Man driving vacations are GREAT, I’m never flying AGAIN!!!  OK, just a hint of sarcasm sneaking in there.  I’d say that was my longest stretch in a car since the Angel Fire trip several years ago.  Honestly it wasn’t that bad, especially considering all the money we saved over flying, renting a car, etc.  This overlooks the minor detail that we spent $1500 getting our 10-year-old vehicle ready for the trip, because I’m assuming it is now good for another 10 years.

The trip I am referring to is our 1200 mile jaunt to Loveland, OH for our second Pigfest.  We went last year and had such a good time that a repeat was definitely in order, but after the bashing our checkbook took in Europe last month we decided to make the dreaded I-70 run instead of flying.  We took off bright and early Friday morning on a blistering pace, and made pretty good time until I passed a State Trooper in Illinois at roughly Mach II.  I can’t even begin to explain why, but when I glanced ahead and saw a big white car sitting in the median with lettering all over it, all I thought was “Student Driver.”  It had a light bar and everything, it’s not like it was cleverly disguised.  One of those inexplicable optical illusions I guess.  Anyway, for whatever reason he didn’t even give me a glance, although I was conservatively 30 mph over the limit.  I took it as a sign that I’d better dial it back a few notches though, so we took it a bit slower the rest of the way.  When we got to Cincinnati, we checked into a hotel downtown, met up with everybody, and spent the rest of the evening at the Hofbrauhaus on the Kentucky side.  We were pretty spent from the drive so we didn’t make it as late as the rest of the crowd, but it was a passable effort, especially for us.

Saturday morning (OK it was “early afternoon”) we got started with a good breakfast at First Watch.  I always thought those were exclusive to KC;  Apparently I thought wrong.  After a tasty omelet, we continued even further East to the Paff Entertainment Complex in Loveland, OH.  (At least I think we were going East…  You would do well to ignore my comments on geography in general.)  The weather was perfect for an all-day outdoor party;  The high was right around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny all afternoon.  After spending the whole day with whiffleball, cornhole, soccer, volleyball, and assorted other activities we had a huge dinner (roast pig, naturally) and then enjoyed a backyard concert by MER, out of Chicago.  It was a great show, and ended on a much better note than last year, when the police unceremoniously cut things short.  We made it a little later into the evening, and then snuck off to our tent to call it a day.  Unfortunately the unseasonably cool weather that we had enjoyed so much all day had dropped into some very unseasonable temp’s for the night.  We didn’t have any sleeping bags or blankets or anything (why would you need them in July???) and after about 30 minutes our teeth were chattering.  We called no joy and low-crawled into the house, where we scored a premium spot on a comfy hide-a-bed;  It pays to turn in early I guess.

Sunday I got up early and tried to wake Donette up;  I thought maybe we could sneak back out to the tent before anybody noticed.  Couldn’t roust her up though;  I think we were busted anyway.  We had a tasty breakfast, packed up our tent, and started the trek back to KC.  On the way out of town we stopped by Kim’s parents house and visited a while, and enjoyed a second breakfast.  (Hey, it was getting close to noon.)  We found that Ed may have been exaggerating the horrors of the West Side all along;  We didn’t get mugged, shot at, or even car-jacked the whole time we were there.  We chatted for a while, then headed out of town, stopping by Skyline Chili on our way for one last breakfast.  The drive home was as uneventful as the trip out.  Our plan was to stop in St. Louis, but we were so enthralled by the beautiful scenery of the Interstate that we just kept on going all the way to KC.  Actually we really weren’t all that tired and getting home sounded good.  Plus, “the kids” were being taken care of by Ronda and we didn’t want to push our luck with that.

Today we just rested up, washed the car, and miscellaneous stuff like that.  In a rare burst of energy, I even got my Pigfest pictures posted already.  Yes, I’m aware I don’t even have my pictures from last month up yet, so don’t bother reminding me.  For a bit more comprehensive photo coverage, check out Claire’s (Ed’s Mom) album.  You can get more wrap-up and picture links on Ed’s site too.