Sluggy's Road Trip Part 10......To Indiana & Beyond

So I left around 10am from Princeton IL to start the 2-day journey home.  I had a long day of traveling this day.

About an hour in I hit something in the road going 60mph on the interstate.  I slowed down a bit and aimed the car so my wheels didn't go over it.  That's the best I could do since the other lane beside me was occupied.
A panel on the lower left dashboard popped off with the impact but after pulling over on the shoulder once I was clear of traffic I saw no damage to the car.
But after that there was a rattling noise when the car was in motion.  Something must have been jarred loose but I was nowhere near any place to have it looked at.  This might have to wait until I got home as it didn't appear to be serious.....yet.
* Once home I found out that a bolt had come loose and that was what was making the noise.  I got it taken care of. 8-)

At lunchtime I was in Champaign IL so I got lunch and ate in the car.   I didn't want to take time to stop at this point in the day.

Since I hadn't have a "Concrete" at Culver's in Wisconsin I stopped for a sandwich and a concrete here in Illinois.

The weather was crappy.  I kept driving in and out of rain.
blech.

I took a pit stop once I hit the Indiana border......omg! is that the sun trying to come out?!?

 

Another 1.5 hours and I was in the Indianapolis area.  I made a stop north of Indianapolis in a town called Carmel.
They had a World Market store there.
I experienced the weirdest traffic circle in Carmel.  It was more like an oval connected to a trapezoid! lol
At any rate, this town is too congested to have traffic circles dangit!
Put in some traffic lights stat!!!
That circle was worse than any traffic I saw this trip, outside of the Chicago Skyway.  I about had a nervous breakdown trying to navigate around that thing.
8-P

I finally get to World Market thankfully and was able to stretch my legs and walk around the store a bit.

Great cocktail napkins........

Lots of cosmo mix.....

I didn't find any interesting beers here but I did find Abita Root Beer.  Abita is a Louisiana brewery and they make a nice non-alcoholic root beer too.
I spent some time back in April in LA looking for that Abita Root Beer to no avail.
Figures I'd have to go to Indiana to find it! lolz

After a half hour or so I got back into the car and made my way to Fortville, Indiana.
That's where I found my new drinking buddy......

Standing outside of a small liquor store on a street on the seedy side of town.  I had to park in the Dairy Queen lot next door and stand out in the road to get this shot.   A pick-up truck full of Latino men in the back of the truck yelled and made suggestive comments as they drove by.
Oh, the things I do for a good photo......

They say he is the pink martini drinking elephant but I like to think that's a Cosmo in that thar glass!

The weather was getting rainier again and the skies were darkening  so I hightailed it out of there so I could get to my motel for the evening before nightfall.

I stopped in Richmond IN, right off I-70, on the OH line. 
What an adventure getting into my room here.

I checked in and then drove to the door nearest my room, parked and schlepped in with a big load of stuff.  Set it all down and tried the room key(one of those cards you slide).
Nothing.
No green or even a red light.
I tried 8 more times and still nothing.
So I have to leave my stuff! and walk a long hallway to the front desk.
She rekeys my card.
I walk back and try it again.
Nothing.
Another 10 or so time, still nothing.
So I am getting a bit angry(and tired of this)at this point and go walk back to the front desk.

I guess my tone was not very nice at this point, so the lady rekeys the card(just give me a new card that actually works already! I am thinking), and walks all the way with it to my room, swipes it one time and the door opens.
Then she gives me that look that says, "What? Are you an idiot?!
Bitch.
Maybe the key would have worked for me if you had rekeyed correctly the first time.

I say thanks and then tell the gal, "I sure hope it works again because I still have to go back to the car for something, otherwise you'll be seeing me again(bitch)".

Luckily I had no more issues with the room key.
No issues with that but then my issue turned into sucky WIFI issues.

I tried for HOURS to get online and post something to no avail. I got on FB briefly and called it a night.
I gave up and watched some tv and there was no TLC channel.  So I missed that night's "Who Do You Think You Are?" episode.
Oh, my night was getting better and better.

There was some advertising literature in the room too.....

Dick's Last Resort
"The Shame O' Indy".
And they had hats Sonya Ann!
Now we know where to go to if we want to put on hats since the Tea Room closed up.....remember this photo from earlier in the trip in IL.......

I got to the free breakfast in the lobby early before all the grub was gone.
It was pretty good for a free breakfast and not the worse one I endured this trip.

