The Trip

Around noon last Friday, after the buyer's bank finally wired me my money, I loaded up the PT Cruiser with seven suitcases, various dog accessories, two dogs, Dennis, and myself. I'm always amazed at how much crap that car can hold. As we set off for Chicago in the 85 degree heat and the high humidity, I was sorry that I hadn't had the mechanic fix the air conditioning. The humidity and heat followed us all the way up to Georgia where it started to rain. So we called it a day when we reached Atlanta and got a room at the airport La Quinta, my go-to dog friendly hotel chain. Apparently this La Quinta is also prostitute friendly by the appearance of the room. It looked like a whore house. Lots of red, and very dated. Early the next morning Dennis, the dogs, and I set out for Chicago in beautiful weather. One thing, although the weather was clear and the temperature was perfect, it was windy. In fact by the time we hit Illinois it was very windy. We saw no less than ten semi trucks and motor homes upside down in the ditches between Paducah and Kankakee. Also, around Mattoon, Illinois, the temperature started dropping. As it got colder and colder outside I realized that not only was the air conditioning not working in the PT Cruiser, neither was the heat. I rode the last hundred miles wrapped in a blanket with a shivering schnauzer on my lap.

One last thing about the long drive. Because of the fast food diet and motel breakfasts, I find that I tend to get a bit... shall we say, clogged up. So you can imagine my joy yesterday when I finally returned to normal. In fact I'm sure I saw that blueberry muffin from the Fort Lauderdale La Quinta again, yesterday morning.