Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July! This is probably one of my favorite holidays. I don't know if I mentioned before, but we're down at my Uncle "Frank's" lake house for the holiday. It's right on Table Rock Lake and it's super fun to go swimming, boating, etc. Of course, though, the first day we're here, it's all cloudy and rainy... and is supposed to for the next few days. So much for swimming, at least for now.
We drove all 15 hours down yesterday. Man, that was a long drive; almost as if we were driving across Montana all over again. The drive was a little better because we were actually were driving through civilization, but no matter. I don't think we've driven the whole way before. We usually stop in St. Louis to stay the night with one of our relatives that live there, but no one was there this time. We wanted to leave really early in the morning, but by the time we were all packed and ready, it was around 7:30 ET. We ate breakfast at Panera Bread and were finally on the road by 8 or so. There were some interesting things that happened along the way. For one, we passed this same truck that was carrying pick-up trucks maybe 5 times along the drive down, and it was in different states, also. When we were a few hours away, we passed this billboard and all it said was "Jesus." I wanted to take a picture, but wasn't quick enough. There were some other little things, but they shouldn't or don't need to be mention, most likely the former. When we finally arrived, Uncle "Frank's" neighbors were putting on their fireworks show. There were a bunch of people parked on the side of the road and when we passed, everyone looked at us weird as in, "What are you doing?" Not to be outdone, my uncles set off a couple of their own fireworks in a sort of a "firework-off." If those few are any sign of what is to come tonight (weather permitting), we are in for quite a show.
To get ready to leave was in a trial in itself. First, on Thursday, I graduated from Segment 1 of Driver's ed. I only got 4 questions incorrect on the test, which is pretty good. If I had gotten 100%, they would have given me Segment 2 free, but no worries. Then, on Friday, I stayed over my friend's house for the night because we were going to go to East Lansing and MSU. Unfortunately, their car got a flat tire, so they didn't have enough room in their other car to take us all. After being left home, I called my mom, and she was going to take us to Ann Arbor. Then, my sister got hurt and it was called off. At night when we were packing, the power went off for 2 hours! As my mom said "It's like the Comedy of Errors." But we got here, and that's all that matters. Now, it's fireworks time. Happy Independence Day!