When I checked out the front desk clerk asked me how my stay was and I mentioned the FREE WIFI that was MIA.  I didn't make any other comments on it, it was what it was.

The clerk took $25 off my bill for the inconvenience.
I can live with that.  8-)
Then I hit the road for another long day of driving.

I made a few stops along the way in Ohio, just to look for craft beers we don't get in PA and to wander around a Walmart.

I found these Wine Slurpees at a gas station convenience store in a little town outside of Dayton......

The Merlot one was quite good!

I hit the PA line on I-80 midafternoon and made my way to the Outlets in Grove City.
I did quite the damage at the Vera Bradley Outlet.......2 bags worth......Uh Oh!!

I wandered around the Outlets some more so I didn't get into my son's place until after they were home from work.
I sat at a rest stop along the way and closed my eyes for a bit and dozed off with the sun on my face.  It felt good after the previous day's rain.

I got into Pittsburgh a bit after 6 and my son was home from work.
We had to basically take everything out of the car to get to the beers I bought him on the trip, since they were all packed in the bottom of the trunk.
Fun times.
Ha!

Here's a shot of his beer fridge, now bursting full with new brewskis.....

His girlfriend made us dinner and we had a nice visit.
Then I curled up on the couch for bed, while their crazy cat bounced off the walls all night, before plopping down on me for the rest of the night.

My son had the morning off so we trotted over to a café for breakfast when his girlfriend left for work......
The Square Café in the east end neighborhood of Regent Square.
The menu is pricey but it's seasonal, local, vegan, gluten-free and all that crap.

Kind of early for a milkshake but hey!, there was bacon in that shake so it's all good......

The place was full of hipsters and hipster wannabes.  There was a young family behind us and I swear they sat down right after us and were still trying to order when we paid and left.  The wife had to know every single ingredient in every dish and I heard the words, "Is that organic?" pass her lips at least 2 dozen times to the waiter.  And then the 4 year old kept changing her mind.  She's 4.....give her a limited menu of choices for Pete's sake don't read her the entire menu!!
Just order already....jeez.....can you tell they were pissing me off?

Can you tell I have about had enough of traveling and want to be home?
lolz


Then when we left to walk to the car I saw this sign outside of the Chiropractor's office next door......

Dog & Cat Acupuncture?
No wonder some people are in debt up to their eyeballs....... ;-)

I hugged my son goodbye and made tracks for home.
This 5 hours of the trip was low stress and easy driving once I cleared Pittsburgh.
I was very glad to see my bed......oh, and my Hubs too.....lol

I hope you enjoyed the trip.
I certainly did and though glad to be home I was sad I had to leave each one of my friends I saw along the way.

Oh, and I wanted to show you some cool gifts I was given along the way.

Blanche up in Wisconsin gifted me with these 3 tea towels she did the needlework on......

And yes Blanche, I AM USING them!

And McVal's Mother in-law gave me this quilted wall hanging before I left their house in Iowa......

She let me know that she didn't make it(it had been a gift to her)and she didn't have anywhere to display it and I had been so nice to her family that she wanted me to have it.
Wasn't that nice of her?

And every time I take a trip I like to pick up a Christmas ornament as a reminder/souvenir of my adventures.
While Robin and Pam took me to the HL in IL I picked up this little critter......

I loved the colors(thought you can't see the iridescence in this photo)and if you recall back in Iowa when Leon was in the duck pen petting the ducks.......

 

There were bunches of peacock feathers  flanking the pen.  You can see a bit of them in that photo.
I guess I had peacocks on the brain by the time I hit IL again.
Besides that ornie was cheapish and one of the few that weren't breakable that I liked and had a chance of making it home intact.

When I hang it on our tree in a very short few weeks from now I'll think fondly of my trip and all the people and places along the way.

And congratulations!
You made it to the end of this saga.  8-)


Sluggy

 

Sluggy's Solo Road Trip.....Part 1....PA to OH

 

Up to the moment I actually pulled out of the driveway, I didn't know if I could go through with this trip.

I had new wheels.....my cute little purple car.......and I had the time, but I still wasn't sure I had the nerve to make this trip that would take me approximately 3200 Miles, through 8 States in 16 Days.

I haven't traveled solo in many years.
Yes, I use to take the kids alone on trips down to my mother's house in Virginia when they were young.  But that really wasn't traveling alone since the "brat pack" was in the backseat, was it?
The last time I traveled alone I can't even remember.....probably in college.

