Rob's sister lives in Indianapolis. In August 2003 Rob and I went down to visit her, leaving their parents looking after Hugh and Lucy during the "Great Black Out of 2003". They didn't even have a non-cordless phone to get in touch with us to let us know their power was out for only about 10 hours. At the time, Rob's sister---Lou---was living in a condo in a converted school house, where David Letterman had gone to school. Our visit was fairly short but fun. Then Rob and Hugh went down in July 2006 for a Suzuki truck off-road event and stopped in for a couple days. Then, Lou and her 2nd husband were living outside of Indianapolis and had just had a baby. This trip though, is the first trip for all 5 of us, and we were also taking the grandparents! Seven people invading their brand new, not quite finished house!
We left Whitby at 6:10am. The kids, amazingly, did not fall asleep (although Meg did have a very short nap late in the afternoon). We stopped at the rest stop near London, where Rob discovered the parking brake had stuck on again. He hadn't brought any tools; and his dad's tool box did not include a hammer. We were headed across to Sarnia and there's not much along the way. We decided to get off at Strathroy and there was a country hardware store just off the highway. Brake fixed and back on the road just a few minutes behind his parents. Crossed the border at about 10:35, after visiting the duty free shop. I had forgotten my "fear" of high/long bridges, and that there would be one crossing from Sarnia! I do enjoy the view, but too many "what if"s go through my head!
We plowed on and stopped for lunch at a rest stop. Great picnic lunch! Lucy decided to ride with the grandparents for awhile. It's a pretty uneventful trip, although we were surprised to see construction crews on a Saturday (maybe they were making up for the holiday Monday?).
We arrived in Indianapolis at 6:40. Long day, but we survived. Having two vehicles (and two sets of snack options!) helped. Despite the early morning, the kids were still full of energy, so Lou and Pawel decided to put on a fireworks show for us; belated July 1/4. We sat in the driveway, and they set up in an area between the driveway and the road....there are a lot of trees around the house, but this was the best we could do.
Lucy provided some pre-show entertainment!
The first fireworks were these little UFO shaped things that spun around on the dirt. Then the next firework fell over and shot large flaming bits right at us! It just missed Hugh's head. The adults realized they needed to brace the fireworks with large rocks, and all went well (except the kids were now frightened and didn't like the noise, and there were mosquitoes...). There were some close calls as sparks landed on vehicles, in the trees, and a rooftop patio!
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