The final leg of our journey started optimistically enough. We left around 6:30am (30 minutes later than planned, but not bad.) We were about an hour and a half into our day when the little dashboard alarm went off: "Check Tire Pressure." Great.
After watching the pressure register lower and lower in our back right tire (thank goodness for computerized sensors!), we pulled off and found a McDonald's with a Playplace in a little town in IL. Sure enough, we had a flat. Phil could hear the air hissing from a puncture. So... the girls and I went inside to eat and play while Phil unloaded almost everything from the back of the truck to get to the spare. We were there for about an hour and a half before we got back on the road. On the bright side, we were able to fix the tire in a comfortable place rather than on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and the people we interacted with in the town were very helpful and friendly. Gotta love the Midwest!
(Side note: it turned out that the flat tire was caused by a shard of deer bone from some roadkill we passed. Mmmmm. Nice.)
So now we were two hours behind schedule. The girls were doing considerably well for a while, but my attitude was not. Before long, Nora started getting sick of the whole situation, crying on and off between catnaps. Grace was getting bored and started complaining about a tummyache. I was starting to feel ill. Phil's eyes were glazing over.
We stopped at a miserable Burger King in Lincoln, where the playland was crammed into a glass-enclosed closet with one tiny bench to sit on. (This was one of many strange and uncomfortable places where I nursed Nora along the way.) Once we were back in the truck, Grace's tummy complaints got more insistent. We handed her a tupperware bucket, just in case. You know what came next. Throw-up in the car...fantastic.
Anyway, we ended up getting to North Platte, NE at about 9:30pm. After 15 hours of traveling, I felt terrible and Nora was the fussiest I've ever seen her. (I was up with her till 1am.) We just wanted to be home!!
Our 4-hour drive the next morning seemed excruciatingly long, but it was puke-free and we were home by 12:30pm. I've never been so happy to see our little house in my life!
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