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Zach worked his last day of work at my parent’s house before packing up the van.  We left around 4:00 for our journey home.  The plan was to drive almost straight through and just stay in a motel for one night, but things didn’t go exactly as we planned.

At some point Thomas was so bored he started trying on Ila’s shoes! We stopped in Indianapolis to take a picture of Zach next to the stadium where his favorite team (The Colts) play.

 

We spent the night at a Red Roof Inn near St. Louis.

And started day two of our drive by going to see the St. Louis Arch:

Ila held the railing all the way down and had black hands to prove it: The next stop was Liberty Jail.  We were able to see the restored Liberty Jail, where the Prophet Joseph Smith spent approximately five months awaiting trial. Nicole preferred to stay on the bench at the top instead of joining the rest of the tour on the benches directly in front of the jail. Next we stopped in Brownsville, Nebraska to find some graves for some of Zach’s ancestors.

It was very hot and some of the children were tired and cranky.

We pulled off in Lincoln, Nebraska for some dinner.  As Zach drove up to the window at McDonald’s, the brakes failed.  He was able to pull around to a parking spot.  We took our food inside and ate while he called AAA to find someone to fix the van.  It was hard to eat because I was so sick to my stomach with worry.  We had planned to eat our dinner on the road and drive all through the night and arrive home early on Sunday morning.  Instead we finished our meal, gathered some of our things and walked to the Days Inn behind the McDonalds.  We were fortunate that both that our brakes failed in a safe place and that there happened to be a motel just a short walk from where we were.  The van was towed to the repair shop and we spent a fretful, unplanned night in a rundown motel.  

The next morning we waited anxiously to hear word about the van.  Zach called the shop a few times and talked to the manager of the motel who let us stay in our room an extra hour past check out time.  We still hadn’t heard about the van when it was time to check out so we moved down to the lobby with all our things.

I was anxious about all the kids being too loud in the lobby so we found a grassy spot in front of a post office to wait. Luckily it wasn’t too much longer before the shop called.  A lady from the shop picked Zach and Isaac up and drove them to the van.  We waited in front of the post office for him to return with the van.

 

We were glad to be back on our way at first, but by the end of the day we were all tired of the cramped car and the car food.  Several of the kids were sick with colds and feeling miserable.  Charlotte had an ear ache, Ila couldn’t get comfortable, and Thomas screamed the last two times I bucked him into his seat.  He must have thought we’d never be done driving in the car.  We finally arrived home at 2:30 AM.