There isn’t much to say about spending ~29 consecutive hours in a car with an unhappy cat other than to say that I am glad it is over with. Really glad it is over with.
When I left Sunday morning (11 Oct 09) I wasn’t sure I would be able to make it to Madison with Roswell mewling in this horrendous, guttural fashion. After a few hours and some caffeine (for me) we both settled down and I focused on staying mentally alert. That meant little or no food and rest stops every 2 or 3 hours. I was lucky in that all the way to Cleveland I was able to find places to stop every couple of hours. And by that time it was dark.
So, outside of Cleveland I found a Chipotle and went inside. I had my usual Burrito Bol (no rice, both kinds of beans, fajita veggies, chicken and assorted toppings) and a large coke. After fortifying myself with food and beverage I got back on the road and stayed awake into Indiana. Expecting a welcome center on the interstate as I crossed into Indiana was a mistake on my part. I was dismayed to find no welcome center and signs indicating the next rest stop would be another 45 minutes away. Not good. I pushed through with the aide of some nicotine and cold air and got to the rest area around 1:15AM and was asleep by 2:00AM.
I awoke to dull cloudy sky and an overwhelming desire to pee. Off to the restroom I went. On my way to the Men’s rest room I pass a chocolate shop that is just being opened for the day. The smells were truly intoxicating and as I passed by the women doing the setup gave me a cheery “Good Morning”. I don’t know if it was a genuine pleasantry or a setup for the hard-sell when I exited the Men’s rest room but it startled me something fierce in my incoherent, half-asleep, urination-focused state. After relieving my bladder I wandered out and smiled and said “Hello” in kind to the woman at the chocolate shop. I wish for all the world there was a chocolate formulation that would keep one energized throughout the day without any sort of “crash”. Because I could have used something then.
Back on the road and I am surprised, REALLY surprised, at how hilly the terrain is in northern Indiana. I spent the rest of the time on the Indiana Toll Road going up and down over long, rolling hills. Although, I got the sensation overall that I was climbing in elevation as I approached the Illinois border. (A quick peak at the terrain feature of the Google map for northern Indiana shows minor but uniform elevation changes across almost the whole length of the Toll Road. Methinks these hills are terminal moraines caused by glaciers during the last ice age. Their gradual nature and occurrence all along the southern edge of the Great Lakes leads me to this conclusion.)
Before I knew it I was in Illinois. Or at least it seemed like Illinois. As it turns out, the cities of Gary and Hammond in Indiana might as well be the far outer suburbs of Chicago. It is when you get to those two cities that the landscape acquires a decidedly industrial/commercial feel to it. The highways are bigger* and are bordered by massive industrial works, steel in particular, and electricity generating and distribution plants.
*Although the particular stretch of I-90 through Gary and Hammond was being completely re-built; As a result it was only one lane wide for quite a few miles.
When I finally did get to Illinois I was hit by a number of toll booths right away. Instead of having a set of toll booths with tickets (and ticket-takers at every exit) Illinois has toll barriers every so often where users pay a fee before being allowed to progress. It seems an odd way to manage traffic flow on their major roads but I assume it is cheaper and more cost effective to have fewer collective toll barriers through which every driver passes than to have many more individual toll points at each exit.
My original plan for the drive out was to stay on I-80 in Indiana into north-central Illinois and take I-39 up to Madison from the south, bypassing Chicago altogether. But, somewhere after I left the rest area in Indiana I realized that “today was a holiday”. Holidays mean less traffic so maybe I could chance it driving into/through Chicago with my car and trailer. After some not-quick mental calculations I realised that if I drove through Chicago I would get into the downtown are around 10:30AM, after their rush hour (I presumed) and after any holiday traffic had gotten out on the road. My assumptions were sorta correct (I think) in that there was traffic on the roads but none of it was stop-and-go and there wasn’t too much traffic overall. However, what traffic there was on the roads was all moving FAST. This stretch of driving is where I assume I hit my maximum speed of 58.9 mph (according to the GPS). On this stretch of road I wasn’t really paying attention to speed. Instead I was focused on not getting killed by staying out of the way of other vehicles. So, I guess it’s is possible I hit 58 mph at some point.
