As we walked towards the second Travel Center for the day, Tyler exclaimed, “our trailer is so cool!” He went on to say there was no way we would have ever made this trek had we rented a trailer. He was right, and it validated me and my decision to push for buying vs. renting.
This experience has been an incredible opportunity for our family! We have never been into traveling or road trips, frankly because we get along most of the time, except while in cars 🙂 I also learned growing up that when you get in the car, you sleep. Thus, I get sleepy in the car which makes for a terrible driving experience.
While this has pushed me outside of my comfort zone, I have been enjoying every minute of it. As we drive through each state, I observe the landscape, traffic, people, drivers, billboards, and wildlife. I like to compare each state and pick favorites! As we venture further East, I haven’t been oohed and aahed as much.
Today we woke up in a Walmart parking lot. As crazy as that sounds, it was really quite pleasant. If you read our blog yesterday, we settled into a Walmart in South Bend, OH, after being kicked out of a casino parking lot. We had read about boondocking at Walmart and knew at some point we needed to try it out and last night was the night!
This particular Walmart was clean and the parking lot was vacant. Outdoor speakers were playing good music as they opened in the morning. Tyler and I ventured over there before waking the kids to get a few necessities. As we walked across the parking lot, I realized there was a Sam’s Club in the same lot. I knew we would want to stop in for water and meat just as soon as they opened.
We woke the kids when we got back to the trailer and readied ourselves to venture towards Sam’s Club. We only had 30 minutes before Tyler’s workday would begin. We made our way in and around the giant store in less than 30 minutes and without breaking the bank. We chalked that up as a win!
We came back to the trailer, had breakfast made by Addi, and got to the grind on work and school. Tyler had a meeting at 11 so we waited to pack up until after he was finished. Once his meeting was over, we started towards Notre Dame College where we were told to check out the “Touchdown Jesus.”
We made it to the campus, parked, and started walking around. The campus was huge and everything was built in bricks. I do not think I’ve seen as many bricks in my entire life while on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend. Since we weren’t certain what exactly we were looking for, we relied on Google to show us the way! We finally made our way to the infamous building outside of the stadium displaying what some describe as the Touchdown Jesus and then decided since we were there we should also see “First Down Moses!”
After seeing all the things, we began our day of travels towards Akron, OH. In Akron, Ashton and Tyler wanted to see the school that Lebron James attended as well as the one that he built. We arrived at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School a few hours down the road. Ashton was excited to see where Lebron attended high school. Just a few blocks away, we saw the IPromise School.
Our campsite was about 20 miles down the road and we arrived just before 7 pm. Tonight we are staying at another Harvest Host, Maize Valley Winery and Craft Brewery in Hartville, OH. Since we arrived late, we were unable to enjoy any tasty treats from their kitchen. We set up our trailer and Tyler started on dinner. We all spent some time organizing and reorganizing our cozy space and prepared ourselves to take off early tomorrow morning. I was finally able to clean the shower and mop the floors.
Today was Addi’s last day of the 5th grade! It was quite lackluster really. Yesterday she was able to participate in a Zoom call with the 5th grade teachers and other classmates. Tomorrow will be Ashton’s last day of 7th grade. Then it will just be Tyler working away while we all play!
All in all, we traveled 308 miles today. It was a long day and I broke the 3000 miles threshold on our adventure (solo driving, btw!). Tomorrow we will head towards Niagra Falls! We hope to get an early start so we can enjoy the scenery going into the weekend.
Two weeks into this trip and we have nearly made it across the United States! How cool is that?
The Church Hideout 
Invision Nigeria falls during the winter. It’s pretty cool during the summer,but winter time is a different level.
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