Monday morning we left Boulder around noon. At one point we briefly considered staying another day because we’d woken up so late and were still exhausted; but we didn’t even have the energy to spend doing anything but sitting around! (Elliot was going to work so we were on our own again.) So we hit the road instead…

Because it was going to be a long day, Cobalt and I twitched driving duties (otherwise Cobalt drove pretty much everywhere. Thanks, hubby! :)). He drove us solidly through Kansas where eventually I picked up the wheel. I was so determined to drive through the night but all of a sudden around 10:30pm I felt like I’d “hit a wall.” If it hadn’t been pitch black maybe I would have been fine but my brain also began to shut down. Cobalt had tried to sleep in the meantime but found it nearly impossible; so instead of twitching again we stopped in Kansas City, MO to sleep.

After asking two hotels if they had a room for the night and hearing that the prices were way out of our budget, we were slightly discouraged. But we prayed for God to provide something, no matter what it cost us.

We took a deep breath and tried one more place. Even though it was still too expensive, the greeter graciously gave us the AAA discount which knocked off about $10. We took the room just so we could just sleep!

The room was the worst we’d stayed in all the hotels we’d chosen on the trip; but it was surprisingly (to me) the most homey. All the other rooms we’d stayed in were bigger to accommodate another bed (you’d think one bed rooms would be cheaper…). This room was more like our room at home. Small enough to fit the bed, a desk, a couple of night tables and a drawer set. Besides the strangely lumpy pillows and smokey air (it was supposed to be non smoking…), I was SO glad the bed was comfortable. After camping for 3 nights and sleeping on an air mattress for two, I was so very thankful for a real bed.

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The next morning we missed breakfast, having set no alarm so that we could sleep as well as we could before another long day of driving. I nearly had a heart attack when I checked the alarm clock beside my pillow and it read “10:45am.” I knew checkout was as 11am, so I frantically got up to find a second opinion. I sighed with relief when looking at my phone. For some reason  unknown the alarm clock had been set to Eastern Time, not Central. That was a relief.

I tried writing on the blog (because we had wifi for once) while Cobalt showered but didn’t get far before we had to leave…

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Spying a Waffle House, we slipped in to order some waffles and an omelet. The waffle was deliciously hot; we guzzled it down quicker than you can say “Timmy Lue Lost His Shoe.” To our dismay, the waitress informed us that they were plum out of eggs, but not to worry for someone had gone out to the store to get some. (We couldn’t see no store around, by the way.) Satisfied with the crinkled flapjacks, we canceled our omelet order so that we could stay on schedule. The waitress apologized again and again; and the manager even gave us a coupon for a free waffle and omelet next time we came to visit (sadly we’re not sure if Chattanooga Waffle Houses will accept this, though…). In return, we smiled and thanked them and they thanked us for our service.

Chuckling, honey and I returned to our car to hit the road.

Cobalt kindly drove us to St. Louis (and through the darned awful in-city complicated interstate, I might add) to the Gateway Arch, where we snapped a few photos of the fabulous and famous monument of Western Civilization.

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We even got a little ride in the elevator too… (errrr…rather we pretended to!)

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…and learned about Lewis and Clark’s adventures. Strangely, they felt a lot like ours!

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(There were blog entries like this all around the room!)

2013-07-03T14-03-15_25Our final stop was to Olive Garden, as we were seriously craving their unlimited salad, soup and bread sticks. Somehow cheaper, we added a pizza to the mix.

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Exhausted, I drove us the rest of the 7 hours to Chattanooga. We got back about 2am to a wonderfully clean house (I’m so glad my Momma taught me to do this before leaving on a trip).

It is lovely, oh so lovely to be finally home. 

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Want to know what we thought about the trip?

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