I use to love to drive.
Since I've gotten older, not so much.
People on the road anymore drive like maniacs....at least in the crowded eastern part of the country.

So with great trepidation I pulled out of my driveway on July 10th and headed toward western PA for the first stop on my journey, at my son's apartment in Pittsburgh.

I ended up using the On Star GPS feature that first day, as I wanted to avoid traffic snarls once I got near Pittsburgh.  The GPS took me the back way to son's place and I got there around 3pm without hitting rush hour traffic.

My grandkitty, Lilly, was there to greet me......

We marked one of my items on my Trip Bucket List off right away, as my son and his GF took me to the newly opened Trader Joe's store down in the gentrified part of town.

A container of these came home with me.  My verdict......not so great and not worth the price.

A green pea "snack"???
I have an aversion to peas so no thanks......but I did like the name.....lolz

I found some interesting teas and a couple of boxes of these left the store with me.....

I shot this video in the backseat of the car, after leaving Trader Joe's.  It was just the beginning of what was to be a very long and spendy trip.....ouch!



I kind of spazzed out when I realized how much I spent on so little food!




After dinner and chillin' at the apartment, the kids took me out to hit another item on my trip bucket list.

The Duquesne Incline.
If you don't know what this is, it's a passenger cable car on the side of a mountain that runs on a track, taking people up and down the cliff that overlooks downtown Pittsburgh.

We entered the Incline area from the bottom.
I thought I would DIE before I even got TO the Incline!

Son parked in the lot below the Incline.
You have to climb two flights of stairs to get to 2 MORE flights of stairs over the highway to get to the lower Incline station, where you buy your tickets and board the car.

The upper station building has an observation deck too.
I took this shot from the observation deck of the track we had just come up on....

And here is a shot, in front of the iron fencing on the observation deck of the passenger car in mid-journey going back down the track.

Not many of my pictures taken in the car came out since most of the views were from behind screened windows and the car was too full of people to move to another space. 

Here's a shot of the inside of the car.....the ceiling area so I didn't get any strangers in the shot.

And don't even get me started on the insipid photographer and engaged couple who hired her to take shots of them in the car while we were taking our ride.
If you want to take pictures of yourselves fine but wait until there aren't a million people crammed into the car and make them all move so you can get shots without other people in them. 

Go and reserve the danged car and pay to rent out the entire car if you want to do that and don't go and IMPOSE on people and spoil their experience because you are too self-centered and ignorant!

See!?  It's a good thing you didn't get me started.......*snort*

Here's a shot from inside the car when we went back down......

Here are a couple of shots I took inside the car, when I get a chance to shoot through the glass and not the screens.  They still came out with glare...ugh.....

The best shots were from the observation deck.

Looking east down the Monongahela River and the Fort Pitt Bridge that crosses it......

The waterfront triangle of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the 3 rivers.  To the right is the Monongahela, to the left is the Ohio and in the back center is the Allegheny.
You can see the fountain down by the water in the triangle and the Fort Pitt Block House is off to the right of that.

A close-up of one of the paddle wheel tourist boats that ply this area....

Trying to take a shot of my son and his GF.....

Then they took some selfies......

And I took a selfie......or tried to......

Let's try this again, shall we?.......

Ok, how about from this angle with the Ohio River in the background.......

Then son was trying to take my photo and these blasted women just refused to get outta the way!
Suit yourselves.  Your large ass gets to be in my photo.....

 

 

Ok. let's crop them/her out.....

This one is better but cropping large butt out also removed part of the view......oh well......

Then the platform was overrun with brides-to-be, grooms-to-be who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else,  and more photographers.......

So I was reduced to taking shots of the signage......

And inside you can see the gears of the mechanism that hoists the cars up and down.......

The historic landmark sign.....

And son bought me a souvenir.....one of those smashed pennies with the view from the Incline on it.....

And I bought me a button for a whole $1.25 and wore it the next day......

And at the end of it all I got to climb DOWN 4 flights of stairs too!
Woohoo!
My knee was thanking me for that!

I curled up on the couch that night while grand kitty bounced off the walls for 3 hours in the dark.
I awoke to grandkitty sleeping on my hip.  Yes, I make an excellent cat bed it seems.

I had bought some Lobster Ravioli at Trader Joe's the day before so I set out to make a decadent breakfast for son and myself.  I made a quick Béchamel Parmesan sauce and after a quick boil of the ravioli, we had Lobster Ravioli in Parmesan Sauce for breakfast......

