It's the day after Good Friday, Great Saturday! I'd been chomping
at the bit since, oh since about New Year's Day to hit the road. Seriously,
sleep didn't come easy on Thursday the 9th of April. I'd been looking sooo
forward to this weekend that as the days of the week passed by, the sleep
was harder to come.
After having a powwow visit with Sang around midnight, I yakked in the 'hoo
a bit and finally took off for Crawfordsville, Indiana around 3am eastern.
First thing I discover is the "cruise control" isn't working right.
An hour later, I'm at the border at Sarnia, ruminating at the duty free shop.
I hopped across the border, (I love the look on the customs attendants face
whenever I tell them who and why I'm entering the states), gas up the little
gold chariot and hit I-69. There's the problem. You don't get on I-69 right
at the border. It's I-94. I keep forgetting that there's a split and you
grab I-69 by keeping right. I popped a cassette in my deck, (the last deck
ate my tape on the run to Indy in Sept.), and proceed to miss the split in
the I's.
About 1/2 an hour later, I come to the conclusion I'm on I-94, check the
trusty Rand-McNally and decide that to go thru Detroit and jump on I-69 at
Marshall Mi. would be better and quicker than turning around......WRONG!!!
Now, they've been working on I-94 for a while.....little did I know that
in the middle of Detroit, they'd actually closed the sucker. No big deal,
I'll take the detour. Thru 10 miles of the worst looking part of Michigan
Ave. that there is. It looks like Little Lebanon. Complete with burned out
buildings and smoldering barrel fires. If it's not bad enough hitting every
light, red, at 6:30am, I had to use a washroom.
3 gas stations, no washrooms....the last guy, . o O
(he HAD to have ungodly bladder control), suggests I stop at George's
Coney Island. I did, and when I explained the situation, the waitress looked
at me like I had two heads and says "What are you, Alien or something? You
STOPPED?!" I said "uh, yeah, I'm Canadian."
Back on Michigan Ave, I finally see the sign pointing the return to I-94......as
I'm driving past it. A turn around in a construction site and another at a
gas station because the ramp is only accessible from the one direction and
I'm back on the good, okay, not-so-good, ole 4 lane.
*Whew!!* My theory is, I'm 6'2", 240lbs. A guy giving me a problem had better
have a gun. Problem is......in Detroit, EVERYBODY has a gun!!
So, now I'm heading west on I-94, or so the sign said. But.............how
come the next signs I see say 23 north / 14 west? Somehow, I lost I-94 again.
Okay, I'll just pull over and look at the Rand. Approximately 6 other cars
stopped right where I did. All bearing Ontario plates and all just as puzzled
as me!!
We must have looked the site, all peering over my shoulder as I opened the
R-M on the hood of the chariot. We decided on a collective plan of action
and set out. Not bad, only 1 hr behind. LOL!
Next sign we see, I-94 west. If you'd been behind us all, I swear you would
have seen all of our cars heave a lil sigh of relief. The convoy split up
here, some heading on to Chicago, and others, like me, taking I-94 to the
junction of I-69 at Marshall, Mi. South on I-69 past Fort Wayne I stop for
a rest just inside the Indy state line.
Once off I-69, I stopped at this neat Rock Shop. No, not music, rocks, like,
lapidary stuff. I bought a couple of worry stones, a huge geode, got a really
nice piece of hematite (black Alaskan diamond) mounted in my ring to replace
the worn tiger eye and headed off to Noblesville.
Rendevousing with Dollyb and her new man at the Super Walmart. We had a cold
drink in the cafeteria and I kept asking the cashier if there wasn't a bus
service to get us back up front.
Dolly, as you'll recall was the mastermind behind the Indy campchatmeet.
She also had some very treasured pics for me. The pics were of my first ever
hug with Sanguiness, last Sept. We'd been trying to connect with these pics
for months but with stuff happening in her life, well...you get the picture.
Okay, I'm really late now. It's noon and I originally wanted to be in C'ville
by now. Finding the mylar balloons, I picked one out, then found out there's
no bus service back to the dept with the helium. After getting it filled,
I made my way to the front of the store, checked thru and loaded it in the
back of the car.
