Welcome to....

The Long Haul through 5 States
OR
How Judi & Sluggy Almost Came to Blows
AND
Pandi Makes a Magical Discovery

The next few hours were the hardest of the trip. After all, being sleep deprived kinda takes the wind outta your sails after awhile. We took shifts at the wheel plowing ahead to our next stop to pick up Ruth in Illinois. What do we remember from the bulk of Ohio, Indiana and most of Illinois? Mostly that the Interstates are dark, full of trucks and once you get to the IL border it is DANGED FLAT!lol
There was a memorable stop in Indiana somewhere at around 12 a.m. We eased the Sable into one of those Rest Stops that are strategically positioned at intervals on the Interstate. The three of us went inside for a potty break and for some caffeine in cola form to push us along on our trek. While Pandi was off, well, being "Pandi", Judi and Sluggy hit the concession stand/gift shop. Browsing around Sluggy spied some Red & Beige heart shaped hangtags....could it be, she gasped? Yes, we had stumbled onto some Ty� Attic Treasures and Plush in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. We wheeled around suddenly half expecting Rod Serling to be standing there delivering a monologue to some unseen tv camera.
"Picture this....somewhere in Indiana, 3 internet friends happen upon a trove of Ty collectibles worth vast sums. Could they just be hallucinating these riches, or have they driven into the TWILIGHT ZONE?"
Actually, our trove of treasures were only some Lillys, Morgans and Shelbys and the odd Plush kitty....nothing to write Lloyd's of London about after all. Sluggy called Judi over to see what she had discovered, Tywise. Sluggy was holding a Jake Buddy and shaking her head about finding stuff like this in a Rest Stop of all places. Putting the Jake Buddy down, Judi picked him up for closer inspection. As she turned him over, we spied something really amazing about this Jake. Like something out of a Danny Thomas Sit-Com(for you readers younger than 30, please ask your parents what this means)we both did a double take simulatneosly. From his Tush tag we could see that this was a 1st Generation Jake!!! With our mouths gaping open we froze for an instant, gazing at each other. We were sizing each other up, waiting to make our move to claim this prize for our own. Judi was mathematically plotting how fast she could leap over Sluggy'shead to the counter and out the door to the car with this duckie while Sluggy was trying to decide which would send Judi to the floor quicker-a jab to the gut or a elbow in the kneecap-so she would drop the mallard and Sluggy could catch it below. At first Sluggy did consider the distract and swipe ploy..."Look Judi, it's an alien spaceship!"....but even being The Blonde, she doubted that Judi would fall for that one.
Sluggy made the first move, grabbing the Jake and claiming in true schoolyard style, "I saw him first!" Judi refused to pry her fingers from around that duckie so there we stood, locked in a contest of wills. Judi relented first and let Sluggy have "the bird"lol...what a gal! We continued to browse around the gift shop stand and Sluggy finally gave the Jake back to Judi, after all she was going to pass and leave him there until Judi picked him up and discovered the Tush tag. Judi should have first claim on the Buddy. And it would be silly to let something like that come between friends, right? So that is how Judi became the mom to one cool Buddy bird.
Meanwhile, in the bathroom Pandi was having a denoument of her own. She had experienced many firsts in her life so far in the last 2 days....her first time outside of the confines of New England, first time meeting Judi, Sluggy, Pervie, Shelley, etc., her first time seeing TRIPLE trucktrailers(or as she so succintly exclaimed, "WOW!"), her first Pokemon Cards, her first cheap pack of cigarettes(at Phar-mor in Youngstown-check it out!), BUT this was to be the biggest first yet.
It seems this Rest Stop was constructed after 1980 and it held a magical secret device that Pandi had no clue existed. Yes, Pandi had discovered the AUTOMATIC FLUSH TOILET, or MAGIC POTTY as she called it. Three stalls away as I sat contemplating my toes, I heard a roaring water sound and a "Geeez!" as 'THE FLUSH' ocurred. Pandi emerged from the stall and exclaimed to Judi about the wonders of The Potty. She was amazed and truly in awe of this wonderous device. Judi and Sluggy smiled at each other & then back at Pandi. Wiping away tears from our eyes we discovered that our Pandi aka Louise had truly grown up that evening.
So it was back to the car were we edged ever closer to IL and our next stop. The night passed as we sang, ate leftovers from dinner(ick), drank soda, nodded off(not at the wheel!), and stopped every now and again at a tollbooth.
As the sun began to break over the horizon we found ourselves in Illinios and almost at Ruth's house so it was time to get out the trusty directions printed out from Ruth's email and find our destination on Motel Road.
Little did we know what a job this would be. We got off the Interstate and began our goosehunt. Let's just say that Ruth's directions left a bit to be desired in the Accuracy Department. But I can understand that. After all, if you live somewhere you really don't need to know the actual names of roads or designated numbers or the east versus west or any of that stuff, do you? Or perhaps it was the DANGED FLATNESS of the terrain that helped to get us more lost than we were. Seeing a McDonald's in the distance we figured with the straight, flat roads we could navigate over to it and call from a pay phone. We ended up circling the McDonald's from a distance until we discovered that it was in a REST AREA on the Interstate and unless we wanted to drive through corn fields and over embankments there was no way we were going to as the Competition says, "Have it our way".
We finally backtracked to our jumping off point at the exit ramp and spied a police car on the side of the road. Sluggy & Pandi pushed Judi out of the car, making her go over to the officer to ask for assistance in locating Ruth. Even though she had not a doughnut to offer him, he was obliging and pointed us in the right direction. We sped off and somehow did evetually find the right road and our next stop on the way, Ruth.
Now, before we left Pervie in Ohio, we had asked her to email Ruth about what time we had left Youngstown and that she wasn't to wait up for us. It was barely 6 a.m. when we pulled into the driveway and we wondered if we should wait awhile for fear we would wake Ruth up at this ungodly hour. So, we finally crept to the door and tapped lightly on it.
The door flew open, Ruth smiled and greeted us with a "Hi" & "Come on in". She ambled back to the couch, turned and inquired, "Where the Hell have you been?"LOL That's my Ruthiepoo!
We all chatted for a bit and relaxed and got to know each other. Just as we were getting comfortable we realized it was getting late and we needed to be heading back to the road soon because Ally would be waiting for us at the airport and was expecting us around 7:30 or so. So, we sent various emails from Ruth's machine to various loved ones to check in, stuffed Ruth's luggage into that thankfully deep trunk on the Sable, and we were off once again.
But as we drove down the road, leaving Ruth's little Homestead behind I was left with one nagging question......

"Why isn't there a Motel on Motel Road???"

Next stop, O'Hare Airport.


The Long haul Through 5 States Part II

Back to Part 2

Back to Slugmama's Gastropad