Soooo tired.

The high-heels started up again this morning at seven, but I was already awake, and could hear when she took her shower, too. Next time at the Drury Inn, just a regular room. And I think Staybridge has nudged out Drury as favorite hotel. :-)

We had two problems this morning, one more critical than the other. The most urgent was keeping Skye warm. It was in the 30s outside. We also needed to do something with the Bronner's shopping bag.

Well, after we had breakfast and stuffed the car full, Schuyler was forthwith wrapped in both her flannel cage cover and her fleece one, left to load last. The Bronner's bag went next to the bird cage, secured to the seat back, only encroaching a little on Willow's space, but she refused to lie down until we were almost to our motel for the night and sat in the back seat with her eyes half closed unless we came to a stop.

We had a smooth trip through Detroit, ignoring the GPS' efforts to get us to go out of our way (very odd, since it routed us directly through Detroit coming in), and had a dandy, head-on view of the Ambassador Bridge as we came past it...and it is emblazoned "Ambassador Bridge," too, at the top of each tower.

On the way up we had passed something called "Luna Pier" that looked as if it were directly on Lake Erie. So we went the two miles out of our way, to bump our way into a badly-paved little parking lot next to a tiny rise, and, indeed, over the retaining wall, was Lake Erie, water lapping against the shore with seagulls skimming it overhead, but very misty in the distance and the sky a pale, watery blue. We couldn't tell whether there was an island in the distance or a shoal. We did see one boat, backlit against the mist, and what looked in the distance to be trees. Or not.

It looked, as I saw it, like a miniature version of Oakland Beach, back when Iggy's was Gus's and just a shack.

So we saw at least one Great Lake. Would have liked to have seen Lake Huron, but both times coming back from the Henry Ford the traffic was a mess going out to Port Huron, and we were exhausted coming back from Bronner's (and the traffic was a mess then, too).

So, back to the freeway at the nagging of the GPS, past Toledo and an Eastern Orthodox Church and the beautiful mosque with its gold dome and twin minaret. Past all the fields of corn, harvested or with stalks still standing, and the occasional brilliant autumn trees in a grove of otherwise dull ones. Past the Armstrong Air & Space Museum right by the freeway when we went through Wapakoneta. There was another mosque further down, with a thin, elegant minaret. We listened to an Agatha Raisin mystery about a murder in a rambling [walking] group, and also the Paul McGann Doctor Who story "The Scapegoat." Schuyler cheeped occasionally and we let Willow sniff about at an Ohio rest area.

We stopped to pick up lunch at the Arby's at the same exit at which we had stayed in Dayton, waving at that Drury Inn as we went by, and also got gasoline at Sam's.Club on the same road. However, we didn't eat it there.

We had gotten to the Wright Brothers shop and the visitor's center in Dayton so late that by the time James tried to buy something as a gift the park ranger had shut down the cash register. So we figured to just stop by and purchase it, and sit there in the parking lot and eat our lunch, since we couldn't do our usual thing when on vacation with the critters, get a picnic table at a rest area and eat there.

We had a minor adventure: James got off at 53A rather than 53B, which dumped us directly into downtown Dayton, with nary a helpful pointer directing us to the Wright Cycle Shop in sight. So James drove around the city while the GPS desperately tried to get us back on the freeway, and I struggled to type "Wright Brothers" into my phone over badly-mended streets (it came out "Wrugnt Btotjers" the first time) to get us directions. It was only a mile away, three quick right turns and a left. I popped in to use the ladies' room and get the gift after feeding Willow half my sandwich.

Next down to Cincinatti, where I monitored the traffic, but it was all in the opposite direction as we had experienced it last Friday, and finally into Kentucky. This, ironically, was the one place we ran into traffic, if just briefly; police cars being stopped on both sides of a Jersey barrier, everyone decided they had to stop and look. Idiot rubberneckers.

Interestingly, in Kentucky we passed one of those U-Hauls with a city or country attraction or notable painted on the side. This one was marked "Wapakoneta" and had a graphic of Neil Armstrong in his space suit on it!

We reached our motel about 5:30. It hadn't gotten over 50 all day and was quite damp and cold when we got to the Days Inn in Georgetown, KY, just north of Lexington. I had picked this one because it was the only place around Lexington I could find with five stars, and it intrigued me. Well, it's a motel, kinda down around the heels. The grout in the bathroom is gross, but everything is clean, and the bed is nice and firm. Don't know about the shower yet. It's across the way from a truck stop, so it appears the evening will be noisy.

Still, it seems to be popular with folks with pets! Next door to us is a Sheltie, and in the room after that is a Yorkie.

Bet no one has a Schuyler. :-)

So we had dinner at Waffle House, just on the other side of the Motel 6 next to us. Mmmn. Pork chops! Now waiting for the season premiere of Flying Wild Alaska.

Labels: pets, travel, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:44:00 PM

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