8/9/08
Awakening to dreary and rainy skies, we had a typical breakfast for a Super 8, packed up and left. The temperature was cool, so we kept the vents shut and were fortunate that the skies stayed cloudy for much of the trip. In the afternoon the sun came out and got things heated up reducing the patience factor so we called it a day around 4. Traffic around St Paul, MN was pretty heavy and the numskull factor relative to cage drivers has increased as we go east. Other than St Paul it was a pretty uneventful 530 miles of super slab.

8/10/08

Today we awoke to cloudless skies with temps in the 60s, and indeed it stayed that way the rest of the day. This kind of weather makes it easy to pile up a lot of miles, but our progress was impeded by numerous road construction projects. We did manage another 540 miles finally quitting at Kendallville, IN making this our last night on the road. We found a Best Western offering complimentary cookies, always a draw for Stinger. Having enough of the super slab's construction projects and various tolls, we broke off there and onto US 6 just after the border of Illinois and Indiana. Unlike the West where roads are just torn up and you can drive on them anyway, the roads around here are shut down and you are detoured. US 6 had a couple of these, but at a gas stop some locals told us how to get around the last one. That's how we ended up in Kendallville. Tomorrow may be our longest day yet as we have to get through Ohio and Pennsylvania, but we are looking forward to family and some good home cooking. We heard from reliable sources that Uncle Eddie made it home by Saturday morning after riding all night. That means we should be pulling into home by the time he wakes up. Tune in tomorrow for some more final thoughts and observations.