back in that "Toddlin' town"

Erie, PA, is just over half-way from Scarborough, Maine, to Chicago. We left Maine at 7:00am on Saturday, in about 21 degrees, with snow pretty much everywhere….a LOT of snow everywhere. We had a tough time making right turns, because the snow was piled so high at the corners, thanks to the snowplows, we couldn’t see if anything was coming. Made for some excitement when pulling out of Starbucks.

By midday, we were in New York state, where it looked as though there hadn’t been snow in years. Everything was pretty much dry….as we were driving past Herkimer, New York (like, of course we’ve all heard of Herkimer, right??) a little blue Subaru drove past. She gave us a honk and a big wave. We wondered if we had something hanging out of the truck or something, but as she passed, we saw she had a Washington license plate! So we honked and waved right back. First Washington license we’ve seen since Idaho!

I talked about the Mass Pike, Ohio and Indiana turnpikes before, but it bears repeating. Massachussetts has good highways and decent service areas – as long as you like McDonalds. Ohio has the prettiest service areas anywhere. Clean, spacious, absent McDonalds – instead they have a pizza place and Burger King. Okay, it’s still fast food, but no Big Macs to be found. The grounds around the Ohio Turnpike are beautifully groomed, as though they have a grounds staff that actually does the work – not a weed to be seen. Great job, Governor Kasich! You may not have been a super wonderful Presidential candidate, but you sure can govern the state of Ohio’s interstate highways!

We arrived in Chicago around 2:00pm on Sunday….while we were going over the Chicago Skyway (can I just say how much I hate that thing? It’s just so freaking H I G H) we got a text from Becky, asking us to pick her up downtown (saving her an uber ride). So we got off the expressway and drove Big Red (our name for the truck) through DOWNTOWN Chicago traffic on a 65-degree, sunny day. Everyone who lives in Chicago was walking downtown that day, I promise. Took three tries to get through one light, because of the pedestrian traffic. However, we made it through, picked up Becky and got back to her apartment around 3:30.

So here we are, back in town. Today we hit Costco for groceries and took some clothes that we will never wear again to the GoodWill box. Driving shock – after time in Maine, where EVERYBODY drives a big truck, we’re back in the land of tiny little parking spaces. (and we’re not going to mention the street parking where we get to parallel park Big Red among the little Smart cars)