As I am writing this I am thinking about how blessed we are to be able to do the things we are doing and live the lives we have.
I am sitting in a little Subway service station in the middle of Indiana all alone - our car broke down on the freeway, Reed suddenly couldn't steer the car, the belt that runs everything on our car melted, Reed was able to get us off the freeway and into this little gas/Subway station, there is a huge parking area off to the side so we had lots of room and not in anyones way. We called for a tow truck, but he couldn't get here for a couple of hours, and then we had a hard time finding a rental car place that was open on Saturday, we had to have a guy come after hours to rent us a car from Budget, the Mercedes Dealership closed at noon today, so the car won't even be looked at until Monday sometime - oh well we are safe and we don't have to be anywhere right away, except we have all ready paid for our room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago, I called them to let them know we will be running late getting there, we are still 2 hours away from Chicago.
We had a lot of plans for today, we will have to do them on Monday since our car won't be done anyway. We were planning on heading to the Black Hills on Monday and its about an 8 hour drive.
We left Cincinnati in a rain storm, luckily Reed packed most of the car last night while Jen and I took a late night walk, our last one for about 6 weeks.
We all went to dinner last night, Steve met us at La Rosa's, he was just getting in from his 1st week in Notre Dame, we Celebrated Reed's Birthday and our last night all together.
The kids and I have had a lot of fun together, they love going to the park called Stephen Field and climb the tree there, they love going to the Library and the Mall to the Lego store and Brooke to Pottery Barn Kids and of course the Disney Store.
Some of the things the kids won't miss is me bugging them about work book pages Violin for Ryan and Reading for 30 min each day.
Jen is more than 1/2 way done, she has a small break now and will start back the middle of August, the boys start school the 19th and Brooke will start the week after, she will go all day Preschool this year so Jen can do Clinical's and School, it will be hard for her to do it all, but she is tuff.
So just to add to the car problems listed above, Reed had to leave our car full of all our stuff in a parking lot at Mercedes, with not one other car around - they just had the parking lot repaved and we are the one and only car sitting there and it will be until monday, with bikes on the back - we were a little worried but didn't know what to do but hope and pray that everything will work out. Reed did get a little rental car from Budget, the guy that helped us with the car was just so nice to go back to work to get us setup with a car, but on the way up to Chicago, we got pulled over, I asked Reed if he was speeding, he said no, he isn't pulling us over for speed, anyway the police officer comes up to my side of the car and asked if we knew why we were being pulled over, we said no - he said we have expired temp plates on the car, and we told him that we just picked this car up, due to the car problems we had, he went back the his car and came back saying he could have the car impounded - it not only had expired tags dating back to 7-6-13, but they didn't even belong to this car, he said I understand this is not your fault, so I will just give you a warning.
Finally we got to Chicago and got to our hotel, it is a really nice place, the kind of place, they like to take you bags and your car etc., so we let them and found out later that the car will cost $62,50 per ngiht while we are here, its just the way it is in these big cities, but, it still dosen't any easier.
We had so much fun in Chicago, saw the fireworks in the Navy Pier and had great meals with great views, we went on the River Cruise - Reed and I Loved that - weather was perfect except for the wind at times, but mostly great - we did almost everything we wanted to do except for the Sears Tower, we went to do that, but the wait was 1 1/2 hours and we thought we would wait and go on Monday Morning.
Monday Morning came and we were so anxious to hear for Mercedes, mostly to know if our car was sitll there and everything still in it. We didn't have time to get to the Sears Tower and get checked out of the hotel and down to get our car, so we will do it next tiime.
The car needed a AC Compresser and of course they didn't have one, so they said they could have it done on Tuesday, Reed asked them if we could go get one and bring it to them, he called us back and said they had someone that was going to Indianapolis anyway and he would grab one and bring is up.
So we dscided to run and get breakfast and do a little shopping, I had to take Reed into the American Girl Doll store and we went to see the Lego Store and Macy etc.
Took a nice walk and headed down to La Fayette to get our car, we got there early so we went to there little Zoo and enjoyed it.
They called us about 3:30 the car was ready so we went to get it - so happy to be on our way !!
We drove to Ogelsby about 3 hours under our belts, we decided we will have to give something up on our trip west, so we cancelled Yellowstone, but will still to Black Hills and Jackson Hole.
Got up and headed out to Souix Falls, it took us about 8 hours, stayed there and the next day we got to the Black Hills, it is just so cool to see and the weather again was just perfect, did the nature hike there and saw all the stuff in and around there, its reallly nice and clean we loved it, drove over to Crazy Horse monument, but it has a long way to to and we could see it really well from the HWY, so we didn't pull in decided we wanted to get closeer to Jackson, or tomorrow would be a 10 hour day fo driving into Jackson and we just love Jenny Lake and all the stuff on the way into the city, so we got as far as Casper - checked into a Ramada Inn there and walked into town and got dinner, we don't love Casper, but is was a good place to stay on our way west.
So excited for today, we only have about 6 hours and we will be there.
Stopped in Jenny lake area, so busy we have never seen so many people - couldn't evern get a parking, people were parking out to the main road just along the road, crazy, but we did park and we took a nice walk along the lake, Reed put his feet in the water, we just enjoyed it here one of our favorite places.
Got into Jackson Hole about 3, checked into Cowboy Village and then went to the store, we decided to get Salmon and BBQ it for dinner,and that is just what we did, and loved it.
After dinner we went for a bike ride and then a walk into town, found alot of the stores were closed, and that is for the best.
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