Day 3.24: Kent, OH to Syosset, NY

We got up early to leave by 9am. Aaron woke up to say goodbye just as we left, but Liz did not in fact join us for the farmer’s market. We got on the road for a long drive through the entire state of Pennsylvania, which took us hours. We did pass a sign for Punxsutawney, which got Arielle excited.

After passing many Sheetz locations, we finally found a Wawa and couldn’t have been more excited. We each got a banana cream smoothie and Arielle got her huge iced coffee. Abe ate the leftover tagine and we continued along, crossing into New Jersey, where we began to hit traffic. We slowly crossed the George Washington Bridge, entering New York, and miraculously made it to Long Island by 6:30pm.

We dropped our stuff off at the home of Pop-Pop, Abe’s grandfather, and went out with him to Butera’s, his preferred dining establishment. Arielle got an eggplant rollatini appetizer and a Caesar salad, and Abe got a steak.

For dessert, we enjoyed a chocolate chip pie to go with ice cream on the side (packaged tightly in a to-go container). We went back to the house and spent some time together before going to sleep.

Approximate number of miles covered: 461

Day 3.23: Chesterton, IN to Kent, OH

We got up and tried to work out in the hotel fitness center, but the machines were mostly broken, which was regrettable. We did spend some time swimming laps in the pool, then had breakfast and got ready for the day. We knew that Tropical Smoothie Café, the chain we had discovered in Arkansas back in February and then visited again in Michigan, was offering a free Sunshine Smoothie to anyone wearing flip-flops on National Flip Flop Day, which happened to be this very day. We were fortunate to be able to locate a store outside Youngstown, Ohio.

Our drive technically only took us from Indiana to Ohio, but when we got off to stop at a rest area at one point we past a sing thanking us for visiting Michigan, which we obviously did only very briefly. We had to wait a while for the smoothies because it was crowded, but they were pretty good and it was nice to have something to break up the drive. We made it to Kent without hitting any traffic and headed to the supermarket, where we found the largest watermelon we’d ever seen for only $5! We arrived at Aaron and Liz’s three weeks after we had last been there with not too much time to spare before dinner. Aaron made a delicious tagine (some of which Abe took home the next day), and we met an eclectic crowd of guests for the Shabbat dinner he had organized. We experienced lots of musical moments during the brief Shabbat service and dinner, and we played Jewish geography with Aaron’s rabbi friend and future rabbi friend.

We also met a visiting student from Alaska who was preparing to go hunt a wolf. We didn’t realize how late it was by the time everyone left. It was after 2am, and Liz insisted that she’d be up in the morning to go with us to the farmer’s market before we left. Because we wanted to get on the road early in the morning, we went right to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 338

Day 3.2: Kent, OH to Buffalo Grove, IL

We decided to get up around 8am to try to fit a few activities in to the long drive, and left the house with Aaron in our car before 9am. It was easier than we thought to make room for a third passenger in the car, which was reassuring. We drove a few minutes into town to eat breakfast at Wild Goats, a local diner. After perusing their lengthy menu, Abe ordered the garden omelet with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach, choosing hash browns and an English muffin as his side. Arielle ordered an à la carte option: two egg whites with hash browns and an English muffin. Aaron got the avocado benedict. We enjoyed a nice meal and then stopped down the road for a short walk to a dam-turned-waterfall and a forested nature walk alongside it. We dropped Aaron back off at home, planning to return in exactly three weeks.

We drove about half an hour to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which Aaron had highly recommended. There’s no entrance fee for this park, and we drove right to the Octagon Shelter parking lot. We knew there was a short path to a worthwhile viewpoint but weren’t sure whether to follow directions to the Ledges Shelter or to the Overlook, choosing the latter. We ended up walking up almost a mile through the trees past cool rock formations, which we think were the aforementioned Ledges themselves, arriving at a view of trees that wasn’t nearly as impressive as what we saw on the way up. There were numerous black squirrels and tiny chipmunks darting around, but they weren’t too fast for Arielle’s quick fingers as she managed to get a picture of a chipmunk!

We returned to the car and hit the road for our six-or-so hour drive to Chicago. Our first stop was at a fancy-looking travel plaza, which Abe thought resembled a school, to use the restrooms and get lunch. Abe ordered a beef burrito from Red Burrito, which was cheap and actually a lot of food, while Arielle ate a yogurt she had brought with her. Arielle had a call in the car while Abe caught up on TV watching and reviewing. We crossed into Indiana (and the central time zone) and stopped for gas at a travel plaza with 347 miles on the odometer and the empty light not yet on.

As we approached and then entered Illinois, we started hitting a lot of traffic.

Luckily, we had just enough extra time to spare, and made it to Buffalo Grove in time to make a quick supply stop before pulling in to the home of Lisa, Abe’s former colleague from USY. We enjoyed an incredibly delicious dinner prepared by Lisa’s husband, Michael, who also happens to be the uncle of our good friend, Laura, who Abe met in college. The highlights were grilled chip-thin-sliced salami with brown sugar as an appetizer, and the family steak and potatoes as a main course. We also had the opportunity to meet Sandy and see Eli, Lisa and Michael’s youngest son, who just graduated from college, and Rachel, another former colleague of Abe’s from USY.

