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Me and my smart ideas

So after another weekend in Iowa, I was making the long drive home yesterday (left at 8:50 am Central time, arrived 11:30 pm Eastern time -- (13 hours and 40 minutes travel time). I had some brilliant ideas about how to shorten this time (so that it would only be about 12 1/2 hours), but they did not really work.

My first idea was to avoid the highway congestion from the construction work on I-80/I-94 in Illinois and Indiana by taking Highway 30 instead (at least it looked like a highway on my map--thanks Rand McNally). I don't consider something a highway unless there are no (or no more than 2) stoplights and speed limits of at least 55 mi/hr. This is not true on Highway 30. At first I thought things would improve once I got out of the town, but the town never seemed to end (and the speed limit was never above 45 mi/hr and it was frequently lower). I started out in some town that claimed to be the most patriotic city in America, then I was in Chicago Heights which appeared to be a black ghetto, and once I reached Indiana (it took me probably 30-45 minutes to go about 18 miles) I reached another town where traffic was stopped for some unknown reason. So I turned down a side street and got stuck in a parade in the next town. I finally went back to Illinois and got on the congested highway (although I missed the exit the first time and drove for a while in the wrong direction) because at least it was moving and I knew where it was going.

I stopped at the worst rest stop ever in Michigan. There was a used baby diaper draped over the handrail in the handicapped stall, the floor was covered in water, most of the toilets had wet stuff on the seat and solid matter in the bowl, and half of the stalls were out of toilet paper.

Other things happened, too: the worst (althought brief) thunderstorm I have ever driven in and a recklessly driven red minivan that was going at least 100 mi/hr and that I later saw (somewhat gleefully, I admit) at the side of the road with engine problems.

Anyway, I am glad to be back in Canada and that I will not be making the drive again for a while. NOT MEANT TO DISCOURAGE ANY OF YOU FROM COMING TO VISIT!!

posted by Steph @ 9:50 AM