Day 2: Wednesday, June 20

Before I tell you about today's adventures, a little humor from yesterday at the hotel. When we entered the elevator with all our baggage to go to our room, my luggage accidently hit the "call for help" button that was at knee level. All of a sudden, a voice from the elevator god spoke from above asking if everything was okay and if we needed any help. It was a little embarrassing and Michelle has promised to never let me forget it when we enter an elevator!

Today was a really LONG day. It was the first day of summer, and thus the longest day of the year. From now on the days will only get shorter! Our day started early with a great breakfast at the hotel. Michelle stumbled upon a new thing, chocolate waffles! You pour chocolate batter into the waffle iron and you get chocolate waffles. The hostess told us that some people like to pour both chocolate and regular batter into the waffle iron to make swirled waffles. Yum!

We then jumped into the car and off we went on another 500+ mile day taking us from Tennessee, through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and into Pennsylvannia. The road trip made us feel like we were in a video game playing dodge the 18 wheelers! Speeding down a steep hill with nothing but an 18 wheeler's grill plate filling your rearview mirror really gets the adrenalin flowing. No major turning exercises today, though we did continue another Compton tradition during vacation - that being visiting a local Wal-mart! We ate dinner at a nice diner in Carlise, PA called Middlesex Diner.

Michelle ordered salmon and I ordered fried haddock. For a little more than $10, we got a salad or soup, rolls and two sides plus the entree. I was expecting a nice sized piece of fish, but when it came there were three big pieces of fish. Alas, another doggie bag for a late night snack. We added some dessert to take as well. The waitress pointed us in the direction of Wallyworld, saying it was five miles down the road. That turned into the surprise of the day. On the way down, we saw people playing polo in a field - really cool, and across from that was a school and sports complex that was really unique. The school was built into a hillside and the whole hillside - bigger than a football field, was covered with solar panels. The blue you see in the picture below are solar panels!

This was really cool and also kind of funny, because earlier in the day, while passing through Virginia, we saw a big sign advertizing a solar farm. What was beyond the sign were several "fields of solar panels" creating a true solar farm! Our temperature wasn't much different than Little Rock's with daytime temperatures being around 94-95. It was hot - thank God for air-conditioned cars!
Tomorrow should be a short travel day as we are only 2-3 hours away from our destination of Newark, NJ. Until then!