Day 4: Kirtland, Ohio to Ithaca, NY. We finished off Ohio, then drove through Pennsylvania, finally arriving in upstate New York.
Pace: Steady. A cool 4.5 hours of driving.
Rations: Best described as "so bored of every single snack we have in the car." It was like we had to force ourselves to eat. Near the end we were all just eating M&Ms because there was nothing else.
I'm writing this about 24 hours after arriving, but we'll see what I can remember about those final hours of driving.
The temple at Kirtland, or as the RLDS would put it, "Kirtland Temple." I don't know why the girls are fleeing.
We stopped at the historical sites in Kirtland for exactly 27 minutes before hitting the road. It was all Jeremy would allow. We saw the temple from the outside and the Visitor Center on the inside. Both were awesome. We promised the RLDS (Community of Christ) tour guides that we'd be back for a more thorough visit sometime now that we're living back East and I think they'll hold us to our word.
Upstate New York's rest areas kick all other rest areas' butts. Here is an example:
During childhood road trips, mostly from Oregon to California, we siblings always kept an eye out for the "exotic" license plates. You know, cars from far-away places like Florida or New Jersey. As we pulled up alongside them in the van on the freeway, we'd always take a peek at the car's passengers just to see what those exotic people were like. Well, folks, I have become one of those exotic people. Practically everyone from Iowa on east made sure to get a good look at us as they passed our Arizona license plates.
I was getting pretty tired driving those last few hours but I kept myself awake by noticing how gorgeous this place is. For a little while I was nervous that I had fallen asleep and was dreaming about what heaven might look like, but no, I was still awake and driving.
Thoughts on Ithaca itself and the joys of moving in to come soon. In the meantime, here is a belated picture of those zany sideways Nebraska traffic lights:
and the smiley-face water tower in Iowa:
Enjoy!