This photo was taken at a rest area somewhere in Ohio. What I remember about this place is that I could smell the grapes in the air. It reminded me of the smell of a grape Jolly Roger. That's lake Erie in the background.
Okay... so where was I? I left Dave the Mechanic's house around noonish. At this point I just want to get out of Ohio. The van seems to be running okay, but it is a bit loud. Dave couldn't get the cowling down tight enough on the engine. So the noise is a dull roar. I can't play the radio loud enough to drown the noise out, so I just drive in silence (so to speak)
The trip through the rest of the state is uneventful. All I have to do is keep the van headed west on I-90 and I'm good. I stop at a rest area on the Ohio turnpike and for 50 cents I get an official Ohio Turnpike squished penny. It is now part of an embarrassingly large squished penny collection. Coin collectors refer to them as elongated coins.
So anyways I get through Ohio. The trip is noisy and I can still smell a hint of gas. The service engine light remains on.
I get through Indiana. Gary is as smelly and industrial as I remember it. It looks like it is on fire at night. Flames from factories light up the city like the torches of the angry mob in the movie Frankenstein. (How's that for a ridiculous visual)
I've mentioned before that I used to drive truck for a living. I knew that Chicago was not fun to drive through from previous experience. It was late and I wanted to get miles behind me. I thought that driving through Chicago at midnight was a good idea. Less traffic... less stress.
Ha! Yeah right. It was a Friday or Saturday night (I can't remember off hand) To keep things simple I stick to I-90 (at least I think I did... it was all a blur). The interstate in the Chicagoland area is always under construction... even in the middle of the night. The traffic was unbelievable. I was in gridlock... a goddamn traffic jam... at midnight. Then when the traffic was actually moving it was going 20mph over the speed limit over lumpy, crappy roads. Everything was being redone so the lanes would shift. Nobody cared. It was dark. I couldn't see the lines on the road. The lanes were narrow. I was doing 60 through a constuction zone and everyone was passing me. I could sense the aggession all around me. "Faster! Faster! Faster," everyone seemed to be saying.
What the hell was the hurry. Sheesh! I felt lucky to be alive when I got out of Chicago.
I will say this... Chicago has the most amazing skyline. It's beautiful.
After I got out of Illinois I stopped somewhere in Wisconsin. I parked the van in a 24 hour Walmart parking lot and slept the sleep of the dead.
To be continued...
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