I am officially back in the city after a busy few weeks!
In the last few weeks, I spent Christmas in Missouri with my family, went to the United Kingdom with some friends, and headed back to Missouri for some family time and a cousin's wedding.
Yesterday, Karen & I set off driving for Chicago as it was snowing hard at my parents. And of all the travels, this ended up being the most interesting.
That is how it looked for the first half of our drive (3 hours). Then the sun set and it got real.
Before we left a combination of Mom & Dad:
(Jeff and his family left at the same time as us.)
You follow each other out to 55, then you can split. (Jeff went south, we went north.)
Don't take 61. Take 32. 61 will not be in good shape.
Don't be afraid to stop and get a motel for the night.
Who knew how necessary that would become.
I took the first shift and after an hour driving like the hunchback of notre dame from stress, which we went what should have taken about 35 minutes. Then Karen took over and I'm pretty sure she had it in her head she wanted to drive to Springfield and then switch.
After one of our ramps was closed, the number of cars/tractor trailers that slid off the road kept increasing, we sat on the interstate in park for 45 minutes from an accident (we weren't even sure which one it was once we finally drove through), the wind picked up so we drove on the interstate with our brights on (which is a no no, but no one could see anything anyway so we don't think we impeded anyone's judgement), finally giving in to the masses and driving with our flashers on... we reached Springfield 6 hours after leaving my parents. (That's about double what it should take...maybe a bit more than double.)
We were done.
We found a hotel. Used some of my hotel points and parked it for the evening.
We woke up bright (full disclosure: it was still dark) and early and headed to Chicago in the bitter cold. We did indeed arrive in Chiberia (that seems to be what people have named it) and saw someone running on the path. Yes, it is -10. Never discount Chicagoans.
Happy Monday and I'll have some recaps/interesting facts about my recent travels coming your way soon...hopefully.
In the last few weeks, I spent Christmas in Missouri with my family, went to the United Kingdom with some friends, and headed back to Missouri for some family time and a cousin's wedding.
Yesterday, Karen & I set off driving for Chicago as it was snowing hard at my parents. And of all the travels, this ended up being the most interesting.
That is how it looked for the first half of our drive (3 hours). Then the sun set and it got real.
Before we left a combination of Mom & Dad:
(Jeff and his family left at the same time as us.)
You follow each other out to 55, then you can split. (Jeff went south, we went north.)
Don't take 61. Take 32. 61 will not be in good shape.
Don't be afraid to stop and get a motel for the night.
Who knew how necessary that would become.
I took the first shift and after an hour driving like the hunchback of notre dame from stress, which we went what should have taken about 35 minutes. Then Karen took over and I'm pretty sure she had it in her head she wanted to drive to Springfield and then switch.
After one of our ramps was closed, the number of cars/tractor trailers that slid off the road kept increasing, we sat on the interstate in park for 45 minutes from an accident (we weren't even sure which one it was once we finally drove through), the wind picked up so we drove on the interstate with our brights on (which is a no no, but no one could see anything anyway so we don't think we impeded anyone's judgement), finally giving in to the masses and driving with our flashers on... we reached Springfield 6 hours after leaving my parents. (That's about double what it should take...maybe a bit more than double.)
We were done.
We found a hotel. Used some of my hotel points and parked it for the evening.
We woke up bright (full disclosure: it was still dark) and early and headed to Chicago in the bitter cold. We did indeed arrive in Chiberia (that seems to be what people have named it) and saw someone running on the path. Yes, it is -10. Never discount Chicagoans.
Happy Monday and I'll have some recaps/interesting facts about my recent travels coming your way soon...hopefully.
Oh man, I'm so glad to hear that you guys spent the night! No reason to break your neck for a trip. Glad you're back safe!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janie Rubes!!!!
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