"Do you wanna share a beer an' a pizza?"

***Miles travelled today: 246

***Total Miles: 3219

***States travelled through: Ohio into Indiana

(Hopefully you will be reading this with your morning coffee... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINA... hope you have a great day!!!)

So... this morning we beat a hasty retreat from the Canadian Soldiers... photo as evidence of just how bad the infestation was - and it's not even at it's worst... Although, we did have a discussion about their purpose... and apparently they clean the lake... somehow... so the more there are the cleaner the lake is!!! Yeah right - the lake might be clean - but there are millions of dead bugs, that smell... everywhere!!!

We had a long drive ahead of us - to Lake Milwakee!!! (For those of you who are wondering which great lake this is... it isn't!!!) Jay decided that if we were heading off towards another lake for the next few days she needed to be assured that there would be no big-assed-flies!!! and so, she went off to reception to enquire... when she came back - she informed me that there were 'no bugs at Lake Milwakee!!!' I queried if there were any at lake Michigan??? which is actually our destination!!! (and, of course, what she meant...) The receptionist is probably wandering where the hell Lake Milwakee is!!!

So we had a long journey ahead of us... and although we were planning to get to Chicago this weekend, we felt that we would take a break as two weekends running in big cities would be tiring...

On route we stopped at the 'last stop' in Ohio (to stock up on some drinks), before passing into Indiana... on heading back towards the Jeep... Jay was stopped by a 'gentleman' in his 'pick-up-truck', who queried if she was from Tenessee... (as our rental car number plate is registered as Tenessee)... she simply said that we were from the UK... and that the car was a rental... at this point, he invited her into his truck... to join him for a beer and a pizza!!! Jay thanked him, but declined... upon which he persevered by saying, "My Gawd - you shure are B-U-tiful..." A second hasty retreat took place, and this time, no Canadian Soldiers were involved...

The landscape that we passed through today was mostly farming... but you can also see how the state of the economy is having an impact on people as so many properties that you pass have things out in the front that are for sale... there are also many shops and businesses that have closed down and are boarded up...

We passed through a town called Ligionier, which had numerous murals painted on the walls... and we also found Amish buggies in the car park!!!

We are staying at a lovely little town called Chesterton, which is just two miles away from Lake 'Milwakee'!!! (and there are no bugs!!!) We are intending to relax, and take it easy, as we have booked in here until Monday, when we will make for Chicago...

(Also we crossed over a time line somewhere today - we are now 6 hours behind the UK and 7 hours behind South Africa!!!)