I slept a good solid four hours before the sound of Skip's sleep apnea woke me up, and I knew trying to go back to sleep would be a waste of time. I called Boone, and explained where we were and gave him the room number. They were ten minutes or so out.

"Where's Dad", I asked, when I let him in.
"He just fell over in the seat of the truck and said he would sleep there", Boone shrugged. He rolled into my bed, pulled the covers over his back, the pillow over his head, and was asleep in seconds.
I took a shower, dressed, and re-packed my bag, then took it to the truck. I decided to walk up to the corner convenience store for a nice big cup of coffee as dawn was just beginning to break. I was headed back to the motel when I saw Dale's rig miss the right turn, so I hastily called him and explained where we were for the third time.

Back in the room, I rousted Rachael and Skippy, and told them we needed to get moving. They had no sooner collected all their stuff, and went to the bathroom for a shower, than Dale and James entered the room, kicked off their shoes, and rolled into the freshly vacated bed, fully clothed, and passed out.

Twenty-five minutes later, a plume of steam preceded their exit from the bathroom, as Rachael and Skippy walked out, half dressed, and still toweling off their heads. Skippy made a move to sit on the corner of the bed but froze when he bumped Dale's foot. He stood there, wide eyed and slack jawed until Rachael said, "That's Dale and James, they came in while we were in the shower."
He moved towards my bed then froze again, and pointed. "There's someone in that bed too", he gasped in a hoarse whisper.
"Yeah", Rachael giggled, "That's Boone, he sleeps like that, don't ask! He was there when we got up."
Rachael had warned me Skip wasn't a morning person, now I was beginning to believe her.

I woke Dad right before we pulled out, and gave him the second key card to the room.
"I'm putting you in charge of getting them up and moving", I explained, "They'll sleep right through registration day if someone doesn't."
He agreed, took the card, and ambled off with his bag towards the room.

We worked our way through patchy fog in every low valley for the next hundred miles, until I pointed out Six Flags over St. Louis to Rachael as we drove by.
"Oh, man...I'd love to go there!" She exclaimed, bending forward to look out the window and take it all in.
"You've been there, and as I recall you really enjoyed it!"
"When? You're lying..", she shook her head.
"We stopped for a whole day on our way to Indy for the Mopar Nationals In like '93, or '94!"
"Great! I was like four or five..."
She's an amusement park junkie. She tried to wake Skippy for a look, but he had been out since we jumped on the road. He sleeps way better upright in a moving vehicle than he does in a bed! She immediately began consulting her smart phone for information on the park.