Do the Roads Close?

We have the newest entry for The Book. During our recent trip we decided we would cover as many miles in one day on the road trip as possible. We are talking the distance from Maryland into the Louisville, Kentucky area after a number of stops, some shopping, a couple of pit stops, and of course stops at the historical markers along the route. That is a lot of car riding.

As we arrive late into the Louisville area, without a hotel reservation, we make a few calls to begin checking out the options. There is a "Huge" car show according to everyone we talk with in the Louisville area, and it is the night before the American Idol stop in that town, there are no hotel rooms to be found. So, we cross the Ohio River and push on. This is about 10:45 p.m. on a beautiful Saturday evening.

Continuing on the highway the discussion turns to the hour of the evening. So after another hour of driving we start the process of looking along the highway for lodging. First stop gets us a call down the road to another place that has rooms. Due to the hour they will not take a reservation. We arrive and sure enough there are now no rooms. As we continue heading west on the interstate a voice from the back of the car asks, "What time do the roads close?" At first I wasn't sure I had heard the comment correctly so I asked for a repeat. Yep, same question.

It dawns on me that this member of the family, who likes to go to bed early doesn't usually see the time of night we are up and driving. So, it is a good question. Then it occurs that this young lady hasn't really been up on the trips that we would drive late to various places. Usually, she was asleep so she didn't really understand the time of night or morning as the case may be. The lack of traffic on the highway was also an indication to her that just maybe we were out riding along on a stretch of highway that was closed.

We chuckled at the question and explained that it is really late. The highways don't usually close unless there has been some kind of accident or weather reason to close them. The roads are not like stores they are open all the time.

That is good news. The rest of the story is that after a number of stops we pulled up in the parking lot of three hotels and a fast food place. Found some secure parking and slept. We didn't find a hotel that evening.

We experienced a beautiful sunrise the next morning. Did some freshen up and completed the next 6 hours home. We saved a good bit of money and added a new chapter to our travel adventures. We also discovered a new entry to The Book.