Miles to Bowling Green

 6/26/15

We were amazingly packed and ready to go by 4PM on Friday.  Only a slight amount of arguments and attempting to motivate the kids to get some final items packed stood in our way.  There were no goodbyes to Abby as it's always extremely hard to leave her in the house when we go on long trips. Found out after day one she already deuced on the floor for my mother, as my sister won't be able to house/pet sit until Saturday. I constantly wonder if the act of her doing that is out of spite.  

The plan was to get to Bowling Green and grab a hotel room for the night on our way to Mammoth Cave National Park, just north by about 30 or so minutes.  Traffic was wonderful, kids were wonderful and we made great time, all on schedule.  It was an easy 500 miles.  Pre-trip, we found Avery something to do that didn't involve instagram or a tablet or phone.  Picked up a book at Barnes and Noble called 642 things to write about.  When it was time for a music break, or when things got boring, Avery printed the subject matter on a piece of paper to Garrett and they both wrote their versions of the story.  Not sure whether to be a little weirded out, but after listening to multiple stories, Avery's seemed to revolve around people losing fingers and waking up in an alternate universe, and GT's main character eating something or getting eaten.  Probably some kind of Oedipus/subconscious thing going on there.  Something I'd be scared to explore.  

Obviously, we're carrying bikes on this trip.  Four of them. On the back of a 2.4L four cylinder Chevy Equinox.  The bike rack isn't in the most pristine condition, as I found out when we made our first gas stop.  Luckily, because a couple of strap-overs are broken, I bungee corded Avery's and Garrett's bike to the front of the bike rack.  This was a good decision because Avery's rear end of the bike had managed to loosen itself from the rear hold and was basically hanging by the bungee cord and the pedal protruding through from Garrett's bike, which was hanging by the front notch. etc.  This was fixed at the gas stop.  Had a very friendly Army who must've just gotten off for the weekend asking how he could help.  I politely declined after getting the bikes re-rigged and removing GT's front tire. We talked a little bit about him heading to Panama City to do some deep sea fishing. I thanked him for his offer to help, his service and we moved on. 

The Equinox ran well.  Had to turn off the AC to get up some Alabama hills in the loaded down version though.  The vehicle is very fuel efficient "when running an errand on the highway with no weight at 55mph and no stops". This coupled with papa bob describing our travel pack on top of the vehicle as "acting like a sail", I noticed we averaged oh, about 17 mpg through the Alabama hills. I like to mess around with computers and stuff. 

Did you know that it's very hard to find a motel/hotel room basically anywhere north of Nashville around midnight?  Neither did we.  Attempted three hotels at one exit, none available, then another two at the next exit, none available then once in KY, finally found a Super 8.  "non--smoking" room--yeah right.  At least we were able to knock out 5 hours of sleep to the tune of 90 bucks.  GT made our money back at breakfast. Avery was sure to let us know she was glad she didn't "die at a Super 8 motel" that evening.    One of the longest rides in the car is now over for the next two weeks.  I'll be excited about the places we're going, until it'll be dime to drive straight home from D.C.