Road Trip Day 5, Chicago to Philly

Lauren woke me up this morning at 4:27 and the kids were all dressed and everything packed in the busses quick as lightning (really, I was quite impressed). The goal was to get through Chicago before the morning traffic hit, so we were on the road by 5:05 AM! We watched the sunrise on the Sears Tower (which dwarfed all the other highrise buildings) and were soon into Indiana. I slept through this state in the back of Shelle's van and when I awoke we were already into Ohio.

America's heartland is covered with corn fields and dotted with silos and old barns. The rest areas here are these pavement-covered "Travel Plazas" that are like mini-malls with gas, restaurants, mini-arcades and ginormous bathrooms (with like 20 or 30 stalls) and souvenir shops. Freeways are called Turnpikes here, and toll roads are plentiful (some costing as much as 35 plus dollars. There are these funny brown dome-like things that I think may be salt storehouses (for snowy weather).

As soon as we crossed the boarder into Pennsylvania, the landscape changed dramatically. The flat, gently rolling plains were replaced by rocky hills and lush greenery. All the trees were leafing out and the bright green leaves contrasted beautifully with the black trunks and limbs. The architecture changed, too; amazing, tall, colonial-style homesteads made mostly of brick. For all the tolls we paid, I was shocked at how bad the roads were - huge potholes and construction everywhere, often with narrow lanes and NO shoulder. Traffic was pretty heavy around Pittsburgh, but otherwise not too bad.

I was very intimidated and afraid to speak up and confront the kids at first, but as I'm getting to know and love these kids, I'm doing better and engaging more. I made the kids in my van put all media away and look at the countryside for awhile, then made them play history trivia to keep me awake. Christy buys them gum and has bubble blowing contests to keep her awake. There are still a few older kids that give me some attitude, but I'm calling them on stuff more.

We got to our hotel around 11:30 and all the kids started going to pieces. Half the girls were crying for different reasons and complaining of different maladies. I think they were all tired and hungry and just worn out from the pace we've been keeping up. One of our girls was a bit more serious - she had a fever and severe abdominal pain, but Shelle (our nurse) had gone to the airport to pick up a parent that was flying in that night. I got directions from the desk clerk and drove to the Chester County Hospital emergency room and was there until 4am when Shelle came and let Lo and I go back and sleep. After doing tests to rule out appendicitis, they got back to the hotel around 7am and thankfully no one was really sick (I had imagined at one point our whole group coming down with the Swine Flu - scary!).