Things were going well. We'd left almost on time and had a lovely visit with David's grandparents who were looking surprisingly well. We got off right after lunch. The younger brothers napped, older brothers read. Even I took a short nap. A little after 3 I started looking for a hotel for the night and heard Mr. 0 screech awake. Very hungry, time to stop.
We got off at the next exit and there was a McDonalds with a playground, outside, on a 100 degree day. The boys really wanted to stop and we tried but got stuck in a sea of parking lots until we just parked and walked over. David took Mr. 3 to the bathroom and I got ice cream for the other boys and we headed outside - where we spilled ice cream and had no interest in playing (too hot). Overall the break was a bit of a failure. Back in the car.
We drove on and got caught in Columbus rush hour. On the other side we realized it was time for dinner and to decide where to stop. The dark clouds had been gathering behind us. We got off the highway and drove to a small pizza place in Zanesville, OH. It was not really our kind of place and as we were discussing what to do next the storm broke. Rain, winds, lightening, thunder. We sat in the parking lot for a few minutes, all hungry and tired, hoping the storm would lessen.
When we finally ventured back on the road, there were trees and power lines down and everything was dark We tried to find a place to eat with the storm and power out we couldn't find anything. Back on the highway.
The next town had the same problem - no power. And it was still raining. And now we started thinking about a place to sleep as well as dinner. We started calling hotels but either they didn't answer (maybe because the power was out) or they were booked. One of the hotels we stopped at called around but couldn't find anyone with a room. On to the next town.
Finally we found a Pizza Hut with power and stopped for dinner. Everyone was happy to be out of the car but Mr. 0 was fussy and wouldn't eat anything and Mr. 3 was cranky. And we still didn't have a place to stay and it was getting late.
After dinner, we stopped at another hotel but they too were full. She told us there was a pipeline going in along I-70 and hotels had been booked for months with people working on it. She didn't think we'd find anything until we were through Eastern Pennsylvania. We tried Wheeling, West Virginia, and surrounding small towns. At this point Mr. 0 was screaming and the back seat was rather cranky. David's phone had no signal and my phone was refusing to make outgoing calls. In desperation I texted my mom to call me as we needed help. I thought they might be able to call ahead and find a hotel because this car load of people were not doing too well. Just as I sent the text my screen froze and I had to shut down the phone. Meanwhile I crawled into the backseat to sing to Mr. 0 and get the boys watching a movie. By the time my phone was working again, my family was very worried and I felt terrible. We mapped out just going home - enough coffee and we might be able to just drive the 12 hours home. Finally we found a hotel room in Pittsburgh and headed for the city. We pulled up to the hotel around 11pm with Mr. 0 and Mr. 3 sound asleep and the older boys wide awake. They had felt the stress of the night and needed some extra hugs before we could settle everyone down for the night. We ended up in a suite and kept our fingers crossed that everyone would sleep in.
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