Summit County

Another epic drive today. Two new states and another time zone. We are now on Eastern Time for a while, giving us a mini-break from messing about with the car's clock.

We have hit the fourth week marker and we're getting into a rhythm whilst at service stations. We pull up, one of us prepays for petrol whilst the other wipes dead bugs from the windscreen, then it's time for a much needed restroom break. Country Music is definitely the music of choice in service stations. It is whilst in a service station that every fizzy, sugary, fatty and salty snack ever imagined is available. That's the bad.

We started the day however with good intentions. With lunch approaching we were hoping to come across a chain that we recognised so we could go for something that we had seen before that was light. We then spied Applebee's and we headed straight there. Alice had slices of steak with spinach and grains and I had grilled chicken with rice, apple pieces and cranberries. They were both really tasty and we felt good about ourselves. We even just ordered water as it's taken a while to stop ordering fizzy drinks with every meal.

Now the bad. At the half way point we pulled up at a service station to fill up, swap over and maybe get a coffee. Low and behold there in front of us was a Cinnabon stand. I had only previously heard about Cinnabon from a Louis CK sketch. It's a huge bun with handfuls of sugar, icing and cinnamon. It is served with a knife and fork and you still somehow end up with sticky fingers. Well, at least we washed it down with water!

We got to our stop-off point for the night by about eight and we popped to a local eatery for dinner. We kept it simple, shrimp for me and shnitzel for Alice. Back at the motel they had an indoor pool and a hot tub that Alice and I decided to make the most of before they closed the facilities at eleven. The hot tub was ridiculously hot and the pool reassuringly cool and so we spent the time alternating between the two. With temperatures correct, we relaxed and made plans for the following day in Cleveland.

Song of the Day:
R.E.M. - NightswimmingRead more