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| Day 8: Saturday, October 12, 2002 |
| Starting Location: | Sturgis, Michigan | Stopping Location: | Sturgis, Michigan |
| Weather There: | Overcast, 50°F | Weather Here: | Overcast, 58°F |
| Starting Time: | 9:31 am Eastern Time | Stopping Time: | 5:39 pm Eastern Time |
| Starting Mileage: | 269,097 miles | Stopping Mileage: | 269,360 miles |
| Total Miles Today: | 263 miles | Triangles Bought: | 0 |
| Total Travel Time: | 5 hours, 21 minutes | Stores Checked: | 3 |
This was apparently going to be a weird day from the start. In a bold break from routine, Tubby announced he was calling the shots, and so it was written, apparently. We began by heading from Sturgis to Elkhart, where I was trooped through a Wal-Mart and then a Menards (looking for some sort of sign or something), to no avail. This represented a full two hours of our lives... even after you factor in the hour we fall back every time we return to Indiana, and then leap forward into Michigan.
We managed to wander around Nappanee, the home of Amish Acres, but honestly, it was a bit too touristy. No pictures were taken, surprisingly. We then went down the street a bit more to a different sort of Amish-themed area, and again, despite spending several hours between the two places, no pictures.
In the early afternoon, lunch. Or, so I would presume. I was left in the car, again, for several hours. I'm bordering on being very un-amused at this point, as you may well imagine. And this is doing little for my tour diary. In rebellion, I figured, hey, why not just surrender the fort. I was scolded for my immature behavior. (He can be such the little tyrant at times.)
We returned to the motel about 5:30pm after stopping at one more Wal-Mart in the search for this alleged sign, and again, to no avail. The boy has since opted to take a nap, leaving me to tinker away on the web at the blazing fast 19.2Kbps connection I was able to obtain.
While I suppose I'm officially stopped for the evening, I suspect we'll be returning to Elkhart this evening to wander, and again shop at Menards to see about the sign that has been purported to be there, just not where we looked. Oh, sorry, yes... the sign is one of those orange triangles you'd put on a slow-moving vehicle. Why the boy wants it, I don't know. The trip was again unsuccessful, as was my prediction, but given the 45 minute drive between here and there, at least it kept him from sitting in the motel room all night, and thinking... or worse yet, trying to have a conversation with me (that gets old fast, believe me).
For whatever its worth, though, the foul mood of the last few days has seemed to have broken, sort of like the first ray of sunshine puncturing the rain clouds after a thunderstorm. Speaking of which, it's supposedly supposed to have a 30% chance of rain tomorrow. I may be able to report on that further if I'm not again confined to the car... but there's rumors of the full Michigan wander tomorrow, so we'll see, eh?