Okay, note for all you guys, so excited to see your girls after being apart
for 3 months. "Don't have you window fully open on a breezy day with a balloon
in the backseat!" I had it tied down, but um, the ribbon broke.
I made it to C'ville by 1:45. Stopped at a florist shop for a rose for Sang,
a carnation for Widget the Elder and another balloon. Was asked if I wanted
a vase for the flowers. d'uh! <----me, not the clerk! Off to the motel.
What a reunion! At least, once we were out of site of the girls that is!
LOL!! I met Mouse first, wishing her Happy Birthday, I gave her the balloon
and flowers to take in the room. Widget was sleeping. . o O (teenagers!) I went to unload the car and got
the hug of a lifetime from Sang once we were alone. The girls are up to speed
on our relationship, but.........discretion, you know how it is.
That night, Saturday, we celebrated Mouse's 13th
birthday a night late at the local Pizza Hut. I gave her a silver chain and
locket. I gave Widget a gift that I thought befitting a snotty teenager,
a beanie baby. Claude the Crab. It is the coolest,
flattest stuffed animal I've seen. The restaurant staff were really cool.
At the appropriate time, they emerged from the kitchen with a cake I'd brought from Tim Hortons in Canada. Complete
with roses, flags of Ontario, Kansas, the U.S. and Canada, and sparklers,
it was quite the sight! In the middle somewhere it said, "Happy Birthday".
Sang picks up the story thread from here...
It was a great weekend of bowling, (yes, yes, M-t whipped our Yankee
butts - twice!), sight-seeing with the girls, (back to that original campground
for some reminiscing and Jell-O shot spotting), shopping at a local flea market,
and assorted other giggling moments along the way. We even had a Sunday night
MunchieFest after an excursion through a grocery store picking up odds and
ends to finish out the buffet of snacks we already had on hand. This process
also included a stop at the Chinese restaurant, for Crab Rangoons. M-t had
quite the conversation with a tiny man behind the counter. After observing
this for about 5 minutes, Widget leaned close to me and whispered, "Mom...stop
him! I don't think the little guy actually speaks English!" Well, that's
M-t, doncha know. A stranger is just a friend he hasn't met yet. If you've
met him in Yahoo, you've seen him IRL, too, more or less... ready for pleasant
conversation with any and all who want to participate.
Soon, it was time to leave on Monday, and return to our 1000 mile status
quo chasm. After a brunch culminating in a sampling of the Widget's existential
leftovers d'art(I promise, NO
animals were harmed in its creation!), we said our good-byes. The process
of letting go, heading back across the distance, does not get any easier,
by a long shot. Definitely not a matter of "practice makes perfect".
The girls and I motored back across Illinois just in time to partake of that
Midwestern tradition known as Spring Tornadoes. We tuned in a weather channel
on the radio of the MomBoat, and with the Widget reading off the map to me,
we managed to make it a pretty good piece toward St. Louis before we were
actually in the same county as an official warning at the same time. After
a brief pull-off along the interstate due to zero visibility (you know it's
time to stop when you can't see the end of your own hood), we proceeded to
the Mississippi River. Just as we crossed the river, we heard/saw lightning
approximately 1/2 mile away as it struck the water. Widget turns to me, points
out the fact that we are on an all-steel bridge and says "Oh, this
is brilliant!".
"And, my dear daughter, just what would you like at this moment? Shall I
stop and let you out to walk?"
"Uh, NO."
Finally, we stop for dinner at the Steak 'n Shake outside of Six Flags, just
past St. Louis. While our orders are being prepared, I determine that the
time is ripe for asking..."So, what did you think?"
Widget ponders a moment, and says, "Awright, I spose. He's a bit weird, but
then, so are you, Mom."
Mouse chimes in with, "Yeah, he's funny!"
Follow up question time, "So, I can, like,....... keep him?"
Giggles ensue. Finally, Mouse puts on her sternest face, one hand on her
hip, left index finger shaking sternly at me and says, "Only if you promise
to feed and water him regularly, and clean up after him!."
So..back to waiting for the Immigration Boogie to let us be together permanently.
Ah, and a brief preview tour of Kansas in July, when M-t flies in for a true
whirlwind through Kansas, parts of Missouri and Oklahoma.
