I just love road trips, even with four kids in the car. Especially my kounouz, they are just so full of their own funny outside-in observations of American life. We played the license plate game, but there are a LOT of Stay-cationers out there: we only saw the typical surrounding states in the hundreds of miles we traveled. But since they get excited about squirrels, hawks, cows and of course, cars, it is never a dull moment.
I mentioned before we are just not seeing too many exotic cars in the Heartland, either. Driving through Valparaiso, Project Boy let out a hoot: “LAMBORGHINI ON THE LEFT!!! LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO”. Spikekid jerked up out of his PSP trance in unbelief “NO WAY!”, then joined in to annouce ”Ferrari behind it!!”. They smashed their faces to the window until those two cars zipped from sight. Wonders never cease, Italian sports cars in Valpo.
Fav personalized plates: MRS BUS, LSNZPL8, and CRZMOM 
Fav custom plates: (1) “In God We Trust”. Makes me glad it isn’t illegal to say that in public yet. (2) the Indiana State background of a dandelion on a navy blue background looks just like the Adiga flag.
The road we took must’ve been a northern version of the Bible Belt. I lost count of how many churches, but one name stuck out “Bourbon Bible Church”. Too weird.
We discovered Indiana is home to Garfield and Buddy Holly, and Billy Sunday, a famous preacher.
We also discovered Mapquest is SO yesterday. Friends with a brand new Hyundai Veracruz said “Take our car to Indy”, so we relished the shu kewl extras like TALKING GPS, virtual keys and self-closing trunk.
My new favorite saying: “My soul has had enough chicken soup. GIVE ME CHOCOLATE”.
Why Indy? How weird: five families from hubby’s old church in New Orleans moved to Indy. Every time we come home, we gather for chicory coffee and beignets and reminisce about life twenty-five years ago (yea, you weren’t born yet. But, believe it or not, you’ll be in your mid40s someday too). Additional Indy-bene: blogger Emily, who visited Amman last Summer! Although she didn’t end up marrying Mr. Haddad, she and her mom still love Jordan and she joined us for the gathering. She beautifies any event, that girl. I am trying to get her to apply to teach at the American Community School. (Heh-heh, but I am seeing if perhaps one of my bro-in-laws brothers might make a suitable match, as well. I’d like to have this girl in the fam)
Another fun thing I did in the car: EDITING. No way, you say, especially MommaBean 
. But I am doing this as a favor for a friend, (not Time Magazine)and have had my stuff slashed and burned often enough that I’ve actually got an eye for unnecessary adjectives. In someone ELSE’S writing, anyway. The blog will suffer through my stream-of-consciousness style. It is a fun exercise.
It’s great to be home. Calm before the 4th of Joooooly storm tomorrow. I’ve been reading the Declaration of Independence for fun these days.
