OH! IO!

While we don't get as lavish as vacations as some people we know, I am indeed writing you, my dear friend internets, from the Buckeye state. (What's a Buckeye? A giant Nut!) (Sorry, old MSU Hockey jeer..)

Miss liz and i piled into the car on Friday afternoon and hightailed it to the lovely land of Kansas with grand intentions of camping out at some free lake-side real estate pointed our direction by our wonderfully good looking friend Sean. Coming off of the freeway for the Lawrence exit, though, we discovered something that never comes into thought at all for Colorado camping: rain. And lots of it.

We decided, due to said rain, to just find some shelter at the closer state park and debate just sleeping in the car or actually setting up camp under some trees. It was 10:58 at night, so we figured we would simply just roll in and find somewhere to go uncounscious. Not so. Those Kansas State park window guys are vigilant, and upon entering the park discovered their still-lit toll booth and promptly gave them $13 for a day pass. Awesome. Upon driving around and deciding that the rain was too bad, and we would just simply sleep in the subie, we went to see if we could simply get our entrance fee back and be on our merry way to a rest stop.

Well, you see, since we time things so wonderfully, it just so happened that when we swung back around (11:09) -- it was closing time! Nobody there! Great!

Absolutely livid at myself for being two minutes early for the first time in my life, we head back into the park, find some locale with at least some semblance of cover, and set up the tent. (honestly, i'll be tarred and feathered before i pay someone money to simply sleep in my car.)

Of course, we woke up to yet more (and even harder) rain, and in packing up got not only soaked but covered all of our gear and selves in the mud like pack we had been sleeping on. Extra Awesome.

Luckily, Sean also pointed us to Miltons in downtown Lawrence, and a big plate of French toast (and a change of clothes in the bathroom) cheered us right up. Back in the wagon, we saddled up and got to Ohio sometime around 10 p.m., EST. Which, of course, led to the surprise early birthday party for Gradma J yesterday, and a big day spent at the Columbus Zoo today with the Hillman clan. Its been great to be back in the humid, buggy, and rainy midwest - and that is mostly due to the fact that we are surrounded by family who (has no choice but to) love us intensely.

In my typical fashion, i forgot to bring the laptop battery charger with me (currently on Gma's computer), so i shall be sans connection most of this week. Luckily, my pretty wife took it upon herself to cover our last weekends adventures, so, i'll just wiggle off the hook with that and simply point you to the pictures, found in the flickr badge on the side of the screen.

We're skating northward to the mitten tomorrow to see the rest of the clan, i have no doubt plenty of hugs and overeating will ensue. Florence 'yall!