Life and such: Day One - Geneva, NY to Chicago Il

10 hours on the road, give or take. With a couple of stops for food for mom and gas for the car. Ok, so that is a longish drive! Not one that I would enjoy making often. Every once in a while, fine, but monthly would be taxing in the extreme!

We did get up at decent times. I did my yoga, wrote a blog post (lucky you) and was about to head down to the car to do some much needed neatening, sorting and rearranging, when mom walked down the hall! I like it when I don't have to wake her up!

The car didn't take too long to get ready. Since we were all packed, it was fairly effortless to get everything in. Even room for an extra passenger if need be. I have two boxes of books (Diary of a Plate Addict and Bar Dreams) with me - just in case. And my sales sign. We shall see if I actually sell any copies. Mom found a couple more things she wanted to put in her suitcase, after it was in the car, but there was still room, so I got them in there eventually (when we reached Chicago, in fact).

At around 9:40 am, we hit the road. First stop, gas in Geneva. Wow, prices have really dropped! If only it would get below three dollars again. Or even below two. Or free gas for everyone for a month! That would be nifty! Or for life... who says I don't dream big? The drive through NY seemed long, but really wasn't. I am always surprised by how close Buffalo really is. I always think it is three hours away from Geneva, and it isn't. It is only two! Anyway, we eventually got out of NY, zipped into the little nubbin of PA where we made our first pit stop.

Mom had a fish sandwich and I ate two or three of her French fries. I can't eat too much or else I am sure to get sleepy as I drive. Maybe it is just psychosomatic, but that has seemed to be my driving/eating experience over the years. Gas wasn't too expensive.

Back on the road again, we entered Ohio. Hey, when did that part of 90 become a toll highway? Oh, I just looked it up. I guess it has always been. I haven't been on it in a while and was a little surprised. Happy, though, that EZ-Pass is accepted. And apparently it is cheaper for EZ-Pass users. Yay! The scenery was not scintillating. We hit a little traffic in Cleveland. I haven't made much use of the traffic feature of my GPS, having luckily avoided most traffic recently. This time, though, we were in a traffic jam. My GPS flashed a little banner asking if I wanted to take an alternate route that might save me ten minutes. Heck yes! And it did! Exit, zip, zoom, Bob's your Uncle and we were sailing right along again! Yay GPS!

We stopped a second time at the far end of Ohio. They are redoing all of their rest stops and this one looked brand spanking new! Mom got an order of onion rings from Brin, a young woman cook turned new cashier. And I had a chat with Meredith and Matt about this and that. Even gave them a card! Who knows, maybe someone they know will buy a copy of one of my books or eventually download Flippety. Anything is possible.

Next stop, a gas station. Sadly, the gas on the Indiana toll road was exorbitant (was there ever an h in that word?). Little did I know that it would be even more expensive in Chicago. No one tells me these things. Sigh. Anyway, the GPS guided me straight to Mary's building. Great location, two blocks from Lake Shore Blvd in Hyde Park. I do hope that we will be able to come back and have a proper visit at some point. Chicago is too cool a city to spend such little time visiting. I found parking right outside the building.

Mary has a great space - a little labyrinthine for my tastes, but a good amount of space! I have a suite basically to myself while she and mom share the main space. Yay! She went out of her way to cook a yummy dinner and cake for us. Truthfully, I was so exhausted that I don't think I contributed much to the social interaction and begged off to sleep as soon as I could comfortably do so.