Illinois 
Indiana Michigan Ohio Pennsylvania DC Virginia 
800am – We get up and get some breakfast at the Starbucks in Chicago. A shorter trip today but still 730 Miles. We drive out of Chicago into the Industrial area that connects many cities around the great lakes. In 30 minutes drive past Lake Michigan on the left and leave Illinois to continue through Indiana. We bend southbound and then westward into the Eastern Time zone to follow I-90 to Ohio. around 11am we drive along the northern edge of the state about 200yds from Michigan, so we decide to make a quick stop to actually set foot in that state as well.
129pm – We drive into Ohio and have lunch close to Cleveland. The landscape again resembles a typical Dutch landscape as seen from the highway.
223pm – While we drive south we start to see more deciduous type vegetation. We say goodbye to the I-90 that we followed for 2350 miles. It continues to Boston. We actually drove on the I-90 and the I-80 at the same time since Chicago. We now go south on towards the I-70, the third long East-West connection that goes to North California parallel to the I-80. It’s very interesting how logical the Interstate Highway System is setup like grid across the united states with logical numbering for north-south, east-west and circular routes.
430pm – We cross the Ohio river close to Pittsburgh. We are in Pennsylvania now. The 12th of the 15 states we cross on this trip.
515pm – We really start to see some hills driving towards the Appalachian mountains.
645pm – We cross the mountains. These are old and shallow, with the highest peak Mount Mitchell just below 7000ft. We pass a small tunnel and enter yet another state, Maryland.
It’s getting dark when we leave the mountains. Road crews are starting to appear and we hope we can get of the highway before they start to close lanes.
930pm – We arrive in DC. Lamar and I do a quick circle along the National Mall and then head to North Virginia where we plan to live right by Key Bridge, on the Potomac across Georgetown. It was a great drive. We crossed 3 mountain ranges, 5 large rivers, 15 states, and countless national parks and forests.
