Anita Shreve is deadly.

Dying in the car.

9:30 finds us driving through what we’re going to call southern Pennsylvania. (“Where are we?” “What state are we in?”) And currently just found out we’re only at exit 189 looking for exit 75. It’s only been 48 minutes and Kristen is currently blasting Simon and Garfunkel while playing the “guess that song game.” As were heading through the Blue Mountain tunnel Kristen felt the need to mention that Princess Diana died in a tunnel. A quick trivia fact: her driver survived, but bit his tongue off in the accident. We survived though, so hopefully we’ll live to see Iowa, or at least exit 75.

We received our driving route for Ragbrai (the biking program we are going through). Right now we’re headed for Southern Illinois where we are staying the night. Here’s our route for the trip:

We start off in Sioux city the first day and make a stop in Washta before ending up in Storm Lake. The next day we stop in Pocahontas (town, not the Disney character) and end up in Algona. The next day’s lunch break is in a town called Garner and then on to Clear Lake. On the 28^th, we stop in Rockwell and head on to Charles City. Following that we drive to Parkersburg and end up in Waterloo. The second to last day we have lunch in Quasqueton and travel on to Manchester. Our final day we travel to Dubque with a stop in Dyersville. We end our trip with a two day stay in Chicago.

12:00 noon finds us traveling through Ohio near Belmont and Morristown exit 208 precisely. We’ve nearly died multiple times and currently we’re snacking on packaged cheese slices as all of the available rest stops are closed for road construction. After a few rounds of wurrdle and tic tac toe, we made it through about one hour of the 9 hour book tape Kristen’s mom brought along for the car ride. There are a limited number of minutes a person can spend listening to detailed descriptions of tablecloths and Patrick’s Irish-American heritage. And his wearing of long pants as a symbol of respect—only American and German tourists dress like children. Clearly, Kristen’s mom has no taste in books. We’re dying slowly, I think.