Wednesday June 3, 2010, 9:45 p.m. David, Andy, Lauren and I started out on a road adventure. David drove the U-haul that was towing a car trailer for Andy’s leased car and I talked enough for several people to make sure he stayed awake, (taking my Ritalin every 4 hours sort of helped too). Andy and Lauren took turns driving her car…following us the entire way. We started out going the suggested 55 mph, but after a gas stop, Andy pleaded for us to up the speed, as nothing was happening with the car trailer and it was excruciating to drive that slow behind us, so we did, and it was just fine. We ran into quite a bit of road construction, but fortunately nothing that held us back for long.
We made the usual pit stops for gas, caffeine and getting rid of the caffeine. It started to get tiring a little before dawn, but once the sky started to lighten up, we all perked up. We stopped for breakfast at Perkin’s (NOT a good Perkin’s) but the food wasn’t anything to write home about and the coffee was exceptionally horrible. We did get to rest though, and I found out Lauren has curly hair and freckles. The things you learn on a road trip!!
Once in Ohio, we stopped at a Target and unwrapped/unloaded Andy’s car from the trailer, then they took off to get to their apartment in time to sign the lease and get the keys. David and I then ran into a little trouble…we were using a GPS and it kept telling us to ‘Turn right, turn right’ so we turned right. At nearly the same time, Andy called wondering where we were, so I told him we were close. He said, “Whatever you do, don’t get on 75 North” and I said, “we just did”. What a mistake that was, bumper to bumper traffic and we had to cross 5 lanes of traffic in a U-haul, still pulling a trailer (without car now) in a short distance. David did a superb job, only having problems with one semi driver and a bus driver, who really didn’t give two hoots if we needed to cross the lanes or not.
We finally got to the apartment only to find the parking meter they covered for us, was on a corner that we couldn’t quite get to, so we had to circle a few blocks and come at it from a different angle. In the end, we parked right in front of the building.
We were all just about done in by this time and we still had to unload the U-haul, yuk! We started in, box after box after box. Sofa, bed, dresser, etc. etc. Andy got the sofa together right away, then he and David took the U-haul back, while Lauren unpacked the kitchen and I cleaned and put together the bathroom. The guys took forever and Lauren and I were starving, so she called them and told them to pick up a pizza, quickly, not one that needed to bake for an hour. Little Ceasar’s to the rescue. It tasted wonderful.
They set the bed up and we got to sleep on it…pure heaven! I had been up for 42 hours by then and I hardly felt human, my head felt stuffed with cotton. I didn’t have my usual 3 pillows and I was a little concerned that I would get a headache. Sure enough, I got a roaring headache, the kind I get that are so bad, I need David to give me a neck rub and take 2 Advil. Thank goodness it worked.
David and I made a Starbuck’s run in the morning, then left them to put things away while we walked around the city. We finally ended up sitting on a bench in front of their apartment so I could draw a name picture. Later on we switched places and they went to eat while we lounged inside. They ended up going to Target and we went out to eat. On our way out, we noticed that the apartment keys were both gone, so if we left, we had no way of locking the door, or getting back in. Well, there is a fire escape door in the loft, that only one other apartment has access to. We felt pretty safe in locking the front door and leaving by fire escape. We ate a yummy salad and listened to a band at Fountain Park. It was getting a little boring, so I suggested we people watch and try to guess if the couples we saw were on a first date, dating awhile, or old hats at it. That turned out to be great fun! I had them walk to where we were sitting so we could see where they fit on our dating scale. They looked like they had been together about 20 years. ha! ha!
We hung out awhile, got some ice cream cones and headed back to the apartment, because our train (Amtrak) was scheduled to leave about 1:15 a.m. We packed up and they drove us to the station, which is a whole 4 minutes away. We hung around awhile, not wanting to leave, and not wanting to postpone the inevitable. Finally Andy made the first move for hugs and after making the rounds a couple of times, they left the station and we hunkered down to wait, and wait we did, because the train ended up being an hour late.
I’ve taken the Amtrak before and thought it was fine, but this train was not what I was expecting. I would expect the lights to be turned down way low on a trip that was during the night. Nope, they were left on, (I really hope is was just an overlook). Then 2 little kids decided they had slept long enough and at 5:30 a.m. when I had just fallen asleep, they were chatting away in the usual little kid LOUD talk. They continued to talk loudly for the next 5 hours. Did Mother do anything???? Hell no, she just said, “Don’t make me come over there.” I was thinking, yeah, what are you going to do in a train full of people?
Anyway, close to Chicago, it started pouring buckets. 
