The travels continue...

So far, so good.

We just crossed into West Virginia, where the following sights greeted us:

~a sign proclaiming "West Virginia:  Wild and Wonderful

~a chain gang of inmates doing some sort of manual labor along the roadside

~deer (2 in the past mile...and yes, it's daylight) hanging out on the rocky ledges along the road.  Laura saw them and warned, "look out, it looks like they can jump right onto the cars!" Haha!

I don't think I've ever been to West Virginia, not before today anyway.  It honestly looks kind of pretty.  Rolling hills.  Lots of green.  Pretty trees.

My good friend Jillian called me this morning, though, and spoke some words of warning regarding West Virginia.  She called this morning at 9am, right after we had stopped at Starbucks (per my request!  After my post and homage to Starbucks last night....there was really no way i could've started this day without a treat from my friends at S'bux! ;)) where I picked up a grande CDL and were pumping gas at a gas station.  It was approximately 8am Illinois time, and she was driving to work.  She used to live on the east coast....and informed me, "don't get out of your car in West Virginia if you like your car and your money!"

Not sure exactly what she meant by that....

Ooh, but no chance to get out of our car in West Virginnie now! We apparently just crossed over into Pennsylvania!  It doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me, the way that just worked out, but then again I've never really been too good at maps and that geography stuff....

Whatever.  Welcome to Pennsylvania, I guess! ;)

So, we stopped for lunch at a Chick Fil-A somewhere in middle Ohio.  I haven't eaten at one of those restaurants in years....certainly it was looooong before the whole gluten intolerance diagnosis deal (which was October 18, 2008....yup, I'll certainly never forget that day.  I still remember my first GF breakfast, too....weeks prior, I had scheduled a breakfast date with a former co-worker at Panera in Bloomington.  Well, as we all know....Panera is gluten central.  Bread all over that joint.  In fact, my sister and I cracked up hard core once when we grabbed coffee at a Panera together....hanging on the wall was some sort of colorful "art" with a variety of bread-themed words written in script on it...and the word GLUTEN was prominently printed in the middle.  Haha!  Anyway, I thought about changing locations....but didn't want to complicate things.  So, i brought a box of gluten free flax cereal...and purchased a coffee, and a cup of fresh fruit.  Fresh fruit that I was convinced had somehow been contaminated by flying gluten crumbs...so my neurotic self RINSED the fruit in the cup....with the water in the soda fountain! Hahahaha!  Can you imagine what people thought??!!)...

Anyway...

Where was I??

Oh, yes....Chick Fil-A.  So, my family asked me as we drove around the town we were stopping in where I'd like to stop for lunch, since I am the "needy" one...honestly, I hatehatehate choosing all of the time and I REALLY hate being singled out, for anything (even when it's just people clearly being nice and thoughtful!).  Since I truly wasn't very hungry, I told them to choose....and Chick Fil-A it was.

A quick glance over the ingredient lists revealed I wouldn't be eating there....even their grilled chicken breast has wheat in a flavoring coating on it!  Sick!  So, I went on a walk to a Target very closeby and picked up a few delicious things...2 string cheese sticks, some pop chips, some organic wild berry fruit strips, and an organic GF blueberry greek yogurt.  YUM!

GF can be delicious, I swear!

So, I estimate that we've been driving for 5.5 hours now....should be over halfway there!

I completed TWO of my seven evaluation reports I brought along! I am very much looking forward to getting all of my documentation caught up before heading back to work Tuesday afternoon :).  Dorky, maybe ;).

My work laptop has a shady battery life....which has prevented me from working on any more of the reports.  Our hotel has free wifi (I called to check!) so I am making myself complete at LEAST one more report tonight at the hotel.  That will feel good :).

I have taken some time to screw around on the internet on my phone, update facebook incessently (my loser trademark! Haha!), send an e-mail to my sand vb team to wish them luck on their tournament game(s) tonight (I am very sad I won't be able to participate!), and catch up on some celebrity drama, thanks to People magazine.  I read up on Jake and Vienna's split (come ON!) and learned that Ryan Seacrest is dating Julieanne Hough (whhhaaaaat??? She is far too hot for him! ;)).  You kow, the stuff a good vacation road trip is made of :).

More to come, for certain :)

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