We were up at 5:30am this morning to get showered and ready for the day. I had to wake the girls up, but we still made it downstairs to the free breakfast by 6am when it opened so we could be first to the waffle makers. There wasn’t much in the way of protein at this place, so I went out and got the peanut butter from the car. Ellen spread it on her waffle, and I spread some on toast. It was after this that we found the hard boiled eggs. Oh well, Ellen had one of those too just to make sure she keeps herself in check. We went back to the room to get packed up, and we were on the road by 7:12am.
Nothing much to tell about the trip except that we traveled in 4 states today: South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. I-90 has several spots that are under construction where the highway is reduced to a single lane, but traffic was moving, so it wasn’t too bad. The number of cars on the road definitely increases the farther east we travel. There were times in Wyoming when I could look in my rear view mirrors and not see a single car behind or in front of me. Now it’s almost constant traffic. I’m just glad I wasn’t heading north on highway 39 out of Rockford today since it was backed up for a long way. We paid a toll once in Illinois of $1. Jada kept falling asleep in the car as we were listening to the first Harry Potter book on CD again. I was pretty worn out too. Hopefully the girls decide to sleep in tomorrow.
When we got into Rockford around 3:30pm, we found our hotel, and Phoebe did her piano practice, not without protest, though, while Ellen and I watched the end of an exciting Uruguay v Ghana World Cup Match on TV. Then I called my Uncle Gary and Aunt Sandi to meet them out for dinner. Luckily they were already planning on going out to dinner, so we met them out at the Culver’s where they were going. We got to have a nice visit for an hour before we went back to our hotel for the night. Ellen did her piano, and then we put the girls to bed around 7:30pm.
July 3: Rockford, IL to Elgin, IL
We were awake earlier than we wanted to be again today. It seems the girls only wake up late when we don’t want them to. I went down to the fitness center. It was a pretty well stocked one for a hotel with dumbbells, an exercise ball, mat, weighted balls, treadmills, an elliptical trainer, and a bike. We had breakfast in the hotel while Jada had her first workout following her illness, then the girls did their piano practice before we went over to see my aunt, uncle, cousins, and my sister and her husband. My uncle showed us his trains in the basement while I got some of our laundry started. We had a terrific spread of food to eat and great company. The girls got to do some playing too. They started out with some play-dough. They were creating a little catering business using cookie cutters to create treats for all of us to “enjoy”. They started by bringing out play-dough cookies for us to enjoy. Then they came back around to collect them before heading back into the kitchen to make up something different. They next brought out play-dough cinnamon rolls. While Ellen and Phoebe were going around delivering their goodies, Aunt Sandi tore little pieces off of her roll and left them on her napkin. When Phoebe saw it, she got a really concerned look on her face before yelling, “you didn’t really eat that, did you?” She had been fooled, and we all had a big laugh. They went back to work again bringing out ice cream cones and blizzards (TM Dairy Queen) before bringing out their masterpiece of a pie which had layers. This time, Uncle Gary fashioned a bite out of his slice of pie and had Ellen convinced that he had eaten some of it. After that, they got out some beads and started making earrings, bracelets, and necklaces for everyone. They made some for their friends back home as well as their cousin that they’d be seeing later in the day.
We eventually left so Gary and Sandi could get on to their weekend vacation around 2:30pm. It took a little under an hour to get to Elgin. I had forgotten to get cash for the toll roads. We had to pay $1 early on, then $1.60 on the way east on I-90, and then another $.60 to get off the road. Luckily, Jada had enough in her purse to cover it. I need to find a credit union so I can get some cash without the surcharges. (My strategy has been to pick up a couple of snacks at gas stops and get cash back;) We reached our hotel room around 3:30pm, and I called my brother to make arrangements for meeting up around 5pm. I found out that our hotel carries Versus, so I was able to watch some of the Tour de France prologue, but what actually happened is that Jada and I lay down on the bed and fell asleep waking up just before 5pm. I guess we were still a bit tired since it’s hard to sleep in the same room with the girls because they don’t sleep either. We drove over to my brother’s house to see his family, including my sister-in-law and my niece and nephews, as well as my sister and her husband and my parents. We spent the evening eating deep dish stuffed pizza from Nancy’s (Mmmm. pizza) and catching up with everyone. The girls got to play with their cousins for a long time. Everyone needed to get to sleep, so we headed back to the hotel to put the girls to bed. They didn’t fall asleep until 10pm, and we weren’t far behind.
This hotel room has a pull out bed in the front room, and door that we can close to the bedroom so we could put them in a separate room. I also turned on a fan that’s between the rooms to create some white noise.