Day 8 - September 19
It was time to go home! Even though we had a lot of fun in Gettysburg and Hagerstown we were ready to go back home. We missed our kitties. We got up early, packed up the car. We grabbed a quick breakfast from the hotel then checked out. We took a few photos on our way out of town. I was really nervous because I knew I had to drive over the mountain what we call the "swirly mountain of death" which scares me. I do not like driving on mountains. Though the mountain portion is only 20 miles long, it still freaks me out. Melinda was having fun taking pictures of the dilapidated buildings along the way. It took us about 2 hours to get from Gettysburg to the PA turnpike. I was going so slow on the mountain. Luckily there wasn't too many cars behind us and those few that were behind us were able to get around. Though right before we got to the turnpike we found what Melinda had been wanting to find - the exotic dancer shacks! We had seen them on our way back home in 2007 and laughed the entire way home. Most people who we told about them didn't believe us, so we wanted to get some photos. There wasn't anyone behind us at the time so I was able to pull off onto the shoulder and Melinda got out to get photos. She was a very happy after that and said that we never again had to go on the swirly mountain of death. YAY!
Driving towards the Swirly Mountain of Death!
The Exotic Dancer Shacks!
Approaching the turnpike junction
I was happy to be on the turnpike, where there were two lanes of traffic and was far less swirly. We were both kind of hungry by this point and we had learned our less on the way to Gettysburg to stop at all of the service plazas since you don't know how far it will be until the next one. So we stopped at the first service plaza. Melinda got a slice of pizza and I got some mini Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, which were so heavenly! YUM!
The Turnpike! YAY!
A river. I can't recall which one. Oops!
There wasn't too much traffic and the drive was pretty uneventful. It didn't seem to take that long to get to Ohio. We decided to wait to get lunch until Ohio. We knew not to stop at the first service plaza since it only serves McDonald's. Luckily the next service plaza wasn't too far away. I like that there are different options in the service plaza since Melinda and I don't always want the same thing, so its nice that we can each get what we want. I think I had pizza and she actually got McDonald's. Not the most interesting lunch, but it refueled us for the rest of our journey.
Driving along the Ohio turnpike is actually quite boring. There are more billboards than in Pennsylvania, but it's still really boring! It seemed that Ohio was never going to end!
Some of my favorite signs!
Welcome to Michigan!
Eventually we got to Michigan! YAY! As we were nearing Detroit we got stuck in some construction. We had called Pat to let him know we were in route. When we got to his apartment we went to dinner at the new Sonic that opened up near him. It was good.
After that Melinda and I began the last part of our journey home. Normally it only takes 2 hours, but there was a lot of construction and it was dark and we somehow missed the connection for 23. D’oh. We of course didn’t realize it right away and ended up going about 10 miles out of our way before we turned around. We think that there was a construction sign or truck that had blocked the exit, which is why we didn’t see it.
The sunset was so pretty!
We finally got home about 10:00 pm and were utterly exhausted. It had been a really long day. Melinda and I had such a great time and will never forget this trip. We can’t wait to go back!
Thank you for reading my trip report! :)
Melissa
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