasing height, each inscribed with a quote from Dr. King’s speeches or writings. The tallest pillar at the left was about 6 feet tall. The lowest at the right was only about 2-1/2 feet tall. It was amazingly hot and humid out in the exposed sun. Sue and I were sweating profusely after these photos. Chris and Patty stayed in the shade. Smart move!

That was it for the Dr. King Memorial. We were hot and tired from only a couple of hours outside, so we decided to head back to downtown Columbia to browse the art galleries and shop for souvenirs.

We visit several interesting shops in the area. I bought Sue a version of a metal sculpture that can be seen regularly in the garden of Paul James, ‘The Gardener Guy’, on HGTV’s Gardening by the Yard. It’s a cute sculpture of a girl holding a flower.

Along the way of our travels, we happened by the Democratic Party headquarters for the area, so Patty & Chris picked up voter registration cards. Patty was gung-ho to fill out the card right then, but Sue advised Patty to make sure she gets all her married-name-change-arrangements taken care of with the Social Security Administration first.

In the late afternoon, we decided to stop for a drink before heading off to dinner. Since Columbia is basically a college-town at its core, we ended up stopping in one of the “watering establishments” (bars) by the name of Harpo’s. Nachos and alcohol satisfied our gnawing hunger.

Finally we walked the three or four blocks to dinner at Bambino’s Italian Cafe! We chose this place simply on the fact that it was named “Bambinos”. We call our three cats “The Furry Bambinos“, so we figured we HAD to eat a place named after them (wink, wink).

Bambino’s is basically a crowded little college-town Italian restaurant. Casual dining at small tables, pasta and pizza, and a couple of middle-aged guys in the corner performing Jimmy Buffet tunes on their electric guitars … rather loudly.

And since “we went”, and “we ate”, we also “bought the t-shirt(s)” like any good tourists would do. Plus, they let us have four of their plastic tumblers to take home to the kitties!

We waddled back to Chris’s car and headed back to their house for some final photos before the sun set on another day.

Here’s the happy couple near their front entrance.

And, the four intrepid traveler’s at the doorstep!

Goofing around at the mailbox at the end of the driveway.

And one more shot of the newlyweds before heading back inside!

To round out the day, Bruiser was taken out for a walk, and we settled down to play with whatever animals would join us.

Cinnamon was pretty responsive to some head scratching …

Oh, what a pretty cat posing for the camera!

Bruiser got into his photo session with Patty …

While Toast hid downstairs in the laundry room …

Rainbow and Muse kept themselves huddled in a corner of the cedar closet of the most distant bedroom in the house.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the Hampton for our final night in Columbia.

Tomorrow … back on the road, headed home!

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After our excursion on the Mizzou campus on Thursday, we headed back to Chris & Patty’s house so Bruiser could go out for a stroll and we could see their house in the daylight.

This is the front of the house as seen from the street:

This is a view from the front walkway looking down the driveway:

Inside, it seems Cinnamon has forgiven Sue for the long drive out to Missouri. Cinnamon tended to be more of “the cat ambassador”, eager to explore and say hello to everyone.

Toast was a little more reserved. She stayed hidden in one of the bedrooms for quite a while before venturing out to explore the large house. Note the extra toes on her front paws! She looks like she has thumbs!

So now, we go on a brief house tour of Chris & Patty’s new home in Columbia!

Here is the kitchen. Lots of counter space, and lots of kitchen cabinets. This is taken from the main entrance off the foyer. To the right is a counter that opens into the dining room area. The refrigerator is on the left side of the photograph.

This is the view from the refrigerator looking back at the main entranceway into the kitchen. That area with the brown wall is a writing counter / workspace with cork board.

The kitchen looks out on this little fenced in area that’s partly a garden, and partly a small patio. Chris envisions setting a grill out in this area since it’s right off the kitchen. It’s also a convenient holding pen for Bruiser!

The following is a view of the kitchen from the dining room. People could sit at stools on this side and look into the kitchen. The black area in the middle of the photo (that shows the reflection of the camera flash) is actually the doors out to the little patio pictured above. We took the picture below on our first visit to the house, after it was dark, but have moved it sequentially for clarity.

