Day 1: Plymouth Meeting to Toledo

Evan:
We got a bit of a late start, but we finally hit the road around 9 a.m. Eastern Pennsylvania is pretty boring, but once we got past Harrisburg there's lots of rolling hills and farmland that turns into mountains after a while. It's a really nice drive. Too bad Sarah slept through most of it. We hit the Ohio border pretty quickly, or so it felt. But after we crossed the Ohio border is where things got interesting. The terrain is back to the flatter farmland we saw in Pennsylvania, but the weather got crazy.

We drove through two of the craziest thunderstorms we've ever seen. The first came and went quickly, dumping a lot of rain but not much lightning. The second was a lot crazier. It became impossible to see the road and some hail was coming down, and we had to take cover under a bridge for a few minutes while the worst of the storm passed.

Sarah:
I was sure we were going to die. Our voyage was not lacking melodrama on my part. I shrieked through the storm until we finally had to get out from under the bridge because the water level was rising. We finally made it to our hotel around 5:30 and checked in. It's clean and exactly what one would expect for 50 bucks a night. Evan was hungry and VERY keen on eating something "not American" so after some debate we ventured out to a restaurant called Masala, about 15 minutes away. Situated in a strip mall, the restaurant was anything but flashy. But inside it was quiet, clean, and modestly decorated. The service was attentive and the food was great. We got drinks, appetizers, naan, raita, and two entrees for 34 bucks including tip! Okay, I'm tired of writing, so I'll let Evan finish up.

Evan:
Of course I'm not keen on eating American. Once we get past Chicago it's cheeseburgers and fries until we hit Vegas. So I figured we could get our fill of ethnic food while it's available. And the food was superb at Masala. We couldn't finish our entrees since we wanted to save room for dessert, which is always a good sign. And we got the vegetarian meal, which is nice since we haven't had too much in the way of veggies lately. (Sarah adds here: the dessert was rice pudding!!)

The hotel is nice--certainly nice enough. We're finishing up the night by watching some Mythbusters. Tomorrow we'll be on the road to Chicago and visiting a cousin of mine.


That's all for tonight!