Probably the longest drive we've ever done. Around 1000 miles. Dreading it, we decided not to stress or torture ourselves all night switching drivers, but just to stop somewhere for the night. We were short on cash but had plenty of blankets) So we decided to sleep right under the stars, in nature.
To be honest, finding a spot under the stars is often not easy. All the woods and bushes are usually someone's private property. And if you go deep into the middle of nowhere, you might not get a comfortable sleep because it's too wet, dry, scary, etc.
We found a solution in campgrounds. Places in wild nature areas where it is officially allowed to pitch tents, park cars, and build fires. Although you have to pay for camping in 90% of cases. Private camping costs more, but is often better equipped, while state sites are inexpensive, but you can only find them in national or state nature parks and reserves.
That's what we did that night. We just looked up the nearest State Park on GPS and stopped there. When we drove in, it was already midnight, and no one took any money from us. We thought we'd have to pay in the morning when leaving. But no one stopped us on the way out either. And we found a way to save on lodging until the end of the summer. State parks just close at 10 PM and open at 8 AM. If you arrive and leave within that time frame, there's simply no one to pay! We used this all summer. It's also worth noting that we were lucky that night and found a free shower at the campground, which was very handy, since we hadn't washed since Old Orchard Beach.
We didn't have tents, so we managed to sleep without them. I slept on the roof of the car, wrapped in three blankets, Sanya slept under the car in a sleeping bag. And the girls, they are petite, reclined in the car seats. Sometimes we rotated, but it didn't change the essence. I still think the coolest spot was on the roof, when you fall asleep and see the stars, the Milky Way, and falling meteors. Mmmmm...
After waking up in the morning, we rushed towards Cleveland. The Midwest started for us in Ohio. And it turned out to be exactly as we imagined it. Bare steppe 100% covered in corn. It wasn't even scary to use the highway here, because it was an absolutely straight road, without the slightest curves, stretching to the horizon. As a spicy variety, farmer houses sometimes flashed outside the window, and a couple of grain storage bins as a mandatory addition to them.
Approaching Cleveland, the road began to widen. As a result, it grew from a two-lane highway to 8-10 lanes in just one direction. Mmmm... Cleveland was the first truly large city on our path after Boston. By the way, a quite nice city. Its location on the lake shore and its turbulent industrial past were also attractive. The industrial revolution was felt everywhere. Multiple factories, abandoned plants, railway tracks crossing the city, outdated skyscrapers of once-large companies. Successful residential areas where industrialists once lived with their families not so long ago. A kind of symbol of the country's once-mighty industrial power. Now Cleveland, unfortunately, is just an unremarkable city with no special attractions, and the fact that we just slowly crossed it from east to west was enough for us.
We continued our movement through the unchanging landscapes of the Midwest. After Ohio, we were met by Indiana, then southern Michigan, but nothing changed. We wouldn't even have noticed the difference if huge signs "Welcome to ..." didn't flaunt over the road. Everything becomes different as soon as you round the southernmost point of Lake Michigan, when you approach Chicago!
