Flat, Flat, Flat And Brown

Enjoying Dinner At Nonna's Italian

It's just after 6:00 and both of us are up drinking our coffee in our Hampton Inn room, in Plainfield, IN, just outside of Indianapolis. We should have a seven to eight-hour drive today, depending on roadwork.  The weather looks fine as it seems to be warming up once again in Ohio and Chautauqua.

We left Kansas City at 7:30 and thought we would arrive at our destination at 4:00.  Our timing was right on because we drove in just after 4:00.  There's not much to say about driving through the flatlands of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana but boring. The landscape does not change much, just tilled fields, flat and brown reaching up to the horizon until we got a small city or a large one like St Louis.  There, the highway was wall-to-wall strip malls on both sides of the highway for miles until we crossed the Mississippi.  

Faithland

Around 9:30, we stopped at a Mcdonald's, only to realize the doors were locked and only the drive-through was open. I ordered a breakfast sandwich and that was it for our meals other than a peanut butter sandwich mid-afternoon for lunch. We also stopped once for gas, a couple of times at a rest stops that appeared to be open only to find that the restrooms were closed. 

Drive By Target Practice 

The Plainfield exit from #70 is a busy place, with lots of hotels, fast food restaurants, gas stations as well as stores. We checked in at 4:15, relaxed in the room until 6:00 when we drove a mile to a recommended restaurant, Nonna's Italian.  It was a good choice, as the food was excellent.  Evie ordered tomato basil soup and a salad and I had chicken parmesan.  It lacked ambiance because we were the only ones sitting in the restaurant's bar tables, as most people were picking up take-out.  Interestingly, because of Covid, we ordered and paid before sitting down and our food was brought to us by the kitchen staff.  

We were back in our Hampton by 7:30, tired from our drive, and stayed up watching TV or reading until 9:30 when we turned off the lights. 

We have had a great 12 day road trip, thanks to our visits with Beth and Tom's families.  And we get to spend a week with Jill's family at Top Sail, NC, in two weeks.