Wednesday, December 15, 2010

RV adventure - Part VI

Monday morning, bright and early, (ok, early, chilly and wet) I started on the last leg of the journey - the Land Cookie was going home!
And, of course, it was the only time in the whole trek I got lost. I have a pretty good sense of direction - once I've been somewhere, I can generally get there again. This time, for whatever lunatic reason, I decided to follow the signs instead of just going back the way I'd come. Mistake. I've never encountered it before, but apparently in Ohio you have to go east to go west. Silly me, I thought going northwest on one road would eventually get me to the west-bound road I needed. So I lost about 45 minutes, lost in the driving rain.
The rest of the road trip was actually kind of nice. The weather eventually cleared, I had sunny skies by the time I hit Indiana. There were no mountains, so the Land Cookie was actually able to keep the speed limit. I'm not usually quite as law-abiding, especially on my home turf, but the circumstances were unusual. I was driving a vehicle close to the size of a semi-truck, for the first time, without any license plates. Ironically, New Hampshire won't give temporary license plates to non-residents, and Illinois won't give temporary license plates without a title. Nice little Catch-22, wasn't it? I'm still rather amazed that over three days and seven states, I wasn't stopped for not having plates. I wouldn't recommend it, it made me a bit paranoid, but as a one-time thing - I'm still glad it's over. The Land Cookie is legal now - I visiting the Dept. of Motor Vehicles the day after I got home.
When I planned the trip back, I thought it would be a good idea, when I got close to home, to take the toll road that circles Chicago rather than take the Land Cookie straight through the heart of downtown. By the time I got close I was too darn tired to add the 25 minutes to my trip. The Land Cookie and I braved the Dan Ryan, the Kennedy, and the Edens Expressways at about 3 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. Heart of the city in the middle of rush hour.
I'm glad I did. Now I'm not afraid to drive that behemoth anywhere. Cause you want to know a secret? It was fun! - Hope

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