For the photo below, I simply turned around 180 degrees from the photo above. This room will be the dining room, directly accessible from the kitchen! The dining area has a small fireplace (to the right in the photo).

This is the view out of the dining room doors onto the small deck. There’s a lamp on a pole in the middle of the photograph, and beyond that, a small fenced in area which was for the previous owner’s dog. Patty & Chris may or may not use that area for Bruiser at sometime. Bruiser is really more of an indoor dog.

This is a view from that pole lamp looking back at the doors to the dining room.

Back in the house now. This is the main living room area on the first floor. This photo was taken from the top of the stairwell that leads to the basement. Basically, I’m at the entrance to the kitchen, with my back to the kitchen looking into the room. Notice the skylights above! The blue hanging objects are lamp shades that the previous owner had over a dining table.

The living room has its own porch, too! This is what it looks like through the doors.

This is another view of that porch off the living room.

Here, I am standing at those doors to the porch, looking at the sky high fireplace! Sue is in position to show the relative scale of the height of the wall. Considering Sue is just over 5 feet tall, you’re looking at about 15 feet on the vertical here.

The following is taken from the back corner of the living room area. The fireplace is to the left. The doors to the patio are to the right. The “fenced” area at the center is the stairwell to the lower level. The door to the kitchen is just right of center. The three squares near the top of the photo are the loft area that overlooks the living area space.

Below are Patty, Chris and Sue goofing around in the loft area. You have to climb a ladder to get up there! The front entrance to the house is in the lower right corner of the photo. In the lower left of the photo is a doorway to a bedroom which is painted blue.

This is the blue bedroom off the living area on the main floor of the house. This bedroom has its own bathroom, too (besides the litterbox for the cats)!

Continuing down the hall on the main level, we eventually come to the master bedroom. There are steps down into this lovely room with high ceilings. The master bedroom also has its own porch. The master bath has a shower stall and a Jacuzzi! The mirrored wall is actually a wall of closet doors.

Now, let’s head downstairs! So, we head back to the main entrance to the house where we can go down the main stairwell. Now, Sue and Cinnamon will have to move out of the way!

Here’s a view down the stairs to the lower level. Patty is standing on a small landing that’s halfway down the staircase.

If you stand at the bottom of the stairs (in front of the brick wall in the above picture), and look off to the right, you’ll see this area:

The weights and lifting bench were left by the previous owner. Looking at the above photo, the dark area on the left is a short staircase down to another bedroom and bathroom. This is a view from within that room of the staircase and bathroom entrance. We are now directly under the master bedroom (the one with the mirrored closet doors).

Looking into the bathroom (the doorway to the left), you might be able to see the corridor wraps around to the right. Around that corner is the shower and the toilet for that bathroom. That area is probably the most remote area of the house … and wouldn’t you know it … that’s where we found Patty’s cats!

Muse is the tuxedo cat. Rainbow is the calico. They were content to hide behind the toilet in that remote area!

Stepping back into the lower bedroom, this is the view out of the room. It has its own little patio and walkway out to the street.

This is the view of the outside view of that same patio:

Just a few more pictures! Back in the house now, on the lower level, at the bottom of the stairs. Not many pictures here, except for this one of the patio off the living-room-type area down there. The big living area with the fireplace is directly overhead. Bruiser had a good walk!

Here’s the final bedroom (#4 of 4) and it is on that lower level. This room is directly under the dining room. Through the doorway at the left, you can see the bottom of the stairway to this level of the house.

Here’s Bruiser hanging out below the stairwell!

And finally … the back of the house! The lower level is the one pictured above with Chris and Patty walking Bruiser into the house. Above that is the deck off the living room with the fireplace on the first floor. There’s a “Frank Lloyd Wright retreat-house” feel to the entire home. The wooded backyard adds to the ambiance!

And, a final picture of Toast, one of Chris’s cats. She is sitting on a “Gizzy quilt” that our cats gave to Patty’s cats for Christmas.

