Today marks the 16th day of our journey honoring Maggie’s bucket list road trip. We are currently driving through Indiana, just south of Chicago. Funny to be thinking we are almost home. If you have been following our trip, you’d know our first day of driving took us quite far - from New York to Wisconsin. Can we do the same today? Make it home? We hope so. We are both tired and weary of driving.
On Saturday night, July 14th, we stopped in Salt Lake City and spent a nice evening having dinner with Jason, his wife Brooke, and their children Eli and Lucy. Eli is below, eager to get closer to the peacocks which occupy the gardens surrounding the remote restaurant. Taggart’s Grill is nestled in a picturesque high desert canyon in scenic Morgan, Utah, along the Weber River. While waiting for our table, we skipped rocks and watched a hummingbird flitting over the river catching bugs.
If you can read the sign next to Eli, it states that the area is closed due to the high presence of rattlesnakes. Yikes!
The Lynch family are Mormons, and Sunday is Temple day, so we got an early start and hit the road again - driving through the Rocky Mountains, then onto the flat landscape that is Nebraska.
There were ominous clouds on the horizon while driving through parts of Nebraska, which although scary, were exciting to see from a distance. These formations didn’t appear to turn into anything more than rain. While it would have been kind of cool to see a tornado, we realize the dangers they represent.
On Sunday night, we stayed in another Airbnb in Omaha, Nebraska. It was in a dicey area but we stayed safe and considered it just a bed for the night. In the morning, we went for a quick run around the somewhat rundown neighborhood and headed out on the road once more.
Steve took this interesting photo of the expansive and somewhat monotonous landscape we drove through.
Monday’s drive was short to Frankfort, Illinois, with a plan to spend the night in yet another Airbnb. Part of Frankfort included a pretty, historic, and charming downtown. We stopped into a really nice guitar shop - Down Home Guitars, looking at their expansive collection of eclectic instruments. After talking with Steve, co-owner of the shop, we found we had just missed the town’s annual Bluegrass Festival. Too bad.
We shared our story with Steve about our loss of Maggie, the foundation we started, the instruments he sells, and Maggie’s and our connection with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Afterwards, we ate at a nice Mexican Restaurant and then headed to our digs for the night, which consisted of a private bedroom in a pretty, suburban neighborhood a few blocks from the historic district in Frankfort, IL.
Staying in an Airbnb can be strange in that you are, at times, literally occupying space in a stranger’s house. When your host is home, it can be uncomfortable. Luckily, our hosts were hospitable and friendly. Their place was beautiful and our stay was more luxurious than any hotel we could afford.
The views were dreamy too. Maggie would have approved. While Maggie could rough it with the best, she also appreciated luxury. Don’t we all?
It was raining when we awoke and despite our talk of fitting in a run, we decided against it and hit the road by 8:00 am.
The GPS is telling us we will be home by 10:10 pm tonight. Hoping that’s accurate and the rest of our drive is smooth and our bladders behave.
We realize though that the road can be unpredictable, much like our lives.
