Our trip to
Chicago was scheduled around summer classes and Abby’s college volleyball
practices. Ab leaves home around 4:30 on Wednesdays and returns about noon on Thursdays.
The related travel plan was to hit the road at 1:00 on Thursday and be home by
4:00 on the following Wednesday. Estimated time of departure for this trip -
just long enough for Abby to hit the shower, throw the shower goods in her bag,
and her bag in the van. Imagine our
surprise when she was home around 10:15 ‘cause practice got out early! Woohoo –
hitting the road early!
Well, not so
fast…. Molly and Emily were off having pedis then Molly had a chiro appt, I had
a drop off at mom’s…so yeah, not leaving early – but not late either. We
managed to be in the vehicle at 12:30! According to Molly, “The good news is
that every trip that dad takes into the house isn’t going to hurt us” [our
departure time].
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And we drove
1 minute before the first stop – gas and window cleaning.
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| Mark cleaning the window and telling me to empty the 1/2 full trash bag. |
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| This is my reaction to it. (Trash bag isn't full!) LOL! |
Alright – so the gas was necessary.
The next
remarks were about lunch and where we were stopping. Mark wanted to see how far
we could get in 20 minutes and then we would grab lunch. A little weird since
we pass about 487 fast food joints in that time, but ok. (In hindsight, this may have been preparing
us for delayed food gratification on Friday though.) We hit the Subway in
Liberty about 40 minutes away then travel some significant mileage before the
next stop in Iowa.
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| Crossing the Mississippi |
Roadtrip
remarks:
“Are those
turkeys or chickens?” – says Molly as we pass a semi with open cages. YEESH – my kid is such a blond/city-girl that
she can’t tell the difference?!?!?!
“Look at me
using the internet in the car!” – Molly’s excitement of her phone being a
hotspot and submitting homework while driving down the road.
“Illinois is
so beautiful... all we get to look at is corn.’ – Sarcastic Emily after about two hours in
Illinois.
Interstate
I-88 is a toll road and not a cheap one at that - $3.60 for a car to go 20
miles. At the second stop, Mark asked the toll booth operator what the money
was used for. She explained that the road was not state funded and – ‘well,
when it’s really wicked, this road is never closed!’ Hmmm - guess we would have gotten
our money’s worth if we were traveling in the winter. Mark speculated that maybe he
could get a discount rate if he just drove on the shoulder.
We finally
made it to our hotel after about 8 hours of traveling with one stop. Well, two
stops if you count the 1-minute-from-home one. At 9 pm, we hit Red Robin for
dinner and a memory-fest which included Molly talking about when she used to
trick Abby or Emily to sit in the bathroom while she showered so ET wouldn't
come through the vent. (Molly hasn't ever seen the ET movie and swears she
never will.)
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| The thrill of eating at Red Robin. |
Couple of
side notes:
*Molly’s
children are growing up on cheese because she can’t stand textures such as
avocado. J
*Found out
that Abby travels with an extension cord so she always has a convenient
connection to a wall outlet. I can’t complain though because I ended up using
it all week.
So, that closes out the first day of our trip.....
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