Day two of our trip started with a refreshing breath of cool-ish air and a good cup of coffee. I drove about six hours, taking our little family along peaceful and flat lands of lush corn fields, and navigating through the aggressive traffic of the Chicago outskirts, with dishes rattling, and cabinets spilling their guts in the process. While I loved the green pastures of Indiana, and although I love downtown Chicago, I didn’t love the roads around the Windy City, nor did I like the tolls….

After crossing into Wisconsin, David took over the driving for another two hours. Road-wise, things got better and the sailing was easier again, en route to our overnight destination: Country Roads Motorhome and RV Park. A light breeze and the smell of rain were a lovely welcome to our newly found life of freedom.

I still can’t believe this is our reality. It hasn’t hit us yet, because we’re in a hurry to reach Canada for our one and only reservation: Banff. Many delays (a story for another time) pushed our departure date to a lot later than we had anticipated, so the relaxation aspect of the trip hasn’t happened fully yet.

The plan is to slow down and spend a comfortable amount of time in the Pacific Northwest, then head east toward Chicago, up to Canada again to Montreal and Quebec area, see the Niagara Falls. Fall should be spent visiting the NE corner of the US and going down the coast towards good ol’ Ktown for Thanksgiving. And since winters are no good in Tennessee, we plan on finding our way out of there shortly thereafter, exploring Louisiana, Texas, and then the desert and southwest corner of the US.