Chicago to Miami- Day 1

In late May/early June, we moved from Chicago to Miami. Because we had our omnipresent buddy Bandit, we wanted to split up the trip into several days to make it a little easier on both him and us being in the car so long. He was certainly the thing we thought about most during the journey. In the days leading up to the trip, he was stressed out watching us pack everything up. I can't even begin to imagine what he was thinking and it breaks my heart to think that he might've thought we were leaving him.

We ended up booking places to stay on Airbnb, which I think made the trip a lot more fun than staying in hotels. Since we had the dog, we focused our trip on finding dog-friendly places that would be fun, rather than planning a ton of activities. We knew that we had to get to Miami before June 8, but other than that, we didn't have many restrictions... so, ridiculously, the trip ended up being planned around the availability of a tipi that I wanted to stay in.

Day 1
Alex loaded everything up in the car as I did last-minute packing and my parents came to see us off. My mom packed a ton of fruit for us, which was a life saver to have as a snack on the road. Growing up, my mom always washed and cut fruit for us after dinner and before bed, which is a tradition that I always loved. Most of our drive was gloomy and rainy, but it actually ended up being perfect road trip weather, except for when it was pouring to the point that we couldn't see the road.

Final destination: LaGrange, Kentucky
Stops along the way: Indianapolis (for a stressed out dog) and Louisville, KY (for food purposes)

Our first stop was about 3.5 hours in, at Indianapolis. We were feeling pretty sleepy so we found a coffeeshop, which turned out to be closed. Most places were closed, but we were able to stretch our legs a little bit and found a few places to hopefully check out "next time," although I admit that I don't necessarily hope to find myself in Indianapolis in the near future, charming as it may be. The theme of the trip was balancing the heat with being able to spend enough time walking and decompressing as well as finding quiet areas for the dog. This is his "I love Indianapolis!" face.

Much of the rest of the midwest was idyllic.

We stopped in a bar/restaurant called Hammerheads that had good reviews on Yelp. They don't typically allow takeout unless you have a really small party and actually show up and look sad because they have a small kitchen. They told us differently on the phone when we had called in so they let us place an order. The place was packed, despite the fact there was no air conditioning, which I considered a good sign... if you are willing to be in a stuffy place, the food must be worth writing home about. We walked around Louisville and met some cats while we waited. They were super accepting of Bandit and brought out a water bowl just for him.

We arrived at our cabin in LaGrange a bit later than expected (another theme of the trip), but it was a really cool cabin--and comfortable. We ate on the porch and Bandit enjoyed one of the Barkworthies treats I brought for him on this trip.

I loved my mushroom veggie burger and truffle fries; Bandit didn't love the Cocolicious wet food we brought for him as much as I thought he would. Based on his usual love for wet food and coconut oil as separate entities, I thought he would be obsessed with this stuff, but as excited as he looked in that first picture when I let him smell it, he still didn't finish all of the food right away. Of course, he was also really stressed out that first night. Which is fair. He was all, "Why are we in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky?"

I love the peace and quiet of the place, as did Alex, although he did think it seemed haunted since it was pitch black outside and sooo quiet. It was a nice change from the light shining into our bedroom window in Chicago. And sleeping in a king bed with Bandit... so luxurious, words can't even describe it. We got an amazing night of sleep!