Whew! Well, with the tour of the house done, we headed out to dinner at a place called “Jazz”, a Louisiana kitchen. GREAT Louisiana-style food. Sue had a marvelous shrimp dish. The dessert pastry was a custom-made fruit filled doughnut called a “Beignet”, fresh and warm out of the oven. I had the peach and strawberry version. DIVINE! Sue had hers with chocolate and strawberries. Wow! Definitely a restaurant worth a return visit.

We thought this sign in the restaurant was funny, especially if you have knowledge of the Broadway musical “Urinetown”. Urinetown, the Musical, takes place in a city where the water is controlled by a mega-corporation and you have to pay to go to the bathroom. So, this sign made us laugh:

Patty said that Chris likes pigs, so it seemed appropriate to have him and Patty pose by this piggy in the entrance to Jazz Kitchen.

We stopped for a quick run of groceries and such at Schnucks Grocery, which was just around the corner from the restaurant. Then the newlyweds dropped us off at the Hampton Inn so we could turn in for the night.

Overall, a fun day of sightseeing, a house tour, and good food!

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Given all the stress of driving on Wednesday, we were very happy to sleep in on Thursday morning! We had very comfy beds at the Hampton Inn, and ate a nice breakfast down in the lobby. 

Around 11:00, Patty called to say that she and Chris were coming to pick us up for a day of sightseeing around Columbia, Missouri. The main destination on the agenda was the University of Missouri , which is where Chris’s job will begin at the end of August, and where Patty will be going to school for another Masters degree.

Chris drove us down Broadway, one of the main roads in and out of the downtown.

First, we walked around downtown seeing some of the sights. Columbia, Missouri , is located on the southern side of Interstate 70, about half-way across the state of Missouri, midway between St. Louis on the Eastern edge and Kansas City on the Western edge.

Overall, Columbia is not a very big city at all. No towering skyscrapers like in Pittsburgh. No public transportation. It consists of a fairly small downtown area and LOTS of suburban housing in the surrounding area. The biggest attraction and employer is the University of Missouri, but there are plenty of other things to see and do. This map is the main shopping district area where we spent most of our time.

After arriving in downtown, we ate lunch and made our way over to the University of Missouri . The University is on the southern edge of Columbia, just a few blocks from the center of downtown, but we drove the distance anyway and parked on campus.

Our first stop was Townsend Hall. This is the building that houses the Department of Education, which is where Patty has her Fellowship and where she will be studying early childhood education.

There’s a giant library within Townsend Hall, so we decided to stop and see the sights while Patty gave us a little tour.

The University of Missouri, also known as “Mizzou”, is a Big 12 school in the Midwest. The mascot is a tiger. The tiger is EVERYWHERE. Here’s Patty posing with the scholastic version of the tiger.

There were stuffed tigers to be found around the library. This little family of tigers was in the children’s playroom area.

There was even a poster to measure your height against the tiger. That’s Chris’s arm marking Patty at just over 5 feet tall.

This was a cool poster in the library!

The campus grounds of Mizzou are a certified botanical garden. The flora and fauna were in full bloom and absolutely stunning. Here’s Susan with the Susans.

The most famous landmark on the campus is this row of six stone pillars. They are the sole remnants of a fire that destroyed the original campus administration building in 1892. They are at the main northern entrance to the campus, and a luscious green lawn surrounds the area.

Apparently a lot of campus events happen on the lawns around these columns. In the background of this photo is the administration building built in the early 1900’s that replaced the one that burned down. The “new” building is called Jessup Hall. This photo looks south onto the campus.

The University of Missouri was the first state university on the land purchased by President Thomas Jefferson in the famous “Louisiana Territory”. Consequently, the campus has a life-size statue of TJ to sit with. Here’s me getting a little fresh with Tom!

Another significant point of interest on the campus is Thomas Jefferson’s original gravestone. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, on the same day as John Adams, 50 years to the day after the wording of the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

This original gravestone was a gift from the Jefferson family heirs to the University on July 4, 1883 (57 years after TJ’s death). It was moved from Jefferson’s Monticello home to commemorate Jefferson’s contributions to the westward expansion of the United States, his commitment to public education, and to commemorate the first state university in the Louisiana Territory. A replica copy of this gravestone is at Monticello in Virginia.

