On The Road - Indy to Ohio!

We woke up early anxious to hit the road. It wasn't a long car day, but we knew we need to be in Dayton to meet a friend of John's for breakfast. 

We needed gas! John loves that our new Escape shows the miles to empty. But when we did our test drive, it was at zero miles to empty and made it the four miles or so to the gas station. So now John likes to run it empty. 

(Don't tell John, but this isn't the REAL Indianapolis Speedway!)

We snacked a little since breakfast wasn't until 9:30. We met John's friend, Ed, at Bob Evans. 

I didn't know this was a restaurant. I've seen the breakfast meats and meals at the grocery store but thought it was just another brand. 

I had brioche French toast with fresh strawberries and a side of bacon. The bacon was super crisp and very flavorful. 

John had eggs and sausage with two biscuits. He didn't ask for two and it seemed like a lot. The sausage was ok, but the bacon was better. 

The waitress was also shocked when I took a photo of his breakfast. I think she was new. 

There were more stories and John and Ed played the "what's that guys name" game. 

(Sorry no picture of his buddy. Didn't think of it till we were in the car.)

We hit the road again. We listened to the audio of Shawshank Redemption in preparation of our next stop. I'd read the story several times. But John's only seen the movie. He learned why Red was in prison. 

We got into Dover and finally got to see a friend of mine! DiAnna and I met years ago on the internet through our love of Stephen King. After meeting in Maine many moons ago we have stayed in touch. (Gotta love Facebook!)

Her cat Melody wasn't too sure about us, but luckily let us stay. 

DiAnne reads the blog and loved the post where we made shrimp scampi. So we recreated it for her.  We bonded with her family. 

John tried some virtual reality courtesy of DiAnne's daughter, Heather. 

He also bonded with her mom and found out they were birthday twins. 

He fell in love with some homemade hooch. 

This did not completely influence the rest of the night. 

After John's ordeal last year he'd talked about getting a tattoo. He wanted it to honor what he'd survived. On this trip, after years of saying I'd never get one, I decided I needed one, too. 

I asked DiAnne if Dover had a good tattoo place and she knew right away. 

We stopped earlier in the day but the artists were all booked. We left my number in case of a cancellation. 

At 9:30 my phone rang. If we came right down he'd get us in. 

I went first. 

This is from Stephen King's opus The Dark Tower. It is Ka. It means fate, destiny and fulfilling your purpose. 

John got Elvis' Taking Care of Business logo. Inside is a semi-colon. It represents a life that could have ended but didn't. Also, it represents that he had part of his colon removed, so he now has a "semi" colon. Gotta have a little humor! As an added bonus, it's in the Iowa State colors!

Our artist, Nic at My Museum Tattoo, was amazing! I don't know if I'll ever get another one, but this certainly makes this trip memorable already.