Day 10

Today we drove to Tennessee to pick up Morgan and Susan. We were going to get up around 4:30 this morning so we could be there after school, but thankfully mom reminded Ben that we will be crossing time zones, so we got another hour of sleep! yay!

We were on the road by 6am with about 2,930 miles into the trip. Needless to say we crossed into 3,000 miles WAY before I had anticipated. Maybe I need to rename the blog...

We stopped for breakfast sometime between Cleveland and Columbus. I held out food for Maddox to grab, but as he reached for it he realized his hands were full with a pacifier in each one. He was quite perplexed about this. What to do....
He decided to use his foot as a third hand and curled his toes around the side of one of the pacifiers. It was hilarious. He had food in one hand, a paci in the other, and another paci between his toes. Interesting decision, Mad Max.

We've been careful about our speed the whole trip, but unfortunately the Cincinnati Police caught us at a week moment. We hadn't been paying attention to the speed limit signs and unknowingly drove from a 65mph zone to a 55mph zone without slowing down. A motorcycle cop pulled us over and I was crossing my fingers that he would see the Military Police sticker on the back of the car, extend a professional courtesy, and give us a warning. No such luck. We drove away with a $124 speeding ticket and a very unhappy atmosphere in the car.

We got to Tennessee around 3pm (10 hours later) and started searching for hotels. I was really tired of being in the car so, after a few calls, I got short and told Ben to just pick one. I didn't care which one, just get me out of here. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn and it actually ended up being a good choice. The rooms were new, there is wireless service, and no fee for dogs.

Ben picked up Morgan and Susan, they wrestled for a bit, then we ordered pizza for dinner and relaxed the rest of the night (after doing homework). Maddox was a little shy at first since he hasn't seen them in months, but he warmed up quickly. He had fun sitting at the table and eating his dinner with the big kids. He joined in the wrestling and the cuddling of the dogs, but was very upset when Tiny tried to snatch his pizza out of his hand. Dumb dog...