Pressing on

Our original plan was to stop in Youngstown, OH tonight on the way back to Massachusetts. It's a nice middle point for the trip...11 hours one day and 12 hours the next....but we decided to press on a little farther into Pennsylvania this evening. I made a hotel reservation in Clearfield which is about two hours past Youngstown. It should shorten our day a little tomorrow and hopefully get us home around 4 or 5 p.m. instead of 6 or 7 p.m. My goal is to get home early enough tomorrow evening to unload the car, unwind a little, and maybe even get some laundry done before the work week begins.

Jake is doing great in the car despite Hannah's absence. He is quietly playing with his rods and balls (i.e. Magnetix) right now and earlier he took a nap and watched a movie. He has been a real trouper and I couldn't be prouder of him. Of course that may change before we get to Clearfield as it will have been a 13 hour day of driving if we don't stop anymore between here and there.

Every now and then Jake asks "Where's Hannah?" or "Why did Hannah get to stay behind?" but when we explain that it is because she's old enough to do so he takes it pretty well. I'm curious to see how many days it takes for him to quit asking. When he's not asking that he just randomly throws out a "I miss Hannah." every now and then.

The ride today has been pretty smooth. We had about 5 minutes of rain just before Cleveland, OH while I was driving but other than that it has been dry the whole way. We started out with bright sun this morning and it has gotten progressively cloudier as the day has gone on but nothing like the dark clouds and lightening that we had last night. As usual Lincoln has done most of the driving but I did a stint between Toledo and Cleveland while he took a nap. He probably wishes he hadn't done that since it allowed my mind time to wander and when he woke up I told him I thought we should continue driving a few extra hours.

I have to say, it's very nice having the laptop and mobile Internet access with us in the car. Once we decided we'd drive on into Pennsylvania tonight Lincoln took over driving so that I could find a hotel for us. I was able to pull up "hotels on I-80 in Pennsylvania" and get a list of all hotels available at each exit. Then I was able to check availability and price before cross-checking their reviews on TripAdvisor. So much better than how we used to travel with a AAA hotel book when I was a kid.

So tonight it's onto PA and tomorrow into MA. It will be good to be home. We've had a great trip but I'm excited to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night. I'm sure Lincoln is too.