With full stomachs, we stayed up for a while chatting and then went to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 435

Day 3.1: Katonah, NY to Kent, OH

After an extraordinarily productive yesterday during which we booked almost all our accommodations for this trip and our subsequent trip to Europe, we got up around 9am to pack up the last of our things. A relatively leisurely breakfast was followed by the swiftest, smoothest loading of the car that we’ve had yet. We can even see out the back window completely, which is really something, thanks to the absence of a large box, a third suitcase, a fourth duffel bag, and a third crate. Hopefully we have everything we need with us! We said goodbye to Abe’s parents and left their house around 12:30pm. Our first stop was at the local Goldberg’s Bagels, where we purchased a bialy with butter for Arielle to eat with a Pickle Guys sour pickle she had brought from home, a pumpernickel bagel with butter for Abe, and a half dozen everything bagels to bring to our hosts for the night.

We were already five hours ahead of the last time that we drove to Ohio on our first road trip last summer, which was a great start, and we mostly made good time en route. Unfortunately, we sat completely still for an hour on a single-lane stretch of 84 West in Pennsylvania due we think to an accident, and then finally started moving. We used the time well to watch some TV on Abe’s computer since the car was parked anyway!

The good news is that we managed to find a Wawa along our route, despite the fact that searches in Waze for Wawa pulled up locations of its far inferior Western PA competitor, Sheetz. Arielle got a 44-oz iced coffee, which she brilliantly split into two far more manageable 22-oz cups to store in the cupholders in the back seat, and Abe got a large Banana Cream Smoothie, once again available for only $3 thanks to the “Siptopia” promotion. We hit some very intense rain but also experienced some incredible skies full of clouds.

The fanciest restaurant we were able to find for over a hundred miles was a Ruby Tuesday located in Dubois, PA. Abe ordered an 8 oz. top sirloin with grilled zucchini and a baked potato on the side, and they even allowed us to add the unlimited garden bar for only $4, which Arielle had as her meal. It was a good find, and worthwhile to know that this chain is a decent option that’s not too pricey and has good vegetarian options, including two soups Arielle may try next time.

We got back on the road with over two and a half hours to go, and luckily didn’t hit any more traffic along the way, soon crossing into Ohio.

We weren’t too late to be greeted by Abe’s cousin, Aaron, who we had seen in Florida just three days earlier at the unveiling for their grandmother. He and his girlfriend, Liz, who had already gone to sleep due to an early morning the next day, have a lovely house in Kent, a nice college town. We brought our things in, socialized for a bit, and then went to bed after a long day of driving.

Approximate number of miles covered: 480

Day 2: Cleveland, OH to Wisconsin Dells, WI

We woke up around 8:30am to catch the end of a pretty decent if unextraordinary breakfast at the La Quinta. We packed up the car - not the easiest feat - and set out for Indiana, with our new car mezuzah put up (thanks, Teri and Aaron)! This was a new state for both of us, #42 for Abe and #31 for Arielle. We arrived in Fremont, Indiana to visit Abe’s cousins Kenny, Amy, and Xavier at their lake house. They took us out on their boat on Snow Lake, which was beautiful, and we docked at a restaurant called The Waterfront Bistro. Arielle enjoyed a delicious Caesar salad (one of the best she’s had - the dressing was not fishy at all) and fish and chips. Abe’s king salmon fillet with grilled asparagus was excellent. The family time was very nice, and both Abe and Arielle even got to drive the boat. It was drizzling a bit but the ride was comfortable and peaceful despite Arielle’s anxiety about the speed of the boat.

We said goodbye to our cousins and hit the road for our next state, one both of us had been to before, lllinois. Though Abe’s parents were flying out of O’Hare Airport just a few miles away, we made sure to avoid Chicago as much as possible to miss traffic, stopping only for gas and for $1.50 scoops of Baskin Robbins on the 31st of the month in Oak Park. We crossed into Wisconsin, state #43 for Abe and #32 for Arielle, while it was still light out, arriving at Mars Cheese Castle around 8pm. We decided to share two legendary grilled cheese sandwiches, an original with cheddar and mozzarella on marble rye and a far crazier one, the Sweet Salut, with port salut cheese (described as a hybrid of Muenster and Brie), sliced apples, and honey on multigrain. Both were quite appetizing and beyond filling. This place is highly recommended for anyone driving through Wisconsin, provided you don’t have a dairy allergy. We left the cheese to drive the remaining two hours to the Wisconsin Dells, where we were promptly greeted by overwhelming sights of outdoor waterparks from the highway. We pulled into our hotel, the Grand Marquis Waterpark Hotel and Suites, around 10:30pm. Next up: our adventures at the largest waterpark in America.

Approximate number of miles covered: 524