Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

This morning we packed up the car and then checked out of our hotel to start our last day in Ohio. Then it was over to St. Victor’s in Richfield for my niece’s baptism.

Immediately after mass, we bid friends and family farewell and hit the long road home. About 90 minutes down I-71, we stopped at a rest area near Mansfield, OH to fill up the tank and change out of our church clothes into more comfortable traveling clothes. As we were getting ready to leave, I heard someone call my name across the parking lot. I turned around to find one of my college roommates and his wife and kids who we hadn’t seen in years! They live in Detroit but were heading to Mansfield to see family and our paths crossed at that rest stop for just a few minutes. Talk about a small world … what are the chances?

We stopped again around 4pm just outside of Cincinnati for an early dinner where we met (on purpose this time) another friend from college we hadn’t seen in a while, along with her husband and 2 year-old son.

Our next stop was about 90 minutes later outside of Lexington, KY where we found a Graeter’s ice cream place for dessert. This was another favorite of ours when we lived in the Cincinnati area … yummy.

More marathon driving through the rest of Kentucky and the hills of Tennesee. I saw a lot of cool lightning in the clouds over the mountains. We finally made it to our hotel in Dalton, GA just after midnight. It was a long day of driving and we still have another 9 hours ahead of us tomorrow.