So, I've been back from my vacation since July 22nd. It was an AWESOME vacation. Aside from the hiccup hotel in Libertyville, IL, everything went well. After Libertyville, we went to Windsor, WI and we stayed there for a day. The majority of the time we just stayed in the hotels because I was either doing my homework, or I was too tired to go anywhere because I'm the only one driving. After Windsor, we went back down to Illinois and stayed in Zion, IL. We went to the Volo Automobile Museum after staying in Zion, and it was AWESOME. You got to see all kinds of cars from the Model T to Ghostbusters, from Dukes of Hazzard to Fast and the Furious. From Star Wars to Christine. They have military vehicles, actual trains you can go in and look around. They have Disney cars and even cars from famous celebrities like: Elvis, Princess Diana, Oprah, and Rod Steward. We wanted to stay longer but it was hot out, I ran out of batteries in my cameras, and there were mosquitos everywhere. Not to mention, that it was going to take about seven hours to get to Bloomington, IL. So, we started driving and every now and then we stopped to rest and let the car rest. I REALLY wanted to get to Bloomington so that I can crash on the bed, but I still needed to work on my homework. As we were driving we noticed signs saying "Gets Your Kicks on Route 66." I couldn't believe that the famous Route 66 went through Bloomington. But, we didn't want to stop. Finally, we got to our hotel and crashed. In the last three hotels, we had some great beds. I was almost done with my homework. We decided to instead of staying in the hotel, my mom and I dressed up and went to have dinner at the Olive Garden as seeing it looks like I'll be graduating college soon. When I told the server about it, she had given us some cannoli's that we ordered and underneath in chocolate syrup she wrote "congrats". That was so sweet. After that, we went back to the hotel and my mom told me to forget about my homework for just that day. The next day we would be coming back home. 

After the hotel, we started driving back home. It would take about two or three hours to get home. It's fine. So, we saw the signs again about Route 66. We stopped a few times for me to get video and pictures of the old road that is no longer used for cars. It's sad that the towns allowed the road to go into disrepair. Some of the roads still had the old white paint showing the dotted lines in the center and on the sides. Much of it is overgrown with grass and the bridges no longer are there. So, as we are driving, we have to deal with a LOT of construction detours (it's one of Illinois' seasons). So, this last detour had us go to the right and guess what we were driving on one of the OLD Route 66 that cars can drive on. It led us to an old Standard Oil gas station from 1932. It is sooo adorable because you can buy merchandise there and look at all the money that they had accumulated over the years from people around the world. I saw money from England, France, Russia, China, Japan, Korea and other places. You can also view the old tools that they used back then. It was awesome. So, after mom and I bought some hats, shirts, a book, some postcards, and pins, we drove off and continued on our way, stopping every now and then to take pictures of the old Route 66. We eventually got home and it was so nice to be home. Mom and I needed to get away from work, school and our family. 

I tell people that the cooks went on strike because none of the men in the house don't know how to cook and pretty much don't want to learn to cook. They think that it's a woman's job to do the cooking. They would rather go out and eat fattening foods instead of cooking simple healthy foods.

Well, guess what? Mom and I are planning our trip for next year. If we can, we might go to the Mall of America. We never been there and hear it's awesome. It would take a few days to see the mall but it would be an interesting walking experience. We were supposed to go this year, but mom suddenly got sick and we couldn't do it.

Anyway, just wanted to tell you about my vacation.

P.S. Just so you know, the Libertyville, IL Motel 6 is an awful hotel. Reason being that they ended up overbooking us and we were put in a non-smoking room on the third floor...which is also the same floor that the smokers use. WTF? I can't figure out how a business can put smoking AND non-smoking on the same floor. When we came home I complained to Motel 6 and we ended up a refund for how lousy the hotel was and that they should've told us that when we booked it that it was overbooked. We couldn't even change rooms because they were overbooked. Will NEVER go to another Motel 6, no matter if the other ones don't have the same problem. I'm not about to waste my money just to see. I do like Days Inn, Country Inn & Suites. The Quality Inn & Suites has a little bit of a hiccup because when we got to our room, it was like walking into a fun house. Everything was on a slant. You could see the TV and the beds were leaning to one side. But, we both REALLY loved the Days Inn and Country Inn & Suites which might be the ones that we'll go to next year.

Thanks for reading, 

Raven.