Thursday, August 1, 2024

Starting mileage: 18492, Distance travelled: 742 (family record)

We managed to get on the road with full bellies, a full tank of gas and caffeine by 7:45am. Sadly, it meant eating a gas station breakfast and only David showering. Kids were tired. By 9am, we were entering Brady, NE.

We spent most of the day passing countless cows, windmills, and acres of corn in Nebraska and Iowa. We stopped for about an hour for lunch at Culver’s, one of the best fast food places we experienced during last year’s trip. We crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois around 6pm and made it across the state to land in Indiana for dinner and sleep by 8pm. Despite how smooth the trip was for the vast majority of the day, the last 20 miles south of Chicago was a snarl of traffic. We were at least grateful we were not westbound where a multi-car and truck pileup closed off the highway entirely and blocked traffic went on for many miles.

We were lucky to find a relatively inexpensive hotel right next to a brewpub where we arrived just in time to get dinner before the kitchen closed.