I got in and through Chicago and was heading out towards the northwestern suburbs when I came upon my first major rest area. In Illinois they call them oases and after the uphill drive through Indiana and the race-track drive through Chicago, I felt like I needed an escape to an oasis. And here I was, at an oasis right across from O’Hare International Airport. I was craving something—I can’t remember what it was—and they didn’t have it at the oasis. But they had nice clean bathrooms and cold water fountains. So, onward I went.
The outer suburbs of Chicago are kinda boring until you get to Hoffman Estates and its Prairie Stone Business Park. This is a massive mixed-use complex with the global headquarters for the SEARS Corporation sitting prominently on the side of the Interstate. It provides a nice visual distraction from suburban tract housing and strip malls before the scenery turns into open fields and farm land. And then before you know it you are in Rockford, IL. It’s a nice-enough looking place, from what you can see of it from the highway. I’ve been to the bus station there in Rockford once but it was on the outskirts of town near a series of strip malls so I can’t really judge the place based on that minor experience. But Rockford is home to Rock Cut State Park, the “largest state park in Illinois” according to all the signs along the highway.
You know when you take a long car trip and you get to a certain place and you get that feeling of “I am close; I am almost there”? I think the Rockford/Rock Cut State Park area will be that place for me. About a dozen miles north of the state park is the Wisconsin border and then I am home. (Yes, Wisconsin feels like home to me even though I have been here only a little while. It’s hard to explain but that immediate sense of feeling “at home” was one of the biggest factors in my decision to move there from the East coast.)
As usual, I stop at the state Welcome Center and find a wealth of information about things to do i the state, a number of different historical sign-posts posted around the grounds of the welcome center, and some very friendly people. As I was leaving the rest area building I tried to open the door for two older men coming in. But they beat me to the door by a half second and they both pulled open a door for me to come out. I was a bit mystified but gave them a hearty “Thank You” and was on my way.
(It should be noted that everyone, and I do mean everyone, is super polite here. They really seem to embrace the idea of hospitality and social niceties. I am going to have to be super cognizant of my behavior so as to modulate some of my typical East Coast/New York brusqueness. I don’t want to come off as an ungracious newcomer so I’ll have to be on guard to try and be more open and less brusque with people I meet here.)
The drive up to Madison from the border took about 90 minutes and it was rolling hills and farmland or open fields most of the way. I knew what exit I had to get off at to head west to the other side of Madison but it is weird to see signs on the highway announcing you are entering the city limits of Madison and you are still in the countryside. You need to be within about four miles of the downtown area before you start to see signs of an urban/suburban environment. But then my exit comes up and I am on the Madison equivalent of a perimeter road—They call it the Beltline in contrast to the numerous municipal Beltways I know of back East. The Beltline has three lanes of traffic in each direction and lots of well-signed exits with easily accessible off-ramps.
Before you know it I am at my exit and then confusedly trying to get to my apartment building which is about 100 feet away across a two-lane divided roadway. I have to turn right down a side-street and go a few blocks north of my place before I come to a cross-street that can cross the two-lane divided roadway. A couple more turns, up one steep hill and I am pulling into my parking lot. (Oh yeah, I’ve got easy-access off-street parking with my apartment. Yee-Hah!) I pull in, go up to the door to my place and see a note there from my landlords telling me it is unlocked and to go right in. Which I do. I am now home!!!
NOTE: I wrote this post on Saturday, 24 Oct 2009 but back-dated it’s posting to the date and time I arrived in Madison, WI. Below is a pic of my car en route to Wisconsin.
Stopped at the new PA Welcome Center on I-90 westbound
