Nothing Makes a Road Trip Special Quite like Chili Dogs from Jacks

Our first stop had to be Jack's in North Adams where Bobby spent five years living off of their famous chili dogs. They really are something to marvel at--the only problem is that they aren't bigger. Thank goodness Jack's hadn't changed at all since Bo graduated, because it would be all he could talk about for the next three weeks. Anyone remember the Lil Stevies crisis?

Anyway, after stopping for lunch we continued heading out west. Our route into New York took us to a place called Howe's Cave, where we decided to stop for a little spelunking. We took an elevator 150 feet into the ground and then went on a walking/boat tour of a deep, dark cave. Of course, the guide told us not to touch the calcite on the cave walls and Bobby had to touch everything. :) We were actually with a family from New Hampshire, and the dad kept talking about the family that went in the cave years ago and two people never came back. It reminded me of my dad.

That night we stopped at Applebees for dinner and saw a few RVs parked in the Walmart across the street. We had planned on finding a campsite, but we'd heard that you can park in Walmarts anywhere in the country for free, so we decided to take the risk and just do it. We figured we'd never learn the ways of the RV-people until you dive right in.

Two problems:

One, we parked right under a street light. It didn't seem like a big deal until Bobby woke up at three in the morning and thought it was time to go.

Two, even the slightest bit of wind rocks the Pawnee right out of her rims. Trying to fall asleep, I could've sworn there were a bunch of teenagers trying to mess with us. Bobby went dashing out into the Walmart parking lot shoeless, shirtless, with a hammer in his hand and stalked around the camper looking for hooligans to scare off.

classic.