The gravestone obelisk was officially dedicated during commencement exercises on June 4, 1885.

We continued on around the campus, taking in the sights, heading toward the campus bookstore. As I said, tigers are everywhere!

We loaded up on Mizzou merchandise at the bookstore, and Chris got his computer activated to work on the campus wireless network. Fortunately for the Pittsburgh Steelers fans amongst us, the colors of the school are … black and gold! We got Mizzou shirts to wear.

After leaving the bookstore, we eventually made it to this fountain on the southern edge of the campus. Next to the tiger in this photo is the top of Jessup Hall, the administration building. The six columns you saw earlier are on the other side of Jessup Hall.

Next stop was the building where Chris will be working! Chris will be a professor in the University of Missouri College of Business. This building is a relatively new one on campus and features a giant seminar room with a raked floor like a big theater, plus a lovely atrium several stories high.

Here’s Chris in his new office! He was able to pick up his office key at the department office, so we watched him open his office for the first time. Here are the newlyweds:

Um, yeah, he’s looking so casual here because someone else’s name is still on the placard!

So that was our grand tour of the University of Missouri ! Fortunately, Chris knew where best to park, because when we left the building, we simply crossed the street and walked into the parking garage!

Patty said we should make sure to stop at the house and give Bruiser a walk. So we drove past the campus football stadium back to Chris and Patty’s house to see the house in the daylight, take pictures and freshen up for dinner.

We’ll post the “house tour” tomorrow!  Stay tuned!

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We got an early start on Wednesday, July 30.  Patty took Bruiser for a short walkie around the parking lot.

We packed the vehicles with everything we had brought in on Tuesday night … except for Rainbow, one of Patty’s cats.  Rainbow refused to get out of the boxed spring of one of the beds in Patty and Chris’s room.  Chris somehow managed to get her out, and then we were on our way.

We got breakfast at a nearby Tim Horton’s (sort of like a Dunkin Donuts), ate in the cars to keep an eye on our furry friends, then hit the road.  With the muffler pipe problem the first day, Chris had found a “speed sweet spot” of 65 to 70 miles per hour at which the noise was more bearable.  Our minivan easily cruised along at 75 mph (or more), so Chris and Patty pulled out and started driving about 9:30 am to get a head start.  David and I followed at 9:54 am, after taking a phone call from Mom and Dad.  I drove the first leg on Wednesday.

With David in the passenger seat, I warned him that the Navigator’s job was much harder than the Driver’s job.  In about five minutes, David understood why!  As Navigator, you have to keep track of the maps, beverages, note-taking for blogging, as well as manage the whereabouts of Cinnamon and Toast!  You know the expression, “It’s like herding cats”?

On Day Two, Cinnamon and Toast were no less vocal , but much more interested in exploring the van from front to back.  At one point, both Cinnamon and Toast decided to sit on David’s lap at the same time.

Dayton is in Western Ohio, but we still had about an hour to go before crossing into Indiana.  We crossed at 10:25 am.

Toast got friendly with David on Wednesday:

With all the activity going on INSIDE the van, we almost forgot about the scenery!  Indiana was largely farmland and cornfields.

Weather alternated between overcast and light rain.

Cinnamon was really worked up that morning.  Cinnamon wanted to be absolutely certain that we knew he disapproved of being catnapped and transported across state lines against his will.  So he told us, repeatedly.  Over and over again.  Then he would summarize his points, and then start over at the beginning.

Every time Cinnamon meowed, he got Toast going too.  Toast sounded like she was yodeling.  Cinnamon complained LOUDLY AND OFTEN about being catnapped by strangers.  We tried to explain that we were not strangers, that we were Uncle David and Aunt Sue, but Cinnamon would hear nothing of it.

Between David’s play-by-play as to which cat was where, Cinnamon meowing, Toast yodeling, cell phone calls from Patty, trying to pay attention to driving, and listening to “The Best of Queen”, I REALLY NEEDED A STIFF DRINK by the time we got to our first rest stop.

