The drive home

After returning back to Madison, Wisconsin after the Ragnar Relay Saturday, I packed up my car, said goodbye and thank you to my teammates and started the long drive home. Home was only seven hours away.

I started my drive around 4:15 p.m. I was hoping to be back at home around midnight. I knew I would make up some time on the interstate. The drive went well. Spent most of the time changing the radio stations. I guess I was too lazy to press the button to start the CD I had in the player. I heard Adele and Katy Perry a lot on the drive. It seemed like every time I turned to another radio station "Rolling In The Deep" was playing. Overkill.

I did get a chuckle seeing the Belvidere Tolloway Oasis. On the drive to Madison, I called my husband to let him know I stopped for gas. It just happened to be at the Belvidere Tolloway Oasis. The message I left for my husband was cute. I said that I stopped at Belvidere to get gas and I didn't see "any streaks on the china." Growing up my husband and I both watched Mr. Belvedere. The first line of the theme song is "Streaks on the china, never mattered before,
who cares." Yes. I'm a dork.

The drive was going smoothly until I hit Chicago. So many cars, not enough space equals backups. I was in Chicago traffic for a half hour or so. That put me a little behind schedule. Once I was out of it, I hammered down. Just going 7-8 mph over the posted speed limit.

The day started to turn into night. I stopped for gas somewhere in Indiana. I filled up my car, made a pit stop and I was back on the road. When the sky finally went dark, that is when I started yawning. I was singing, screaming, biting the inside of my mouth and tongue to stay awake. I wanted to get home. It finally came to the point where I knew I couldn't keep my eyes open. If I continued to drive, I knew it wouldn't end well. I pulled into the last rest area in Indiana. I called my husband to tell him that I stopped and needed to take a nap. I didn't want to take a long nap, but I needed to sleep. He said he would call me in an hour. I got in the backseat, with my cell phone in hand, and went to sleep quickly. That hour flew by. I was back on the road at 11:30 pm. I was really thankful I stopped in Indiana. I was debating on whether to stop in Ohio. Ohio didn't have any rest stops available before I got off on the exit I needed. I don't think I would have felt comfortable sleeping on the side of the road with vehicles going 70-80 mph. I made the smart choice.

Once I was back on the road, I encountered toll booths. I thought people would be working in them. They weren't. We had to put money into a vending machine and the gate would lift up for us to drive through. Of course I got in the line that went slow. A person two cars ahead of me was having a hard time with the vending machine. I spent 15 minutes in line. I wasn't happy.

The rest of the drive home was smooth. Not too much traffic or police officers to worry about. When I passed into the Michigan border, I knew I would be home soon. I arrived home shortly before 1 am. Instead of going to bed, I stayed up and unpacked. After unpacking, I went and lied down on the couch waiting for my husband to come home from work. He came home around 2:30 am. We stayed up talking until 3:30 am. I had a great time running the Ragnar Relay, but it was nice just to be back home.