4 States on the 4th Day

We were so tired last night, we only heard the train once during the night. Up at 530am CST we got an early start to another 8.5 hours of driving and once again we lost an hour as we moved into the Eastern time zone driving through Michigan. A word of advice – don’t estimate how long it takes to drive across this continent and I recommend if you are driving a Toyota Tundra, you don’t apply a heavy foot!

It was a calm, cool and dull morning as we left Wisconsin Dells. First we went to top up the tank (thirsty Tundra) and purchase a Dunkin Donuts coffee – I don’t recommend it!

When we reached the I90, the lady in the passenger seat calmly informed me that she was no longer taking on responsibility for navigation. She reminded me of our conversation last night when she asked me to look at the big paper map (yes we have one of those Lauren). Unfortunately, I was too tired after writing the blog entry (as evident by my misspelling of occasionally – thanks Zach – I take such pride in my good spelling) that I didn’t look at the map and was too busy tearing down and packing up in the morning that I simply ran out of time to look at the old fashioned map. It would be up to me and the GPS lady to find our way today. When we reached Chicago, it became abundantly clear why the dear lady in the passenger seat stepped aside from her navigation duties. More on that later.

As we entered the state of Illinois and the land of Lincoln, we were amazed by the amount of road construction – miles and miles of it – and we soon learned how they are paying for it!

We stopped for gas mid morning and once again, I had to go inside to explain to the clerk that I was from Canada…blah, blah, blah. However, this time was different. She apologized profusely. I was shocked! Are you Canadian I thought – only we apologize that much.

As we continued down the I90 towards Chicago, I was feeling good about the traffic – sure there were a lot of lanes but hey they were mostly empty – smooth sailing.

However, it wasn’t long before I was reminded of the earlier conversation with the former navigator.

The GPS lady served us well and we made it through the insane traffic and 5 or 6 toll booths – this is how they are paying for these many construction projects! I love the US. In some ways it is so cutting edge and in other ways so archaic. A few times we had a self-serve toll, which took debit/credit and other times, when the station had an agent, we needed cash. The highest toll was leaving Illinois to use the new bridge to Indiana. The lovely lady at the booth, stretched her head out the window and looked back, then said that will be $25. I responded $25! Thanks so much!

Our short lived Indiana experience was memorable. Stinky and drab but memorable. After passing over the bridge, this was the scene.

The roads were crappy, the air stinky and well, overall a big disappointment. I’m sure other parts of Indiana are lovely…just not these. In any case, after a couple hours of bumper to bumper Chicago traffic, the Dunkin Donuts and bottle of water resulted in nature calling and we looked for the first available place to stop for a bite of lunch. I took the first exit and thought I’d pull into a gas station to top up the thirsty Tundra and hoped to find a spot where we could park and enjoy lunch in the trailer. No such luck!

The station I pulled into was tiny. Who designs these things anyways? I pulled in behind an older gentleman on a Harley – he was there with 10 of his friends – and he looked rather perturbed at me as I waited for him to move his butt as mine was blocking all traffic in front of the convenience store. To top it off, there was a guy delivering groceries to the convenience store and he had strategically piled his empty plastic crates – you know the ones the bakers use for buns and bread – in front of his loading ramp at the back of his truck. These were piled about 8 feet high. After topping up the Tundra with gas, I pulled back out of the gas pump area – asking the lady in the passenger seat to get out and check to see that I not clip the pumps with the back end of my trailer. All clear! Missed it by at least 12 inches.

The lady in the passenger seat hopped in and I continued my second tour around the tiny station and as I pulled wide to go around a car at the corner of the building, we heard a crash! Oh crap! I knocked the tower of plastic crates to the ground. I looked back to see the poor fella as he looked in dismay at his tumbling tower masterpiece lay scattered across the parking lot. Now under normal circumstances I would have stopped to help him reassemble the tumbling tower but today I couldn’t. There were cars in front and behind me and I had to pull on to a busy street, so I left the poor man there to pick up his mess. I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically and as the tears ran down my cheeks, the lady in the passenger seat gave me a lengthy lecture.

I protested. “I had no option! I would have stopped to help but there was no way to do so safely”. I quickly embarked onto the freeway on-ramp to make a quick get away. Within 5 minutes, what did I see? A large red sign that stated: “Driving recklessly will land you with a $3500 fine and 5 months in jail”. Upon reading that, I put the pedal to the metal and headed for the state line. In a few minutes we were in Michigan and on Eastern Standard Time.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, apart from a brief stop at a rest stop when a semi almost ripped our slide off when he pulled up beside us – I was immediately reminded of the tumbling tower. We drove through Flint and considered stopping for a glass of water but thought the better of it. There too I read another sign: “Prison Area. Don’t pick up hitchhikers”. I think that’s where they put the reckless drivers.

As we approached Port Huron on the Canadian Border, I began to tire of the bumpy roads – they are bad here. How they can make roads out of concrete so bumpy is beyond me. I commented to the lady in the passenger seat that in all my years of operating heavy duty equipment, I never experienced anything like this. She responded by asking “what time is it?”. Her answer, “Oh yes it’s grumpy time”.

We arrived safe and sound in the campground at 630pm. We set up the trailer and I then washed the windows in the Tundra. Shortly thereafter this happened.

I’m pretty certain it was the delivery guy’s bird.