Ohio Turnpike

We said goodbye at Grandma's this morning, after a really nice visit with her, finishing up with breakfast this morning. I think the girls enjoyed it. They got to see a couple fresh inches of snow on the ground, which they probably don't remember from last winter, so it was a new adventure!

Halfway through the day when we arrived at a rest stop Catherine asked about Grandma - as if she thought we'd see her again at the stop, not quite grasping these difficult concepts like time and distance quite yet.

Now we're out of the snow, fortunately. We're parked for the night somewhere around mile marker 193 on the Ohio Turnpike between Akron and Youngstown. I'm camped at the RV parking area in the turnpike rest stop, plugged in, with plenty of heat (good thing - it's 23*F now, going down to 17*F), propane, and wifi service! Yay! All the comforts of home, though with slightly more highway noise! I have to hand it to the Ohio Turnpike Commission - they've done a great job with their rest stops!

We just went in to the food court and had our Happy Meals and now we're so happy with our toddler toys we can hardly stand it. :-) I've also bribed the girls with a huge bag of their toys and stuffed animals and books on the floor next to me that I'm hoping they will give me a couple minutes on the computer to catch up on my email. If they will just play nicely for a few minutes.... life is good!!

I've got about 350 miles to go on the road over two days, so it should be a fairly easy trip - probably 200-250 tomorrow into western Maryland (or maybe I should check the weather reports before I decide?), then the remainder on Saturday along with the chore of emptying, cleaning, and returning the rental Winnebago in Annapolis. That's the worst part of the whole trip! But it's always good to get back home again.

I heard a good saying on the radio today (yeah, I was listening to conservative talk show radio on the road, go figure) that is appropriate to that 50-week training program that I'll be launching next week:

"You don't have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great."