Road Trip Day 5 and 6 Recaps
Day 5
Slow morning. Made a real breakfast. Kids watched TV. Started out on the 606…an urban walking trail elevated on an abandoned rail line. Kids complain about walking. Cormac comments loudly from my shoulders on every person with exposed skin as they ran or walked past. Daddy no shirt. Belly daddy…belly. Being summer in Chicago End up at a very small park off Milwaukee Ave and the kids jump on rocks for an hour. Head back to the apartment for naps. Go out to La Grange to visit friends and their two boys. Storms come through during dinner that turned the sky uncomfortably bright. Our luggage carrier straps bring water into the car so we went home on wet seats. Looks like we’ll try to avoid rain as much as possible from here on out. Get home and fall asleep quickly. Sarah wakes up at 11:30pm and catches Greta binge watching My Little Pony on Netflix.
Day 6
Drive north out of Chicago. Kids melt down in the car. Lots of fighting. Cormac has screamed more than slept for the past few drives. Not a promising ratio of scream to dream. Maybe seeing some withdrawal symptoms from the TV over the past few days. They drew screens on notepads that have big Netflix logos. Pretending to watch shows on the “screens”. Show up at Sarah’s cousins in Wauconda just before noon. Have lunch. Head to Bangs Lake to go to the beach. Watch the kids exhaust themselves with big smiles knowing we’ll have some silent driving in the afternoon. Hang out for about 3 hours before heading north to Kettle Moraine State Park in Wisconsin. Around Milwaukee see massive storm clouds. Time for an audible. We hang out in a parking deck while the storm peaks so water doesn’t come in through the luggage carrier straps and drench us. Make turkey sandwiches. Kids wake up scared to be in a parking deck. Head straight west towards Madison and outmaneuver the storm. No camping tonight. Check into a Super 8 south of Madison. Eat next door at Rocky Rococo’s then head back to the room. Put all four kids in the shower together to wash off sand from the beach and hear Greta say “i just peed and you guys were really close to me”. PJ time. Watch Free Solo. Ruth and Cormac fight next to me over a pillow. Sarah tries to sleep while I ask her to proofread this.
