Day 3

Driving stats~

Time: 9 hours, 15 minutes

Miles: 552

States traveled in: 5

Miles left: About 595

Weather: Overcast

We really enjoyed Kansas. Everyone was so friendly, and wished us Merry Christmas (not Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!) We had

a fairly easy day driving-wise, though maybe not so much mentally. I was kind of ready to be done... But it seemed to go fairly quickly, we made good time and got great gas mileage! Moved across Kansas and right into Missouri. We even got a peek at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which I believe is 630 feet tall and the same wide.

We drove into Illinois and stopped at a cute little restaurant in Nashville (we were momentarily confused about which state we were in--especially since we parked next to this fantastic truck pictured below! In case you can't see very well, some of my favourite details included the confederate flag license plate, the "Redneck" decal across the windshield, decals on the back windows that were stag heads, and the fuzzy confederate dice hanging from the rear-view mirror). The place was named, appropriately, Little Nashville Restaurant. We ordered hot wings for me, which tasted almost fried and not hot at all, and an openface roast beef sandwich which he LOVED. It came with really great mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. I enjoyed it, he adored it, three and a half thumbs up.

On we went into Indiana.

And then on to Kentucky! And we've only been in Louisville so far, but the roads have been awful. They're crazy! Traffic lights for every lane, poorly marked 20mph turns, sudden ditches and minor cliffs with no warnings or guardrails. Not okay.

But the dinner we had at Cafe Lou Lou was delicious! We tried to start off with a small appetizer, and ended up with a 10" garlic bread "pizza" covered in mozzarella cheese, with a side of marinara. It was hard to save any room for our entrees, but we were so looking forward to them; he ordered a twice-baked lasagna, with all the layers of awesome that come with it, including a mix of ground beef and Italian sausage. I got a half portion (and ate barely half) of the special: tri-color tortellini with three cheeses, tomatoes and onions, sausage and chicken, covered in a creamy tomato/cheese sauce with a bit of a kick and topped with pepperjack cheese.

By the time we got towards the end of the meal

we were getting full, and I wasn't feeling too hot, so I kind of passed on dessert. Of course, I come back to the table to find him with a chocolate souffle lava cake drizzled with a vanilla cream and chocolate sauce.

I couldn't stay away, and it was absolutely scrumptious, truly melted in your mouth. By popular vote, three and a half thumbs up! It also had great (if slightly confusing new-age and modern art) decor and very friendly service.

Our hotel could be better, the city isn't our favourite and our hotel suffered water damage so they rerouted us to a Ramada Inn. We weren't too worried, we enjoyed our other Ramada...until we realized that this one was connected to a restaurant by a strip mall? We were not a fan. It turns out that our original hotel didn't have any water damage to our room, just the lobby and maybe the other side, so we ended up back here at the Baymont. No fancy jacuzzi this time, but a cozy little well-lit room. We are very, very ready to end our trip tomorrow, but hopefully it won't be such a tough day. Weather's been good today, we hope it continues...

Tomorrow, we'll be in DC!