Magical Paducah

[caption id="attachment_4638" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ben having his morning cup of joe in the car."][/caption]

Our plan was to drive halfway from Pranee to Madison on Easter Sunday.  It is about an 11 hour drive, so breaking up the trip seemed the most humane thing to do, particularly for 19-month-old Lotta.  Because Pranee is way way way out in the country the first part of our trip is lots of windy, hilly, picturesque roads.  Beautiful and scenic, yes, but they certainly don't get you anywhere fast.  For sure.  We decided to stop for dinner in Paducah, KY around 5pm.  We had not booked a room at a hotel because Thom suggested we wait to see how far we could go.  Not my usual way of doing things, but I agreed because I know on long car trips, with small children, things can change suddenly.

Before stopping for dinner, Ben proclaimed that he wanted pancakes OR hot dogs for dinner.  The diner I'd researched to eat at was closed so we decided

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on a Bob Evan's instead.  Ben ordered and consumed a plate of silver dollar pancakes.  He was pretty psyched there were 5 on his plate.  I was feeling mighty tired and a bit weary, wondering how we were going to drive another 2 hours, get checked in, swim, and still get the kids to bed at a decent time (Ben no longer sleeps in, so when he goes to bed late, he merely loses sleep which oftentimes leads to losing his sense of humor.  Nobody wants that!)  As we piled  back into the car after our meal, Thom turned the ignition and all the red lights went off and the car started beeping.  Oh boy, not a good sign.  He turned the car off and tried again, just to make sure that was really really what the car wanted to say.  Yep.

Right next door to the Bob Evan's just happened to be a Drury Inn.  The kids and I went over to investigate while Thom poked around the car.  When I asked about a room, the friendly front desk person said they were just

[caption id="attachment_4642" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Lotta requests no more photos. Please. Enough."][/caption]

finishing up a food buffet that was included with the room.  Since Lotta had not eaten much at Bob next door, thought this would work out well for her.  Turned out it worked out even better for Ben because on the food buffet were, hot dogs, "just like they serve at school!" (That's a good thing in Ben's mind.)  They even had Lotta's favorite food right now--popcorn.  Afterwards we went swimming (yes on a very full stomach) in an indoor pool with only one other family present.   When we were all cleaned up and ready for bed, I flipped through the stations and found the documentary, Being Elmo (a documentary about Kevin Clash the man who does Elmo on Sesame Street), which I have wanted to see since I first heard about it maybe a year ago, being televised.    Inspirational!

Meanwhile, Thom had researched car dealerships and auto shops to discover where to take the car in the morning.  Much to his amazement, there was a Toyota dealership/repair shop a half block away from the hotel.

In the morning while the kids and I ate and ate and ate at the breakfast buffet (Ben uses these buffets to try a sampling of everything), Thom drove the car to the dealership and walked back to join us.  In a little over an hour, the car was fixed (it was a pine needle stuck in the air filter) and by 10am we were back on the road.

I was concerned about Lotta's ability to stay in the car for the 7 hours left of our trip.  However, any time Lotta started to get upset, I would turn around and say, "Lotta a TRUCK!!"  or "a COW!!"  or whatever we might be in the process of passing.  She, not wanting to be left out of the excitement would respond with, "WOW!"  We made frequent stops to make it all bearable for everyone.  I had a hankering for pizza for dinner and as we pulled off the exit in Rockford, we drove straight into the parking lot of a conference center.  The first restuarant we came across was a bar type place which was nearly empty.  While my brother, Kip, takes this as a sign that the restaurant is no good, I take it as a possible "find" that no one else knows about.  Our pizzas were fantastic and the kids were able to walk around the restaurant and even the hotel without disturbing anyone.  Just the perfect ending to the perfect trip.