Cross Country Day 5 (Monday): South Bend to Nebraska

I woke up early, organized what I could, and drove the van straight to the dealership. After a 45 minute wait, they came with the news: the water pump was broken. Good news? they had the part in. Bad news? it was expensive to repair because they had to drop the engine in order to fix the part. Grrr! But, good news? I found this BEFORE we were stranded on the side of the road and had to replace the entire engine!

I decided to head home and after visiting with the McKenna's a bit, I got a call the van was ready. The girls were scattered around the neighborhood: Miranda was at the McKennas playing with Analise, Megan and Zoë were at the Skube's with Ivie and Addison, and Nica didn't want to stay at the McKenna's, but was interested in playing with Oscar at the Elliott's! The neighbors were wonderful to take on these kids, and the girls had a lot of fun, while I ran to collect the van.

Alex and Zoë first thing in the morning (9am). Alex had day camp, and so I woke Zoë up to say g'bye.

I got the van back by 11, and just as I started to make multiple trips loading the van, it started to rain. And rain and rain, harder and harder. Grrr! I checked the house and locked it up, and drove to collect the girls. Zoë burst into tears because she didn't have time to say goodbye to Ivie, so I turned around and took her back so she could say, "See you in a month."

We got on the road at 1:10pm and drove.  And drove and drove and drove. Megan, who was bored, took my iPad and started taking pictures of her "bored" sisters.

Nica entertained herself with music and playing on the tablet.

Nica did sleep, her head lolled against the side of her car seat.

Miranda, my music lover (as all the girls are), loved listening to the iPod nano. I think she listened to the same 10 songs from "Fall Out Boy" 15 times!

She did take the headphones off every once in a while.

Zoë was lost in the front seat under all the "extras": garbage bag, cooler with snacks and lunch, computer bag, and her own back pack and electronics. She was a little cramped, but a good sport.

She was also a little bossy ;)

Megan had fun goofing off and entertaining herself.

These pictures cannot do the view justice. The sun was a vivid orange-red, and was bright enough to shine through the clouds, but not enough so that you could actually look right at the sun. It was eerie.

Another shot of the red sun.

The girls goofing off in the middle row.

I love their crazy expressions- and how happy they were!

And Zoës blase attitude.

Silly girls!

We stopped about 11pm at the hotel, and then I couldn't find the charge cords. We were all so tired, and I lost it. I feel badly for the other people trying to sleep as I wasn't too quiet about not being able to charge my phone, ipad, and all the other devices we had. And, I didn't have a bed because Zoë wouldn't answer the phone when the desk called to see if they could bring the roll-away down. Grrr! Even better? When I finally found the cords (after unpacking the everything in the cab), I came back and got the roll-away bed only to discover it couldn't fit unfolded! I ended up dragging the mattress onto the floor, grabbing a pillow bed (the mattress was lumpy and full of springs!). At this point, the girls were completely asleep, and I quickly joined them.