We made it home

Okay so I lied.  I didn't get to my last trifecta-plus-one of this series when I thought I would.  I rarely even sat down over the last weekend...but it's all good.  Work...well they expect me to accomplish stuff there and I am going over my job description with a fine tooth comb to make sure that accomplishments aren't even in there.  I mean, if they want stuff to get DONE, they should have said that in the interview.  *sigh*  Too late now.

So I left off going to sleep in Cincinnasty with dreams of a quick ride home and nothing but sunshine, smiles and laughter.  I actually wasn't that far off. 

Up, at 6:00am Sunday morning and got ready to go and all packed up again.  Said our goodbye's to Joan and headed out the door.  With 15 bags and walking tippy toed so as not to wake any of the sleeping parents and/or children in the building.  I had big bulky bags.  It wasn't an easy task.  Thank you baby Jesus for elevators. 

We both agreed we were not stopping for anything until we were out of this god forsaken city.  At least out of the city limits.  And we didn't.  I was still half asleep in the car though, at first.  I made Kathy drive about 8 blocks out of our way to find Vine St....to get on the interstate...when we were already on Vine St.  See.....the laughter has already started and it's just 7:00am THEIR time.  That's 6:00 OUR time, for those that don't remember things (like me).  And thank you AGAIN, baby Jesus, for keeping traffic in that part of town, to a bare bare bare minimum because even in the daylight, it is scary. 

Safely on the "I" and out of the city limits we go.  We stop at the first convenience store and go in to get coffee, juice, something breakfasty to eat, a newspaper and we were on our way.  As we come out of the convenience store, I notice Kathy's car looks funny.  Not funny ha ha but funny hmmmmm.  "Did you get side-swiped?"  We both go to the driver's side and start wiping the car off.  It looked like it was side-swiped but then again, it looked like that salty residue crap that you get after driving in the snowy, salty roads.  And we did remember.  It was snowing in the Peoria area on the way to the "gates of hell."

We both were able to wipe off what we thought was "swipe" and get in and head down the road.  I started making notes on my phone about our trip.  We just couldn't keep all the fun to ourselves!!!  I asked Kathy if there was anything she wanted me to especially remember about our trip that she thought I might forget.  Her response was, "My eyes hurt so bad, I can't tell you."  What, in the name of the Incredible Hulk, did that mean???

She remembered that we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and saw $22 tweezers.  For $22, those things should walk to me when and wherever I need them!  And pluck me!  And put themselves away!  TWEEZERS??!!??  The world has completely went insane when someone will pay that kind of cash for something like that.  And someone obviously has way too much money in their wallet.  Feel free to give me $22 anytime you want to buy tweezers.  I will give you some tweezers and still have money to take you to dinner.

She also wanted me to remember the little "toy" that Joan got in that store.  She says it is for Tyler but I am not sure, myself.  It had two metal dots on each end.  If you put your fingers/hands on the metal dots, it would light up and make this "whirly" sound.  It was quite cute, I must say; and I had several laughs playing with it.  If I held one end, though, and someone else held the other end, it did nothing.  I guess you can't share that kind of energy with anyone.  *sigh*  Energy stick, yes that's what that was called.

Kathy remembered much more for me to post in here but I have already told you that stuff.  And I may even share some more that happened AFTER we made our list.  Okay okay, you talked me into it!!! 

We drove and talked and drove and talked.  Laughed about the things we talked about.  Laughed about the things we did.  Laughed about how I almost got us killed in Cincinnasty.  We are driving along and all of a sudden...we do an almost complete circle.  The road CIRCLED!!!  I looked at signs to make SURE we weren't going back to where we had just came from and we weren't.  "I feel like we just drove in a circle," I say.  Kathy looked around and says, "We didn't go by that a little bit ago."  No...she's right.  We didn't.  We certainly would have noticed that huge electrical plant thingy a second time. 

"I feel like we just went around in an almost complete circle.  Where ARE we at?  What city?  It doesn't look like anything we went through on the way down.  Are we lost?"  And this time I wasn't panicking because I knew, no matter WHAT road we were on, we were going west and that's the way we needed to go.  I'm pretty sure, at this point in the game, Kathy just had red lights and sirens going off in her head as she looks quizically at me and says, "We are in Indianapolis!"  WHAT THE???

