Does this count for my NaNo?

So I've been made official blogger of the trip, though Mom will take over on nights when I'm simply too tired or when I'm just lazy.

We spent the night in Ohio with Steph, who now has an ode dedicated to her in the form of a travel blog post.  We were pretty bushed, so Mom and I headed to bed early.  The next morning, we moved a little slowly to get ready.  Then we got the tour of the town, which had also been Steph's childhood home.  She pointed out several different old family homes and taught us a little about the town.   It was fun, and some of the homes we saw were absolutely ridiculous.  For example:

This mostly hidden monstrosity is Lebron James' house.  Because apparently he lives very close to Steph. Small world.  Steph also took us by University of Akron.  FEAR THE ROO.  Apparently, despite being called "The Zips" Akron's mascot is, in fact, a kangeroo.  And there's a commemorative hedge statue to prove it.

We drove around the campus for a bit, looking for a certain statue that we would "know when we saw it."  Oddly enough, that was exactly what happened.  I present to you the polymer statue:

It's either rock candy or a conceptual statue that speaks to the economic and social impact of gluing together goldfish gravel.  I don't know.

It was a very pretty sculpture, and it really towered above us.  Though I was the only one who got out of the car, having been designated photographer.  I suppose I'm okay with that.  The other thing that struck me about Akron U was how BIG it was.  There's nothing like going to a big campus to drill home how small your 2,000 person liberal arts college campus was.  There were even traffic lights IN THE CAMPUS.  It was like a whole new world.

Before we saw Lebron's, Steph took us to the Don Drummer Gallery, where I promptly fell in love with a lot of jewelry.  Once again, I found myself wishing I was a millionaire.  I'd have a room for jewelry alone.  The gallery was quirky (it was sort of a complex of several fun-colored houses--purple and orange, lime green and bright blue) and it really was just delightful.

Steph and I agreed to pose in front of the place for posterity.  That, and because we're awesome.

I look a little weird in this picture.  Concentrate on the totally awesome metal flowers instead.  So then we piled back in the car and headed back to Steph's house to grab our suitcases and say our last goodbyes to Reno, the fluffiest of them all.  We gave her our goodbye pats (which lead to purring.  Reno, oddly enough, makes a contented little rumble that sounds an awful lot like purring when her ears are rubbed in a certain fashion.  Perhaps one day she'll be the dog that forever heals the gap between the dogs and the cats.  We'll see.)  She was sad to see us go--or so we like to think--but we immortalized her in photo:

The next stop was, of course, the all important lunch.  It's difficult to set out on a five hour drive with an empty stomach.  After some consultation, we decided that despite what promises to be a steady diet of so-called "road food" (burgers, fries, diners, etc) that we would go to Swenson's, a nearby drive-in that's a small local chain.  So we took two cars and promptly confused everyone else in the parking lot by parking both and then piling into just one.  But the server was cool with it and we happily ordered while I exclaimed over this:

You read that right.

Fried. Bologna.

We did not get fried bologna sandwiches, as it was implied that one might be quickly felled by a heart attack.  Next, we bid goodbye to Steph.  The next picture might imply that we went back to her house.  The picture is a lie.  We said goodbye at a gas station.  Because that's the way it should be. 

Mom and Steph, bein' friends.

So Mom and I hopped right on to 70 S towards Columbus.  And we drove.  And drove.  I did a majority of the driving this day, since Mom did so much yesterday.  We finally switched around the IN border.  And I beat another 9 levels of Angry Birds.  I just want to be completely honest with you right now--I'm actually running this blog so I can brag about my Angry Birds prowess.  The travel is just secondary.  

Now, as a small aside, I have always wondered about the phrase "open highway" because most highways I've driven on have been crowded.  Today, I found out what it meant.

Open.  Highway.

At long last, we arrived in Indianapolis, the home of another of Mom's friends, Jill and her husband Tom.  I first met Jill five or six years ago, when I was beginning my college search.  Therefore, this felt oddly full circle.  But still awesome.  We were also joined by Tom Walsh, a colleague and friend of both Jill and Mom.  (Have I mentioned that Jill and Tom are Lawyer Mafia?  Well, more specifically, I believe they're Civil Chief Mafia.  Either way.  Lawyers.  There was a lot of law talk at the table.  I got to text as a reward for my patience.)  Mom had originally told me that Tom Walsh would be joining us in such a manner:  "Tom Walsh is joining us! He's driving all the way from Chicago!  Isn't that fantastic?"  I nodded vigorously and cried, "Yes, it is!  I have no idea who that is!"  She promptly filled me in.  And yes, you read that correctly.  Tom Walsh drove all the way from Chicago to Indianapolis just to meet us for dinner.  Which is pretty rad.

Anyway, we had a lovely dinner that was filled with law jargon, which is a plus simply because I got to use the word "jargon" in this post.  It was nice to see Mom with friends and colleagues, even if I didn't always understand the phrases being bandied about.  I'm an English major, guys, but I have my limit.

After dinner, we realized that the staff probably wanted to go home, since we were the only table left and it was around 9:30 or so.  So, naturally, we took pictures first.

Mom, Jill, and Tom Walsh.

Clearly, Tom (Jill's husband) and I didn't rate pictures.  But that's okay.  We didn't really want to be in them anyway.  We all said our goodbyes, and Mom and I headed off to the hotel for the night.  

Before I wrap up with the mileage we did today and the total mileage for the trip thus far (though they are guesstimates, as I forgot to check the odometer before coming inside) I want you all to know that I've been working on this blog post for over an hour.  Because the stupid photos took forever to load.  But I'm dedicated.  

As we go to bed in Indianapolis, we have traveled 293 miles (according to Google Maps) today and a total of  929 miles in two days.  

Yeah, that's a lot of iPod playlists.