Day 11 - 13 Recap!

I kept telling my grandma I'd post, post, post over the last few days, and I've totally failed. Sooooo, now that I'm on my way to the airport, with my dad driving, grandma riding shot gun, and mommy next to me.. I'll recap the last few days.

- I can't do my "how many miles", cuz I don't have the GPS with me.. But daddy can do that.

- I also can't do the highways. Fail

- We drove in 2 states: Indiana and Ohio.

- I think we stopped for gas twice!

- We left Winona Lake around 8:30 on Tuesday, I think. Said goodbye to Grace, goodbye to the Philemon House, and goodbye to Warsaw/Winona Lake.

- The ride was cold. And the ride got wet. Really wet. Not the whole time. For the first half or so of the ride, we were pretty much chasing the stormy weather. Eventually we caught up to it and found ourselves right in the middle of the downpour. I think we decided that the rain in St. Louis was probably harder, but we got more wet this time because of the length of time we were in the rain.

- We had breakfast at a McDonald's. This was the most... Unique... McDonald's I've ever been to. All of the ladies behind the counter (and there were a lot of them) were of an older generation (probably late 40's, early 50's). And I think we've all experienced older people who work someplace that could easily be a high schooler's job, and they let you know they hate their job with a cursory glance and an unenthusiastic "Welcome to McDonald's, may I take your order?". That was NOT the case for these ladies. All of their sentences had exclamation marks on the end, and they laughed and had so much fun! And someone's granddaughter or something was there, and she was hanging out behind the counter, in front of the counter.. My dad commented that maybe the local garden club had bought this McDonald's and they all work there now. It was very entertaining to observe!

- Made it to North Lima, Ohio a little after 3! My grandma was there, waiting for us, with their dog, Ginger! :) Got off the bike, and gave soaking wet hugs to my grandma and grandpa..

- After we got settled into the house (it really was nice to be in a house that we've been in before, felt a little like home), we loaded up into the pick up truck my grandparents have, and headed over to Phil and Mariellen's house - where my mom was at! Got over there, and gave hugs to mommy, Phil and Mariellen.. And then hung out while waiting for dinner. Kaitlen and Misha were there, too! I can't remember what the thing was called, but dinner was kinda like "Hot Pot City" - if you're from Garden Grove or one of my church friends, you should know what that is.. If not, let's go! But basically, it was this thing in the middle of the table with a flat, hot skillet-y type thing on top, and sections below it for you to put your little cooking "shovel" in. We were cooking cheese, peppers, onions, meat, apples.. It was so good! And the whole time of fellowship was spent laughing, talking, teasing.. It's always fun to get together with people that you haven't seen in forever, and be able to pick up your friendships without skipping a beat!

- From there.. We went to Handel's. Handel's is this ice cream place that we crave when we are back home. And up until a few years ago, we had to come all the way here to get it! But, they opened one in Upland, CA awhile back! When Mariellen, Kaitlen, and Misha came out two springs ago, Jenna and I ventured with Kaitlen and Misha to it. It was good.. But it was just weird to be able to eat Handel's, and see palm trees at the same time. It's not right. So.. We haven't gone back! Anyways, we went to the real Handel's for dessert. And stood outside of it, FREEZING.. Eating ice cream. It was a tradition! And it was delicious.

- Dad, mom, and I then squeezed into the truck to head back "home"... Hahahahhahah I wish I had a picture of us. Squeezed is putting it gently. It was hilarious.

- Got back to my grandparents, and we camped out in the living room with them, watching Crocodile Dundee, and multitasking (reading was another activity at the time). Mom was exhausted and she headed to bed pretty quickly after we got to the house. After awhile, the rest of us all headed to bed.

I'm not going to go minute by minute for the rest of the trip... But here are some highlights :)

- Had breakfast with grandma, grandpa, Aunt Kelly, her husband David, Uncle David (technically that's two Uncle David's!), and his friend Nabil. It was fun to have a bunch of the family together!

- I posted a picture yesterday.. But I got to sit out on my grandma's porch reading yesterday. I love the pond they have in the backyards, so it was fun to be able to look up from the latest Karen Kingsbury book (made me bawl, btw), and see the pretty pond! When we were out here at Christmas a few years ago, the pond was frozen. Being California kids, we thought it was so cool that it froze over.. So we took rocks that were sitting on the shore, and chucked them high in the air, to try and get them to crack through the ice when they landed. It never worked. By the time we left, there were probably over a hundred rocks on top of the pond, and fear for the lives of the hybernating khoi fish (once the ice melted and the rocks plummeted to the bottom) was in our minds.

- Grandma made steak, mashed potatoes, corn, and mac n cheese for dinner. it was delicious. And getting to enjoy a homecooked dinner for the first time in a week and a half was awesome! And time with them (teasing and loving!) was awesome, too.

- Hung out with Danielle and her adorable puppy dog, Zoe, last night! The time with Danielle was awesome! She is so energetic for life and for Christ! We talked and laughed, and talked, and cried from laughing! Most entertaining was when we were setting up an electric collar for Zoe, to train her in the huge yard.. And I was looking at it, and Danielle shocked me! Hahahha totally on accident, but it was sooooooo funny. Oh my lanta. Hilarious. And met her house mate, Patty, and the conversation turned to talks of buffalo in buses and a donkey in a Honda. It was fantastic!

Well, I'm now in line for the Security checkpoint at the Pittsburgh airport. Dad, mom, and grandma are on their way back to North Lima, and I'm on my way to Nashville to see my other grandparents! Mom and dad will head down to Tennessee on Saturday (on the bike), and then I'll leave Sunday to go home (on a plane). My time on the bike is over, which pretty much means my time of blogging is at an end, and the torch is being passed to my mom :) I might post a few more times, since we'll be on two different adventures today through most of Saturday.. But we'll see. I've learned that it's way easier to post consistently when you're in a hotel room with just your dad after a long day, than it is when you're with people that you want to visit with! So, we'll see..

P.S. Grandma's promises of sunshine were lies! :) we had a few minutes of sunshine yesterday, and it's sunny now.. Go figure. BUT, that's okay :) I still would've been excited to come with a blizzard outside! Granted, the bike portion would've been a pain in that weather, but we would've still gotten here!
Sent from my Blackberry :)

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