We stopped for lunch at 11:54 am at a rest stop off exit 59 in Indiana, at a TA (134 miles from our starting point north of Dayton).  It was raining lightly, so we sat near the vehicles under an overhang.  David and I had pizza, Chris got a burger, and Patty had French Toast with syrup.  Bruiser’s food was in a bowl under Patty’s Winnie the Pooh umbrella.

Chris gave Cinnamon some “Kitty Calmer” medication during the rest stop.  We switched drivers after lunch, with David at the wheel and Sue as Madame Navigator.

Bought gas at the Citgo gas station at the TA stop.  6.9 gallons @ $4.00 per gallon = $27.56.  Hit the road at 12:58 pm EDT.

We entered Illinois at about 1:48 pm EDT (12:48 pm CDT) at 609.0 on the mileage counter.  This meant we also entered the Central Time Zone.  During this leg of the trip, Cinnamon’s kitty valium kicked in, and he napped on my lap.  When Cinnamon calmed down, Toast calmed down as well.  She mostly slept under whichever chair I was sitting in.

We stopped again for a break near Effingham, Illinois, about an hour inside the eastern border.  2:37 pm EDT (1:37 pm CDT).  Mileage 667.1 on the trip counter.  Cinnamon was an entirely different cat!  Very mellow, dudes!

Muse was peeking out of her carrier in Chris and Patty’s vehicle during the rest stop:

We changed drivers again, and with Sue at the wheel and David as Navigator, we hit the road at 3:09 pm EDT (2:09 pm CDT).  We saw this cross along the highway, just outside of Effingham, Illinois:

Cinnamon and Toast rested, double-decker style, much of the way across Illinois:

Cinnamon also attempted to sleep on my lap while I was driving.  He would try to climb up into the driver’s seat along the driver’s side window.  There was one time where I had to drive with my right arm, and hang onto Cinnamon with my left arm.  Finally, he settled down on some bags between the driver and passenger seats up front.

When we crossed the Mississippi River in heavy rain, we left Illinois and entered Missouri at 4:37 pm EDT (3:37 pm CDT).  763.3 on the trip counter (599 miles out from Pittsburgh).

We hit rush hour traffic and heavy rain on the highway north of St. Louis Missouri.  Patty radioed us on the walkie-talkie, “Welcome to Missouri, the Monsoon State”!

We got off the highway because of traffic backups, and made a gas pit stop at a 7-11 in the St. Louis area at 4:56 EDT (3:56 pm CDT).  10.28 gallons @ $3.68 per gallon = $37.83.  Trip counter at 774.6.

We got back on the road to cross the Missouri River at 5:22 pm EDT (4:22 pm CDT), trip counter at 782.4.  We stopped for a rest at a McDonald’s at the first exit over the Missouri River in St. Charles, MO, at 5:25 pm EDT (4:25 pm CDT).  Cinnamon and Toast had been exploring the van again, and were napping in the far back with the luggage.  That’s Cinnamon way back there.

We got back on the road at 6:02 pm EDT (5:02 pm CDT), and got stuck in very heavy traffic, in very heavy rain outside of St. Charles.

It seemed to take forever to get through St. Charles and the Northern suburbs of St. Louis.  In fact, it took us 45 minutes to go 11 miles!  We heard on the radio that there was an accident in the area.  Once we finally got to the outskirts of St. Louis, traffic thinned out a bit, the rain got lighter, but the skies were still ominous.

About two hours later, nearing the outskirts of Columbia, the skies brightened, and THE SUN CAME OUT!  It was as if the skies were parting for Patty and Chris to welcome them to their new home!

We made it to the outskirts of Columbia, Missouri, by 8:12 pm EDT (7:12 pm CDT).  David and I checked into a Hampton Inn (free high-speed internet!), then drove over to Patty and Chris’s house.  Mileage at the Hampton was 884.2 on the trip counter.  (720 miles out from Pittsburgh)

Approximately 10 hours and 15 minutes of total travel time on Day 3.  This includes approximately 2 hours 15 minutes of “rest” for lunch, gas, potty breaks, etc., and about one hour of slow traffic north of St. Louis.  So, total time of “forward progress” was really about 7 hours.

