And we drive...

I'll get the Travel Stats over with: gas...$3.09 Temp...20 Roads...clear. Okay, always a favorite topic for me is the food. The kids ate Speedway Points Grill food for lunch before we got on the highway. Yuck but free. So by dinner we were ready for good grub. We took 57 South from Chicago. We ate in Mt. Vernon, IL at the EL RANCHERITO...90% of our meals will be Mexican. It was fabulous. The kids responded okay to our restaurant rules for vacation again...no fries/zero nutritional value, no pancakes/looks good on menu but no one ever finishes them and James won't finish them, dad drinks only water so we all drink only water, mom only gets an empty plate and eats clean-up. It works for us. We drove another hour and stopped in Marion, IL. As much as I enjoy the "hunt" at a thrift store...James enjoys the hunt of a hotel for the night. This is how it plays out: Start at one hotel. I stay in the car with the girls. Boys go in and check the pool temp, breakfast situation and if the lobby bathrooms are clean. James gets a price...he says he will "check with his wife." We then go to the next one and proceed as before but the boys come out and tell us the price. Then we send in the "closers"...the girls go in and check the water, look at the breakfast menu and say a few nice things....James gets the room $6. cheaper than the other place. Room, Swimming, cookies at the desk (a lot), cable TV, breakfast...$99 down to $79! Quote for the day: "Vacations are torture." Buenos Noches.