My trips to Illinois to see the family are rarely without
event. And believe me, the week leading up to this trip was hella insane. I had
to deal with raising an insane amount of money in a short amount of time, con
artist tow truck drivers and a run away lizard. This kicker is, I wasn’t even
planning to go to Illinois. It was a very last minute sort of thing.
Interesting fact
about Illinois, at the moment, the entire state is flooded out. I
seriously thought that I had fallen
asleep leaving Wisconsin and awoke on the Lost Continent of Atlantis. All be it, an Atlantis that is
constantly repairing its roads.
The reason this trip
was so impromptu was that I owe my mom some money and she found a way for me to pay back a good chunk of it. Stupid
brother having a soon to be father–in-law who runs a painting business that needed a few extra employees.
So, for the next few days, thanks to my mom, this guy could pretty much make me do whatever he wanted to, and I had to just grin and bear it. Which would have been fine, if when I got off, I could have just gone to my mom's house and rested. What I ended up doing was helping my brother to move the last of his stuff into his new house, help build a 12 ft trampoline for my niece (that also includes the enclosure), go get fitted for a suit by an overly friendly tailor, build some dressers for my mom and finally help clean out the basement at my mom's house. I believe the basement was last cleaned out about 10 years ago.
How helpful I was is very debatable. I believe I was very helpful. My brother and mom on the other hand definitely have a different opinion. Apparently, it is now helpful to scream, "No, that's a piece of my childhood. You can't just throw it away".
How helpful I was is very debatable. I believe I was very helpful. My brother and mom on the other hand definitely have a different opinion. Apparently, it is now helpful to scream, "No, that's a piece of my childhood. You can't just throw it away".
By the time 7 pm on Sunday rolled around, I couldn't freaking wait to get back to Madison and sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing my family, but every time I get back from Illinois I feel like I need at least another week vacation.
I tend to make my departure from Illinois at night for a few reasons. Mainly, the traffic tends to be pretty light, so I can let my mind drift to things like new blog posts, comic strip ideas or whether or not it was really Bigfoot someone spotted shopping at Walgreens.
Tonight though, I seriously started to consider the fact that at some point this weekend I ticked off one of the ancient gods, because my normal three hour trip took roughly five hours. That's including bathroom breaks, which some people think are a necessity, but on trips I just consider them annoying. Stupid 7 11 Double Gulps.
It is kind of sad that before I even pulled out of my mom's drive way I was already having issues. Namely, washed out roads. According to my mom and brother, the road I normally take to get me back to the highway was under water. They recommended I take a different route, which was fine since it wasn't really that far away from the way I usually go. If this other route had been too far, I would have taken my chances driving through the flooded out road.
So, about half way down the road, I start to hear sirens and behind me I see two cop cars and a fire truck barreling down on me. I pulled over as fast as I could, and watched as the emergency vehicles pulled away and vanished over the hill.
When I passed over the hill, I had to slam on my breaks, because in front of me was a police officer, who seemed to get the fun task of redirecting traffic back the way it had come. Curious, I asked him why the road was closed. I thought maybe this road had succumbed to the flooding as well, Nope. I should have been so lucky. Apparently, the power plant down the road had strange fires popping up through out the building. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but that's because I didn't mention the power plant was nuclear. Not wishing to glow in the dark or develop a couple extra sets of eyes, I followed everyone else and headed back the way I came and connected with a third route. I was told to take this route only as a last choice, because of how long it would take for me to connect with the highway.
At this point, I am roughly 30 minutes behind schedule and I was just about to fall even more behind because soon after taking this new route I came across a Family Video store that was having...hold on to your hats... a clearance sale. As if pulled by some unknown force I turned and parked in the Family Video parking lot.
There were some movies I wanted to see if this one had for sale, that the one I go to in Wisconsin had sold out of years ago. So, I was told anyway. Like a skilled treasure hunter on crack, I zoomed up and down the aisles until I came to the 'M' section. There they sat. Three of the cheesiest SyFy channel original movies ever produced. There was Mega Piranha, Mega Python vs Gatoroid and Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus. All for only a $1.00 each. This was not an opportunity that could be passed up. And of course, after making such an incredible find I wondered what else I would stumble upon. Luckily, for my wallet, that was all I found. However, my little stop did put me behind an additional half hour. Add that up and I am now an hour behind schedule and have yet to leave town.
A sense of "I just want to get home and sleep" washed over me, so I picked up the speed a little bit. And after another 15 minutes realized they were not kidding about this way was much, much longer. Also, this road wasn't free of its share of flooded out sections either, so I ended up taking two other detours that added even more time. By the time I finally made it to the highway, I was already about two hours behind. I technically should have been home in a little under and hour and instead I still had at least three hours to go.
