After about 19 hours of driving, 1 seedy motel, 2 hailstorms, and 1 gatorade bottle full of urine, we finally made it.

The first part of the trip went very nicely. We only took about 6 hours to get just past St. Louis, Missouri (putting us about 2 hours ahead of Google Maps) when we began searching for a place to sleep for the night. I got a call from Mark while we were driving in the middle of BFE asking if I was down for a Budget Inn. I said, "Sure, how bad can it be?"

Oh, boy.

This place was more than a little seedy. A TV antenna (no, not a satellite dish) adorned the top of a painted cinder block structure, built into a steep but shallow hill. The retaining wall adjacent to the parking lot was being pushed onto the parking lot by what was evidently bad grading under the Thurman's-esque bar a tier higher (if you know Columbus, OH's German Village, you'll know what I'm talking about). The inside was actually quite clean, but the foam pillows were obviously full of moisture and nastiness from God-knows-what. This place was definitely the set of an 90's teen horror movie. I was half expecting to get choked to death by shower curtain or sliced in half by a runaway tractor trailer. But we all survived the night. Unless of course, you include Katiemoore's front tube.

Which brings me to my next story, which will have to wait until tomorrow since I am absolutely exhausted and need some sort of sleep base in order to complete this triathlon on Saturday. Blogging isn't everything, you know!

Peace,
Dan