8/1 Thursday (Day 6)

We started the day with Pat finishing laundry and me washing the car. Then we headed back up the same road we drove in on last night. As we were driving, we missed a small road that we were looking for from the map. This road would have taken us on different roads than we came in on, but did not see it. So...we were on the exact same road as yesterday when we saw the cops. We then drove down more country roads that went through some forests preserves.

We stopped at one forest preserve that had a pull off and a trail. We thought what the heck and decided to go on a hike. See photos from the hike.

After the hike, we kept driving & found a short .5 mi. trail that was called the Confederate Breast works. I saw that, and thought, "Come on now, what guy wouldn't want to stop and check that out.

As we were ready to leave the Breast place, we were standing by the car, and heard a semi coming up the mountain. We both jumped in the car and got moving so we would not be stuck behind a big truck on the way down. Boy were we wrong about that. He was on my butt all the way down the mountain. He knew where he was going, and he was going faster than us. I was a little slower since I didn't know what the next turn was going to be. I also am quite a bit smaller than a deer that could have been around the next corner. The truck would have just squished a deer. I would speed up where I could, but he would always be right back on me. Here is a shot of the sunset as we were going down. We did have time to click a shot of that.

We then stopped at a little town at the bottom of the mountain and stayed in the overflow room of Montvallee Motel, as the main hotel was full (see photos on tomorrows page, all the pictures were taken in the morning). We drove to the next hotel, but it cost $25 more. So we came back to this one. We thought $25 seemed like a lot more to pay for a room when the only difference was the more expensive one had a TV. Well that's what we thought the only difference was. When we got the room there was quite a bit of difference. Not only was there not a TV, but there was no air or locks on the room or building. Luckily it was a cool night, so we opened the windows, one of which was only a few feet from the sidewalk. The front door was not locked so we could get in and out, and our door to the room would not close, so we could not lock it either. We also had a door to the outside. We had it open too so the breeze would blow in the screen door, which did not have a lock, and out the window. It sure seemed strange, but it was a small town so we did not feel to bad. The room’s light switch was also going bad. So it sizzled when turning it on. Sometimes I had to flick it several times to make it stay on. The fluorescent bathroom light was also on its way out. So it would not stay on either. It was quite a room. Oh yea, it also had a fireplace in it. Not that we needed the heat from a fire, but it had one!

After we got all unpacked, we walked through town at night. We got an ice-cream sandwich & water at the gas station across the street, and looked to see if there was anyplace that we wanted to stop in the morning.