There are few rests on the long roadtrip.  It’s always hurry up and wait.  Drive til you’re tired and can’t see straight, then rest long enough to recharge halfway and drive some more.  Fortunately, we’ve abandoned this strategy over the last few days to cruise gently homeward.  

 

On Thursday, we drove the short trip to Indianapolis, where we dined with our friend Jeff, then had dessert with Mike and Linda and the cute Isabella, who is just 2 months into this crazy adventure.  The long cruise across Illinois and Indiana was done along US-40, which wends its way through cornfields and farmland, quiet and comfortable and a relief from the truck-clogged interstates and the construction.

 

Resting with friends after a drive of only 4 or 5 hours was a perfect recipe for relaxation, even if the longer days throw us farther homeward.  We were astounded at how busy the area was, as the wait at the large restaurants were near an hour.  Thank God for the bar area!

 

From Indianapolis, it was onward to Columbus and hanging out with Tiffany’s grandparents in Westerville.  What a wonderful pair!  Grandfather Soltau was a missionary and author, travelling all over the US and abroad.  He also did his college education at Wheaton, at the outbreak of hostilities.  He drove one day to Chicago to the British consulate, where he talked to them about joining the RAF.  Coming back to Wheaton, the Dean caught him driving and suspended him for a week.  Upset, he finished the semester and transferred to USC in Los Angeles.

 

There, in the fall of 1941, he pledged the fraternity I’d later help found at Denison in 1997.  What a small world it is!

 

Sometimes it’s good to dwell in the safe harbors.  They bring forth stories and memories all their own.