Total mileage Day 3: 469.5 miles from Northern Dayton to the Hampton Inn in Columbia, Missouri.

We took turns unloading our luggage from the van and freshening up at the Hampton so as not to leave the cats unattended, and then drove the short distance to Patty & Chris’s house. They live less than 3 miles from the hotel. Arrived at Patty & Chris’s house at 8:55 pm EDT (7:55 pm CDT).  We brought Cinnamon and Toast inside the house, unloaded the rest of the van, got the tour of their house, and then went out to dinner at a local Macaroni Grill.

Everyone was tired, so we headed back to the hotel, and Patty and Chris to their house, for the first night in Columbia.

Arrived at the hotel at 10:57 pm CDT, 899.7 on the trip counter. To us, it felt like 11:57 pm (which it WAS in the Eastern time zone).  A long day!

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On Tuesday, July 29, David and I went over to Patty’s apartment to help Patty clean her place.  We chose the divide and conquer technique: Patty took the bathroom, I did the kitchen, and David washed all the windows and vacuumed all the carpets.  Meanwhile, Chris headed to my parents house for some much needed napping, since Rainbow and Muse spent most of the night trying to alert Patty and Chris about all the missing furniture and boxes.  Chris did not get much sleep Monday night.

While we cleaned, Rainbow was tucked into the living room closet, and Muse was on top of the kitchen cabinets.

In a few hours, we were done, packed up, and ready to drop Patty’s keys off at the management company office.  This is a photo of Patty in front of her apartment building.  She lived there for 13 years!

After dropping off the keys, we headed back to my parents’ house to unload items that were staying with my parents, rather than going to Missouri, and reloaded the vehicles.  Given the steep grade of my parents’ street, it made for an interesting experience!

We took a few photos before heading out.  This is a photo of “The Fambly”: Jim, Patty, Dad, Mom, and Chris:

This is a photo of “The Four Intrepid Travelers” (well, the human travelers that is).  David, Sue, Patty, and Chris:

We set off at about 5:10 pm EDT, with Bruiser, Rainbow, and Muse riding with Patty and Chris.  Cinnamon and Toast rode with David and me.  I took this photo of Patty and Chris’s vehicle in the side mirror of our mini-van:

We stopped to gas up the van right away at the Sunoco in Crafton, PA.  Bought 10.6 gallons at a total cost of $42.40.  Mileage at 163.6.

Westward bound!  We took I-79 South, then changed to I-70 West.  We crossed into the panhandle of West Virginia at about 6:09 pm.

David’s quote: “The speed limit is 70!  Sweet!”

We took turns taking the lead.  This time, we followed behind Chris and Patty.

In about ten minutes, we left West Virginia and entered Ohio at 6:21 pm.  The stretch of West Virginia that we crossed is very narrow, only about 10 miles wide.  They don’t call it a panhandle for nothin’!

Once we got to Ohio, the traffic thinned a little, and we let Cinnamon and Toast out of their carriers, AKA PTU’s (Prisoner Transport Units).  Both of them did not like being cooped up, and let us know, LOUDLY and REPEATEDLY.  Cinnamon apparently thought that David could use some help driving, and within three minutes of being let out of his carrier, climbed into David’s lap.

David told Cinnamon to get OFF his lap so that he could drive.  So Cinnamon climbed onto the dashboard instead:

We finally got Cinnamon settled in the middle seats where he had a great view, sitting atop a cat carrier:

Fur covered the inside of the van within an hour!  Every time I opened a map, fur flew everywhere!

At some point, we passed Patty and Chris, and Cinnamon waved to them (with a little help from me) as we drove by.

We stopped for a rest break at 7:12 pm, and ate the sandwiches that Mom packed for us.  At this first rest stop, a mere 2 hours into the 2-day drip, we learned from Chris that his muffler pipe had broken away from the catalytic converter!

Fortunately, the pipe was still connected to the vehicle, but the noise was deafening for Chris and Patty!