I could get use to this! lolz


Day 2 found me still in Pittsburgh.  I spent the day hanging out with my eldest son.

First he took me downtown to the Strip District......

This is a section of Pittsburgh where the warehouses and old wholesalers are.  It's become a trendy shopping district now.

 

Lot of colorful murals on old buildings too.....

And lots of "colorful" characters roaming the streets as well.
We saw this couple from across an intersection while in the car and leaving downtown.
From a distance we couldn't tell if the person in the skirt was a man or a woman.

I snapped a picture as we passed them.....

The five o'clock shadow on his face gave it away.

The sight while stopped at a traffic light.
And I was just wondering where I was going to pick up my Steelers souvenirs......

We parked near this restaurant but didn't go in.

We did go into the Public Market though.....

A local ice cream vendor and their suggested flavors chalkboard

Pickled Watermelon Radishes.....wtf?

I went in here.....

And promptly dropped $69 on balsamic vinegarsl......

I foresee yummy salads in my future!

They also had flavored olive oils but other than the pepper infused one I couldn't tell any difference in the samples I tried.
I guess my palate is that unrefined.

They also sold flavored olives.....

After noting the prices I took a pass on those too.

Then we found the bar......

And a couple of samples of that was in order too.....

If you can't tell mine is the dark one.....I like my beer dark......

We also saw this awesome item.
I was tempted but alack! they didn't have it in my size......

We were parked waaaay far away from most of the things I wanted to see/do on The Strip and I wasn't up for lots of walking as the day was a bit muggy.

After an hour or two we called it done and left downtown.
I did see this on the way out......

A restaurant I'd like to go to when I had a bit more money to spend.....

It was after lunchtime when we finished up at The Strip, so son took me here.....so I could cross something else off my Road Trip Bucket List.....

Love the names of these drinks......I couldn't decide between having Angry Balls or an Angry Cuban....

The Cuban won out......

My son got the "When Pigs Fly" Sandwich and I got a boring old pastrami and cheese sandwich.
Good Lord, that thing was monstrous!
I took half of it back to the apartment.

Then I bought this.....how could I not?!?

And yes I will wear it because Bite Me is one of my favorite sayings. lolz

Next we hit the movie theater and saw "Tammy".
The film had it's moments of good and funny, as well as pathetic, but was very uneven.

I did learn an important lesson during this film however----"Lesbians love to blow shit up."
Am I right?!?

Later that evening, after the GF got off work, we went out for dinner at D's Six Pax and Dogz.

A short film during our meal......



I got a shot(sort of!lol)with the mural wall behind us....

Another selfie shot with both of us fully IN the photo.....I am improving at this! lol

After dinner it was back to the apartment and I loaded my car back up and made tracks for Elyria, Ohio to the motel I was staying at for the night.
I wanted to get some more miles behind me so that the drive on Saturday wasn't so long.

I had trouble finding the motel once I got off the turnpike, though it was right off the entrance/exit to that.  The motel, an older Ramada Inn, with very small signage, was tucked sort of behind a mall,  an older partially abandoned mall.  It was a tad scary at this place being next to a closed up, crumbling mall.
I went into the front desk to check-in and there were big signs about the pool being closed that weekend for repairs and how they weren't giving refunds(partial or otherwise)for that and that you were free to cancel your reservation and go elsewhere.
I didn't care about the pool but their manner of handling this "problem" really turned me off, and had I been familiar with the area and it wasn't really dark outside, I just might have cancelled that reservations and gone elsewhere for the night.
You really blew it in my book Ramada!!!

So I got into my room and prepared for bed.  I was so tired that I didn't even hook up and turn on my computer that night to take advantage of the WIFI that the motel provided.  There would be plenty of time in the morning to get online.

The next morning, when I did try to go online, I found the WIFI worked about as good as the motel pool!.....which means it didn't work at all!
Way to go Ramada!  So I got charged for a full night's room and amenities and got NO amenities.
Well, except for the "free" breakfast that morning before I bugged out.
It was a terrible, rank breakfast.
The $85 I was forced to pay for this stay was true highway robbery!

Once in the car and free of this terrible motel stay, I had trouble finding the turnpike entrance!  This one just got better and better, didn't it? lol
I drove around, found a gas station and right after filling the car's tank, I located how to get on the turnpike and out of this two-bit town, without resorting to the On Star GPS.
By 10 am I was back on the turnpike and heading west toward Indiana for my Day 3 of adventures, but still with some trepidation about this journey in my being.

Sluggy