One More Time Around: Family Road Trip to Ohio & Illinois from SC

This isn't boating related, but I thought I'd share anyway.

My daughter has been very interested in collecting genealogy stuff, especially for my side of the family. She uncovered things about my grandparents who lived in Zanesville and Youngstown Ohio. She also stumbled on a 91 year old distant relative in a Zanesville old folks home who was willing to meet with her. So I suggested we take a family road trip.

Although it only gets 17 mpg on the road compared to our other cars getting 28 and 35, we decided to take the van. It has a sleeping cot, porta potty and comfortably sits only four people, easily accommodating my wife and her wheelchair, my daughter, our two year old grandson (in his car seat) and our dog Merlin. The van is equipped with a rear window unit air conditioner and a bumper mounted generator.

I was a little apprehensive...a two year old strapped in a car seat for 2,000 miles? But believe it or not, it was a very enjoyable trip - thanks to a good kid, good parenting and a doting Nana.

We visited relatives living and dead in Zanesville, Youngstown, Chicago, Sandwich (IL) and Oswego (IL). We discovered a small family cemetery hidden over a hill in an overgrown field. We got to celebrate with family at a Cinco De Mayo party and stayed with Suzy's sisters and family (she has two sisters) in both Chicago and Sandwich.

We took the van, because even though our dog Merlin, being a Therapy Dog, can get into most motel rooms, he has a tendency to protectively bark when there's someone in the hall and it disrupts us and the neighbors all through the night. Merlin and I end up sleeping in the van while the rest of the family sacks out in comfortable motel beds. We don't mind at all - the cooler is full of icy beer and we have an internet connection to surf the boating groups on the web and thanks to the generator, can run the air conditioner or small space heater all night if necessary for comfort. Also, Merlin makes the absolute best four legged pillow.

After checking in at the motel office I had a challenge...kind of like the fox, chicken and corn getting across the river.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/chicken_crossing_solution.html

I can take my wife and her wheelchair into the room, or the luggage, or the baby, or the dog, but I can only do one at a time. The baby can't be left alone with the wife because the baby can escape from the van OR the motel room. Daughter can do baby or wife or dog, but prefers not to do the heavy luggage. Dog can escape from car while luggage or baby or wife is being removed. Dog can bark if left alone in motel room. If wife is in room with daughter (and grandson) I may or may not be able to discern the proper luggage to be transported, in which case either the wife has to be at the van to supervise or the daughter is required to move heavy bags. It wasn't all that bad, in fact it was comical.

To keep this brief, here's a few pics of the trip.