Blog Number 318

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well we have arrived here in picturesque Kokomo, IN.  It seems a little weird to see the familiar streets, restaurants and businesses.  It also seems odd to be staying at Chateau Dieterman (aka my mom's house).  We missed an exit just past St Louis that costs us about 30 miles but arrived safe and sound around 7 pm local time.  The kids are now in their beds in the spare room and the wife and I are trying desperately to stay awake until 10 (which would be 9 back home in TX).  Driving just sucks the life out of you.  Hopefully a good night's sleep awaits us and we can get on with our vacation tomorrow AM.

My mom planned a moving day for my grandmother and it just happens to coincide with my visit (hmmmmm).  So tomorrow I am to help move my grandma from her assisted living center to an independent living center.  She does not have that much stuff thankfully but at least I will get in a workout to help make up for eating on the road the last 2 days.  Last night we had pizza delivered to the hotel room in Springfield, MO.  There is something about staying in a hotel and having pizza delivered.  The wife does not see how this is exciting but the kids and I enjoyed it nonetheless.  I did notice that there was an extra charge for delivery.  I do not recall this being the case the last time we had pizza delivered so I am assuming the pizza joints are making up for the high price of fuel and passing the cost onto the consumer.  No matter, the Pepperoni Feast pizza from Domino's was great (well, it was OK but it was pizza in a hotel room and that automatically upgrades to great unless there was a bug on the pizza or something of that nature).  I don't think we have ever had pizza delivered to any house we have lived in during our entire marriage.  Usually the local pizza places have a carry out special and I always opt for that.  So the kids think it strange that we can just pick up the phone and have someone make us food and then bring it to us.  I grew up with lots of pizza delivery so I cannot relate to how odd this must seem to them.  We also got a can of soda out of a vending machine (something else we seldom do).  I am glad that we can do these simple things and the kids think they are special.  It takes the pressure off of having to make the vacation special.  Having a TV with actual channels on it was special too (even though the wife insisted we watch some best of breed dog show on Animal Planet).  The hotel was very nice and we plan on staying there on the way home next week.

Well, I am tired so I am going to head off to bed.  It will take very little convincing I think to get the wife to join me.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon