RT18 Day 1 -  Thelma!! We hit the road and headed north.  Per tradition, while traveling the route of RT17, it was decided that RT18 would take us international - yet again.  And, with the earlier release of school, and the ready and willing grandparental child care providers - we were even able to leave a day early!  Which, we were soon to find out, this additional time was necessary, as our destination was far far away.

Doug left us a mysterious envelope, with directions to make a choice. We selected #2.  We made the wrong choice (which may have been foreshadowing for what was to come) - but thankfully, Doug believes in second chances.  We were able to try again.  Envelope #1 was filled with some extra green for us to partake in "good food and better wine".  Our trip began with high-fives, and singing our praises, and shouting gratitudes to the best Doug ever in the history of forevers.

We stopped to take pics of barns, and I took some pics of T taking pictures of barns.  We were sailing on the Day 1 Roadtrip High, made it all the way through Minne and mostly through Wisco, and then...

You guessed it. Our bubble was popped, and smoke started billowing from the Sub, and it gets even worse.

 We. Lost. Doug's. Cash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next hour was spent getting the ok from the friendly car guy, stopping for coffee, trying to find our envelope, unpacking the car, tearing apart the car, repacking the car, driving through the city (whatever city we were in...) and retracing our steps, going back to friendly car fixer guy and asking him if he stole our money, calling the Misters and considering calling the police...  We left, shed a few tears, vowed NEVER TO TELL DOUG and cursed the car guy who obviously took the money.  Wallowing in our misery - and stupidity - caused me to become very dehydrated, so I grabbed my water bottle - and FOUND DOUG'S MONEY!!!

The next hour was spent high-fiving and sending out thank-yous to all energy sources we could name. Calling the Misters to say we really didn't lose the cash, considering calling the car guy to apologize and laughing because now this is the first story we will tell Doug!  Back on our RT high, we decided to power through to the next town or two, get a room somewhere and eat string cheese, crackers and red wine for supper, and promise to be more responsible the remainder of the trip.