Methinks that I have been very lax about chronicling our trip. Ok, meknows this is the case. (If methinks can be a word, meknow should be just as proper.)  I'll be riding in the car for five hours today, coming home from LA. Pleanty of time to write. Until then:

Day 5 3/15/08

Gas Price Index York, NE $3.65

A baseball game was planned by the Peoria, Illinois church, and it was desired by certain UNNAMED members of our family to be there on time to catch the game. Some of us have no interest in baseball, but the fellowship offered by a ballgame made the idea appealing. It was decided that Goose and Mrs. Davis would stay in York, NE to await the repair of their van, while we would take the rest of the their family, and ours, on to the ballgame. In other words, we would take ourselves to the ballgame, take us out with the crowd; buying some peanuts and….Well. you get the idea.

As we were almost eight and one half hours from our destination, the plan required leaving York at 6am. Not bad, you say? Please also consider that we had not adjusted to the new time zone, and to us this seemed like 4am! We did manage to get up and pack up in our timeframe, and set out for Peoria.

Those of you who were reading this blog back during the Great Trek of ’06 remember that we drove from Niagara Falls to South Dakota in 24 hours, and that during this time we did not stop at the birthplace of John Wayne. This was quite strange, when you realize that John Wayne has been Nic’s favorite actor since he was four. Nic didn’t even want to take the time on that trip. We had promised that this would not happen again, and so when we passed through Iowa we took the detour to the town of Winterset, Iowa. The house was small. It seems strange that a rich and famous actor would allow himself to be born to poor parents. Such an act seems to disregard proper social decorum, and would probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square!

A delightful aspect of traveling is being able to try local cuisine. Our family often remembers trips by which restaurant we went to, and when we went. “Do you remember that one place where we drove around for an hour….” It is how we keep track. The restaurant at which we stopped on the way to Peoria was a good example of Midwestern cooking. My meal consisted of a half of a Sausage Sandwich, with Iowa Corn-fed beef.  10 oz, placed between two gigantic pieces of bread, and a generous helping of sweet potato fries. Oh, and that 10 oz was the half sandwich!!!!!! Yes, good eats in this part of the world. My only picture for this post is of my brother, goofing off as usual: (Yes, the straw did work.)

After lunch we drove straight to the ball park, arriving just in time to pick up our tickets from Mr. “Aussie Hat” Riken (He had a great Australian Cowboy Hat) and see the first pitch. The home team lost, but it was not much of a tragedy, we were mostly talking to each other. What matters in the long run if a team wins or loses? The friendships made will stand forever! Melissa rode with us on the way back from the ballgame and was treated to one of the wandering sessions for which our family has become so famous. Our goal was a dump station, but we ended up getting a bit lost, and wandering around before we arrived at the home of our gracious hosts, the McDonald family. After some delicious Lebanese leftovers, which tasted sooooooo good to hungry travelers, most people went to bed.

The remainder of the Davis family was supposed to meet us at the McDonald’s around 12pm. Around 2am we received a phone call that they were lost, somewhere around Peoria.  With the collected efforts of Tiffany, Red, and myself we were able not only to determine their location, but bring them in for a safe landing. By 3am they were back with us, and bedded down for the night. It was very comforting to have the entire wagon train back together again.