August 30

After the totally-exhausting day yesterday and a good night's sleep, we were surprized when Britt called. She said she'd stop before she went to work in the morning, and we thought for sure we'd be awake by then. But it was 8:30 and we were still in bed when she called. We threw on some shorts and met her down in the dining room with the other PJ-clad people that stayed over from yesterday's wedding party over at Nick's Place. We had a quiet breakfast, and Britt was off to work. We packed and got ready to leave. That is when we entered 'The Twilight Zone."

One of the members of the wedding party had a rental car with a dead battery. I offered use of my jumper cables and he got started. We finished packing the car, then went over to say our goodbyes to Mary Ann, Sarah, and Jessica. It was a perfect Edinboro morning ... 58 degrees and rain. Seemed fitting, somehow, for our last day in town. I'm sure this is one of the reasons we wanted to leave. But when we got in the car, we discovered OUR battery was dead! I got the jumper cables out and the groom, once again, drove over and gave me a jump. The other day, when I took the car to Wal-mart for an oil change, they made a note that my battery needed to be replaced, but we decided to drive for awhile and see if it charged up before we spent money on a possibly unneeded battery.

At the same time, I noticed my radio was acting up. I chalked it up to when I cleaned the touch screen off the day before. Maybe I sprayed too much windex on it and some water got behind the touch screen. The button at the lower left kept activating, changing the radio band over and over. So we just threw in some CDs and figured it would dry out eventually.

Heading west on 6N, we said goodbye to everything we passed. It was raining continuously even after we reached I90, on and off even as we headed down the express lanes on I271. This might just be the last socked-in lakeshore soaker we'd see for a long time. By the time we got on I71, there were some nice cloud layers with the sun breaking through. It seemed like we were in Columbus in no time at all. We switched drivers just outside there, and Peg drove until the other side of Indianapolis.

We had been eating all the snacks Peg had packed, including the delicious blueberry cobbler Joel's mother, Gail, made. But, by then, we thought it would be best to get a more substantial meal (if that's what you'd call Cracker Barrel) that would hold us over on the last leg to St. Louis. We wanted to see the arch -- possibly if were open at night, the sight would be spectacular -- and then travel on until we got tired later that evening.

When I gunned it getting on I70 leaving Cracker Barrel, I heard some noises under the front ... like something hitting the fenders. We had just driven on a road that was tarred and chipped, so I thought it was the stones coming loose from the tire. But just a way down the road, suddenly the cruise control and radio cut out. I looked at the guages (yes, I actually have guages instead of 'idiot lights') and saw that the battery was on discharge. I knew what that meant -- we only had a short amount of time before the battery would be dead, and we'd be sitting on the side of the road.

We got off at Cloverdale (wasn't there a sci-fi movie about Cloverdale?) and checked into the Super-8. It was Sunday night, and we just knew there wouldn't be anything open until Monday morning. The desk attendant gave us a name, so we'll be at Don's Garage first thing in the morning. I'm hoping it's only the belt, which shouldn't be a big thing and we can be on our way soon.

We just relaxed at the hotel. Did some laundry, took a dip in the pool, and watched "The Perfect Storm." Tomorrow is another day -- stay tuned!