Cinnamon calmed down during our rest stop.  He sat and napped on my lap from our rest stop for the rest of the drive on Tuesday.

We made it as far as Dayton, Ohio by 10:15 pm EDT, where we stayed at a pet-friendly Motel 6 for the night.  “One pet per room”.  Um, yeah, close enough.  Cinnamon and Toast hung out under the beds most of the night.  Cinnamon occasionally climbed on and around David overnight.

Miles travelled from Pittsburgh: 250.5

5 hours on the road, 4 hours of driving.

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On Monday morning, July 28, David and I set off to pick up the rental car.  After considerable debate concerning the pros (space) and cons (cost, gas mileage), we settled on renting a mini-van.  I was worried that after our own suitcases were packed into the car, there would be little room left over to help transport Patty and Chris’s cats and valuables not traveling on the moving van.

We loaded up the mini-van, kissed The Furry Bambinos good-bye, and told them to be good for “Aunt Deb”.  Deb is a close friend of ours who would be checking in on The Furry Bamabinos while we would be away.

We set off for Pittsburgh at 1:00 pm.  The mini-van was brand new!  Only 336 total miles on it when we picked it up!

Our first state crossing was from Ohio to PA at about 2:00 pm Monday:

We arrived at Patty’s apartment in Pittsburgh at 3:00 in the afternoon.  The movers had already loaded up Chris’s apartment, and were busy loading up Patty’s place.

We helped Patty pack some of the last remaining items into boxes.  Patty’s cats, Rainbow and Muse, were safe in their carriers while the movers carried furniture and boxes out of the apartment.  Rainbow is a calico kitty:

Muse is a tuxedo kitty.  Both are girls, and Patty believes that Rainbow may be Muse’s mother.  Patty adopted the girls several years ago from a Pittsburgh animal shelter.

In addition to helping pack, we helped by taking Patty’s dog, Bruiser, for a walk.  Bruiser is a beagle and basset hound mix.

Bruiser is a bit overweight and has a tendency to walk slowly and deliberately.  Furthermore, whenever he runs out of steam and has “had enough”, he usually just stops moving until prodded repeatedly!

We eventually made it back from our walk with Bruiser.  He collapsed on the front lawn of the apartment building and refused to go any further.

The movers finished up at around 7:30 pm and drove off.

The four of us, Patty, Chris, David, and I went into Oakland for dinner at “The Original Hot Dog”, known locally for decades as simply “The O”.  The specialty is their french fries, so, of course, we had a big basket of fries to share.  The last time I had been there was with friends in high school back in the mid-1980’s.

After dinner, David and I headed back home to stay at Mom and Dad’s Monday night.  On Sunday, Patty and Chris had brought Chris’s cats, Cinnamon and Toast, to my parents house for safe keeping while the movers were at Chris’s apartment.  Cinnamon has a reputation for “exploring” so they didn’t want to take any chances that Cinnamon would escape.  When we got to my parents house, Mom and Dad were hanging out with Cinnamon and Toast. 

Patty and Chris stayed at her empty apartment, with Rainbow and Muse, who were upset that nearly all of Patty’s possessions seemed to have been “stolen” while the cats were confined to their carriers.  So, all Monday night, Rainbow and Muse kept telling Patty and Chris that they really needed to call the police and file a report.

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Well, this summer, my sister Patty got married on July 18.  Patty and her husband Chris would be relocating to Columbia Missouri soon after their wedding, because Chris would be starting work at the University of Missouri in August.

Patty has two cats, Rainbow and Muse.  Chris also has two cats, Cinnamon and Toast.  In addition, Patty and Chris recently adopted Bruiser, a beagle / basset hound dog from a local rescue organization.  David and I had offered to help Patty and Chris transport their “Petting Zoo” from Pittsburgh PA to Columbia MO.  Professional movers would be arriving on Monday, July 28 to move the furniture and boxed items.

So, another cross-country trip “sometime” turned out to be one year later!

This week, David and I will be sharing stories and photos from this adventure.  Check back tomorrow for the first installment!

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