Finding the highway seemed to had changed my luck. There was barely any traffic on the highway and if you don't count the three bathroom breaks I was making excellent time. In fact, I was on my way to getting back to my apartment before midnight.
Then I merged onto I-90. This road that would basically drop me right on to my front step literally almost drove me insane. I had completely forgotten about the road construction and while when I came in the road construction was spread out and patchy, this section stretch all the way to the Illinois border. Oh, let me not forget that it was also only one lane at 45 mph. And for about twenty minutes I was stuck behind a guy who was only going 25 mph. If you wondering, yes he is still alive, but only because he turned off finally. There is no telling how it could have ended if he would have stayed in front me just a little longer.
The good news is that once that guy turned off, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. No more traffic and the road construction completely ended once I entered into Wisconsin.
Say what you will about Wisconsin, they don't obsess over their road system. Once they fix a road, they just leave it alone and move on to something else. Heck, in some places they just throw some gravel down and call that a road.
It only took a total of 5 hours for me to get home and another 30 minutes to unpack. After all that, the only thing I want to do now is go to sleep. See you in the morning.
Tonight though, I seriously started to consider the fact that at some point this weekend I ticked off one of the ancient gods, because my normal three hour trip took roughly five hours. That's including bathroom breaks, which some people think are a necessity, but on trips I just consider them annoying. Stupid 7 11 Double Gulps.
It is kind of sad that before I even pulled out of my mom's drive way I was already having issues. Namely, washed out roads. According to my mom and brother, the road I normally take to get me back to the highway was under water. They recommended I take a different route, which was fine since it wasn't really that far away from the way I usually go. If this other route had been too far, I would have taken my chances driving through the flooded out road.
So, about half way down the road, I start to hear sirens and behind me I see two cop cars and a fire truck barreling down on me. I pulled over as fast as I could, and watched as the emergency vehicles pulled away and vanished over the hill.
When I passed over the hill, I had to slam on my breaks, because in front of me was a police officer, who seemed to get the fun task of redirecting traffic back the way it had come. Curious, I asked him why the road was closed. I thought maybe this road had succumbed to the flooding as well, Nope. I should have been so lucky. Apparently, the power plant down the road had strange fires popping up through out the building. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but that's because I didn't mention the power plant was nuclear. Not wishing to glow in the dark or develop a couple extra sets of eyes, I followed everyone else and headed back the way I came and connected with a third route. I was told to take this route only as a last choice, because of how long it would take for me to connect with the highway.
At this point, I am roughly 30 minutes behind schedule and I was just about to fall even more behind because soon after taking this new route I came across a Family Video store that was having...hold on to your hats... a clearance sale. As if pulled by some unknown force I turned and parked in the Family Video parking lot.
There were some movies I wanted to see if this one had for sale, that the one I go to in Wisconsin had sold out of years ago. So, I was told anyway. Like a skilled treasure hunter on crack, I zoomed up and down the aisles until I came to the 'M' section. There they sat. Three of the cheesiest SyFy channel original movies ever produced. There was Mega Piranha, Mega Python vs Gatoroid and Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus. All for only a $1.00 each. This was not an opportunity that could be passed up. And of course, after making such an incredible find I wondered what else I would stumble upon. Luckily, for my wallet, that was all I found. However, my little stop did put me behind an additional half hour. Add that up and I am now an hour behind schedule and have yet to leave town.
A sense of "I just want to get home and sleep" washed over me, so I picked up the speed a little bit. And after another 15 minutes realized they were not kidding about this way was much, much longer. Also, this road wasn't free of its share of flooded out sections either, so I ended up taking two other detours that added even more time. By the time I finally made it to the highway, I was already about two hours behind. I technically should have been home in a little under and hour and instead I still had at least three hours to go.
Finding the highway seemed to had changed my luck. There was barely any traffic on the highway and if you don't count the three bathroom breaks I was making excellent time. In fact, I was on my way to getting back to my apartment before midnight.
Then I merged onto I-90. This road that would basically drop me right on to my front step literally almost drove me insane. I had completely forgotten about the road construction and while when I came in the road construction was spread out and patchy, this section stretch all the way to the Illinois border. Oh, let me not forget that it was also only one lane at 45 mph. And for about twenty minutes I was stuck behind a guy who was only going 25 mph. If you wondering, yes he is still alive, but only because he turned off finally. There is no telling how it could have ended if he would have stayed in front me just a little longer.
The good news is that once that guy turned off, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. No more traffic and the road construction completely ended once I entered into Wisconsin.
Say what you will about Wisconsin, they don't obsess over their road system. Once they fix a road, they just leave it alone and move on to something else. Heck, in some places they just throw some gravel down and call that a road.
It only took a total of 5 hours for me to get home and another 30 minutes to unpack. After all that, the only thing I want to do now is go to sleep. See you in the morning.
