From Wisconsin to Goshen, Indiana

August 25th, 2011

'Twas another early morning leaving the campground. We both woke up around 6a.m. and decided that this was early enough to get our things together and hit the road to head for Goshen. This was again a chore, as the windstorm from the night before had yet to stop blowing at hurricane force. So we quickly ran around the tent in Musical Chairs fashion, grabbing all the pegs as we went, grabbing the tent, rolling it into a ball and chucking it into the trunk as fast as humanly possible. Now having leapt into the car, we drove off at a blistering 1 mile an hour, as the campground had the biggest speed bump on the planet, thus preventing fatal damage to our vehicle.

OFF TO ILLINOIS!

As we drove down the road, we discovered how a "good" night of rest (filled with semi-trucks on a freeway, airplanes, trains and crickets chirping up a storm) we ended up hitting every single rest-stop and about every second McDonald's we could find for resuscitation. Heavy eyelids are a terrible symptom to have when driving.

Once we finally crossed the border into Illinois, we drove to their Welcome Centre for a quick pit stop, and were lucky enough to find someone who works there who was kind enough to give us directions on avoiding Chicago. We managed to drive down the very centre of Illinois then an abrupt left turn onto the I-80 driving underneath Chicago, thus avoiding all but 2 toll-booths...Well technically 1, because Kim got confused by all the signage, managed to drive through the I-PASS lane, avoiding throwing her $1 out the window and passing through...oops.

Now feeling extremely guilty or as Kim says "Like an escaped convict on the run of epic proportions from paying a speeding ticket AND missing a toll-booth..." (Mauvereen was COMPLETELY supportive of this...and when I say completely, I mean peeing herself laughing at her daughter's misfortune saying at least it wasn't me :) )

Kim be-grudgingly continued to drive until the next rest stop...

back to our story!

We encountered more massive wind farms all along the Illinois stretch of the I-35. Bigger than that of the one in Washington. It's amazing to see them loom over the top of you as you drive by. These things are MASSIVE. one propeller is about the size of two Semi-Trailers.

Both of us have come to a conclusion that we will be re-naming the United States of America to "Road Work" as we have not hit a stretch of road without it. The orange barrels follow us everywhere (not to mention the guy who got that contract is laughing all the way to the bank!).

Due to this, we have no memorized that going over the speed limit will cost you a minimum fine of $375 plus 8 years in jail, reckless driving is a fine of $1000, and hitting a worker is $10,000 with a minimum of 14 years in jail.
These items are now definitely on our "To Do" list.

Things that are random:
- drove through Aasho Illinois. AASSSSS HO!
- best bill board ever: "Don't die with your teeth in a glass!"