No wonder it felt like we went in a circle!  We had to to stay on our "I."  Phew and thank you Dear God, Baby Jesus, Noah and anyone else that had anything to do with that.  Indianapolis is pretty awesome if you can get there when traffic is at a bare bare bare minimum like we did.  I could visit that city ANYDAY...as long as it's a Sunday and there are no races going on.  I was so stoked about it, I said we should go by the speedway.  And we would have; but we didn't see one sign coming from the East.  I don't get it.  Oh well.

Drive, drive, drive.  Talk, talk, talk.  Laugh, laugh, laugh.  The INSTANT we crossed over from Indiana to Illinois, I almost asked if we could stop and kiss the ground.  (I doubt I ever say that again)  But it was flood ridden and I was afraid of getting a bacterial infection...so I didn't ask.  Anyway, I was too busy watching my cell phone turn BACK an hour, I about couldn't hold in the excitement and wanted to pee right there!  In the car!  I can't tell you how great it is getting that hour of life back finally!  And that means it will be an hour earlier getting home!!  Okay, not really but yes, really.  I do feel sorry for the Cross family though because when they come home, their time schedules are going to be all sorts of messed up crazy!  They have been out there since Valentines Day!!!  I bet it took me 2 days to trust the clock. 

Getting hungry for some lunch on our drive.  After all we have been driving for a little over 3 hours so it's about right for lunch.  We pull into this little village of Mahomet, Illinois and run everyone over in line at McDonald's for the bathroom.  We are in our seperate stalls, talking about what we are going to order and I JUST CAN'T WAIT to get an angus burger and french fries.  My mouth was watering and I could almost taste it. 

We get in line to order and look up at the menu...and good thing we did...to see all breakfast items.  WHAT THE???  "It's 11:00 and they aren't serving dinner yet???"  As we both look at our phones.....10:16.  See, I was already "into" that time change.  Depressing.  Well by now, we wanted McDonalds and couldn't have it so we left.  And we couldn't believe the line at the drive-through and the line inside. Not a bus in sight so that must be the only place in town to eat breakfast.  Sad.  THEN, we went across the street to yet another convenience store/Subway, where the clerk said if we wanted real food, we should go on up the road.  Wow, really??.  Nothing really looked good in there...except for the knicky knacky things...so we got a snack and continued on. 

You probably don't care but Mahomet, IL is in Champaign County.  Champ-ane.  Not Cham-plain and not Sham-plain.  Champ-ane.  I'm sure between Kathy and I, we have called it all of the above.  We do our best to confuse ourselves. 

We finally made it to the east side (and I still want to call it the south side) of Peoria, IL.  We see a sign for McDonalds and say, "Hey we just finished our snack, wanna go to Mickey D's?"  And of course we do because I have my heart set on french fries.  Until, that is, Kathy spots a Burger King and suddenly I need some onion rings.  Burger King it is.  And it was closer so there's our bonus.  Not only was the building itself set up weird, the service was slow and the employees were not friendly at all.  And to make it all worse, the onion rings were awful.  Well...maybe not awful...but they were kinda yucky. 

I wrapped the rings in about 8 napkins and took them with me for later.  I figured some of the grease could fall out of them and they would taste better.  Note to self:  NEVER do that again.  It appears the grease was the only thing holding them together and when the grease is old...it just goes bad!  I unwrapped them halfway through Iowa and they literally fell apart.  AND, the grease soaked through 6 napkins.  How gross is that???

Instead of coming home on I-80 through Davenport (like we started our journey), we cut across and came through Burlington, IA and got to see all the flooding they were dealing with.  And there was a lot.  It was sad really.  But I sure was happy to see my state.  I love you Iowa!

I still don't have pictures with me that I took on this trip.  I will get them on, I promise. It might be the only thing on the next blog.  Five pictures.  Ha!  There is probably more than five (because I took at least five of the flooded areas) but not a whole lot more.   I hope you have enjoyed taking a road trip with Kathy and I.  The next one is a couple of states away, as well (which is breaking our Golden Rule we made on the way home from this one) but it is one of those trips that is a "must."  More about that later though.  We have a lot to talk about this summer. 

How's the weather where you are?  It snowed here May 2nd.  Snowed.  Accumulative snow.  I don't know WHO pissed Mother Nature off but they need to apologize and do it NOW.  She's bi-polar enough without someone stepping on her d!ck.  Hehehe

Until next time!  As always, thanks for reading!