We went to stand in line to talk to the "gate lady" to see what our options were for getting out of Chicago. As we are waiting in line Jesse's brother had called and offered to drive to Chicago and get us... about a 6 or 7 hour drive... one way. (It is about 8:30 pm.) We talked about it and I suggested that we just rent a car and drive ourselves. The guy behind us in line asked where we were going and if we did rent a car, he would like to come with us and split the costs! (He was trying to get to a town that was about 45 minutes from our town.) He looked about our age and he was carrying a US Navy bag... he looked very safe.
The gate lady tells us that she cannot get us on any flights for about 2 days. All their flights were booked and all she could do was put us on a waiting list... along with everyone else. She suggested renting a car and driving.
Our Navy friend, Troy, and us start on a mission to get a rental car. At the Chicago airport you have to get on a bus and the bus will take you to the rental car office. We get on the first bus we see. Before the driver leaves the airport he asks, "Everyone on here has reservations, right?" Reservations?!!?.... No. The driver hands us a pamphlet with a phone number and tells us that he cannot take us.
We get off the bus only to find a different one that says CARS AVAILABLE on the side!! Yesss!! All three of us get on the bus and before this driver leaves he says the same thing, "Everyone on here has reservations, right?" Nope!! He also can only take people with reservations - but we are not getting off this bus! He is going to have to drag us off! He offers to call ahead and see if there are any cars for us.
Meanwhile, we start talking with the lady next to us. She asks us where we are trying to go. She offers to take us to Madison, if we need a ride. The driver comes back and tells us that they don't have any cars and they won't let us take a car one way! The lady says again that she can get us to Madison if we can have someone come and pick us up there. We accept her offer and call Jerry to have him pick us up in Madison at the Road Ranger Truck Stop.
Awesome! We have a ride to Madison and Jerry is going to come and get us! Couldn't have worked out better.....
Before we get to the car rental lot, Kathy (our new lady friend who is driving us to Madison) points to me and says, "As soon as those bus doors open I want you to run and be the first one in line. I would do it but I have a gimp. I know how this works, we need to be the first ones or they might run out of cars. Switch spots with me!" So, I switch spots with her so that I am closest to the bus doors. She has Troy grabbing her bags so she can run as well.
The bus doors open and I take off. I was the first one in line!!!! Whoohoo!! Kathy gets there and she is trying to figure out what kind of car we need to fit the four us along with our bags. We told her it didn't matter - just get what you can and if we had to hold onto our bags it is not the end of the world. 15 minutes later.... she finally settles on a car!!!
As soon as we get in the car with Kathy we know we are in for the ride of our life. We must have mentioned that the roads were pretty bad in Wisconsin (it was not snowing in Chicago - just very windy) and Jesse is talking to Jerry trying to coordinate what truck stop we will be at. Kathy wants to talk to Jerry - Jesse hands the phone over to her. She goes off on him:
"If the roads are too bad you turn around and go back. I can have them stay with my friend. I use to be an EMT and I don't like picking dead bodies up. So, if you need to turn around you do that."
We circle the airport twice - she couldn't figure out how to get out. While we are circling Troy tells her that if she would like any one of us to drive we are more than happy to do so. She tells him no she can't do that because she didn't put us on the rental agreement.
Finally made it to the freeway!!! Only being on the freeway for about 5 minutes we learn that we might be with the WORST driver EVER!! She is all over the roads, over the lines on both sides!! I start praying my heart out that we make it to Madison safely!
Chicago is the land of tolls. We come to our first toll booth and I notice that we are in the I-pass lane... pretty sure we don't have an I-pass. I tell her that we are in the I-pass lane (we have to be doing about 55mph) and she immediately slams on the breaks!!!! Both Jesse and I look behind us and see all kinds of cars coming at us and we hear horns blaring!!! Jesse tells her that she has to keep going we CANNOT stop right here!! As she is driving towards the pass she keeps repeating "Oh, this is not good. This is really not good." The way she was acting, I thought a freakin swat team was going to come after us and bombs were going to go off if we drove through this pass..... nothing happens!!!
She says that she needs to take care of this right now. I ask her very nicely if she can worry about it tomorrow and lets just keep on driving. Nope!! She gets on the phone and calls information for the phone number for the Chicago Department of Transportation!! They tell her that she has 5 days to mail in a payment. The toll was 80 cents!!!
After all that drama Troy starts making small talk and asking her what she does and where she is from. She grew up in Wisconsin and is now living in Santa Barbara. She lives with and takes care of an elderly lady. And, she is a PART-TIME Psychic!!! Jesse and I look at each other and I immediately freak out and start praying again. I thought I was with the devil for sure!!! I did not want Troy to ask her any more questions about her psychic abilities!! Of course he was very intrigued by this and started asking her all kinds of questions. At first she says, "Well, I am very thirsty so this may not work very well." We pull over at the next wayside so she can get something to drink.
Back on the road, Troy tells her that he is currently training to be a fighter pilot with the Navy. Will he stay in the Navy or get out? She tells him: You will get out of the Navy and you will be a pilot for FedEx. Yup, I am really feeling FedEx... not UPS at all.
A FedEx pilot!!!! Are you kidding me!!!? That was an insult! This guy is learning to fly fighter planes and preparing to go over to Iraq some day! After he is done with that you think he is going to come back here and fly cargo planes for FedEx!!!!
A bunch more crazy talk went on while we continued to sway side to side in our lane and I just kept praying for all of our safety! It was about a 3.5/4 hour ride from Chicago to Madison.
Oh, and then as she is driving down the interstate at about 65/70mph she decides that she needs to adjust her steering wheel. Did I tell you how she can't drive in a straight line already! This steering wheel you just unlock it and then put it where you want it and lock into place. She unlocks it and must forget where the lock is and we are now driving with the steering wheel sliding up and down! That goes on for about 10 minutes before she finds the lock again and locks it into place.
Our exit to Madison is in sight!!! We tell her this is our exit. She doesn't think so and doesn't slow down. We tell her as we drive by our exit - that was our exit. She still says no but soon realizes that we were right. She pulls over onto the side of the freeway and backs up! to our exit and takes the exit!!!
She drops us off at the truck stop!! Jerry hasn't made it yet but will be there in about 30 minutes. We didn't care how long we had to wait we were safe! All three of us try to gather all our thoughts and try to figure out what just happened to us. We had lots of laughs!
Jerry picks the three of us up. Troy is still with us, we are going to drop him off at another exit where his Dad will be waiting for him. As soon as we get in Jerry's truck I instantly feel safe. Shortly outside of Madison we hit the bad weather and we are only able to go about 30mph on the freeway! If we would have had these conditions with Kathy - we would have got out!
We had a great time with our family and friends. Here are few pictures from the trip.
Elly and I playing Dora Memory.
This is my cousin's baby girl Reni.
Lynn's family on her Mom's side. This is not even everyone! I think there are about 3 families missing. (My Dad is the guy sitting on the floor w/ the red shirt. Mom is sitting next to him in the white sweater w/ red on too. My sister is behind my Dad and my brother is at the very top!)
Everyone must have a stocking!
It snowed!
Jesse took me to the airport on the 2nd. Guess who we saw.... Troy! He was on my flight to Chicago! I was pretty much a wreck having to leave and fly all by myself so when we were waiting to board the plane Troy sat by me and made small talk - which helped me feel a bit at ease.
