The Long Drive Starts...

Well, things have certainly been hectic the last month and a half - if change makes life interesting, I've had enough for a while, thanks.

I flew back to Chicago, ostensibly to wrap a few things up, pack up the (second) car and bring the girlfriend back to LA. I flew in on the Friday before Memorial Day, and thought we'd be on the road by Wednesday. Turns out, we didn't leave until yesterday. Oops...

Our first day was an adventure. After a week of sunny skies, we picked a cloudy, rainy, day to blow out of Chicago. We just didn't know how rainy. We'd decided to drive out to LA on the 'Mother Road' - Route 66 - so we knew it would take a bit longer than a hard drive like we did in January (when we made it out to LA in just over 3 1/2 days).

It was getting late when we hit Braidwood - that's what happens when you don't leave until late in the day - and I wanted to use the bathroom and get an iced coffee, so we stopped at the McDonald's there. Turns out, they'd just locked up the main area, and were only serving people out of the drive-thru, but....she'd make an exception for us. Turns out, it was the right thing to do. We used the bathroom, got the iced coffee and hung out for a bit. A little while later, as we got to Dwight, we learned that a tornado had just passed through - and was still nearby. We drove on, fighting the rain, until we hit Bloomington, and learned what we'd really missed. Made us wonder what might have been if not for a nice person in Braidwood....