So, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?
We like to save money. We can’t help it. When I researched flights to Michigan, I discovered (thanks to our friend, Mr. Pandemic) our flight to Detroit or Flint would be comparable to our flight to Rome just a couple of years before. I’d pulled every trick out of the book to make the Rome flights affordable, changing planes and enduring overnight layovers to save a few bucks. To pay virtually the same to get to Michigan seemed ridiculous.
I started looking for alternatives. Chicago was only five hours and many hundreds of dollars less, according to my research. I imagined an early flight and an easy five hour drive was worth hundreds of dollars. I mean this money was coming out of my travel budget and that’s the most precious funds I have access to. Bill said it was a no-brainer and, as I bonus we love Chicago, so we might end the trip with a day or two there.
The Good Idea Meets Reality
In my wildest dreams, I would have never guessed I would have been up for 24 hours by the time we got to the airport, but thanks to some random problem with our network, that was exactly the case. While other folks are able to catch a nap on the plane, in spite of my total exhaustion, that wasn’t possible for me. I’m lucky to grab even a couple of hours of sleep on international flights. About all I could manage on the short hop to Chicago was to rest my gravelly eyes. No sleep would come.
In Chicago, we grabbed a rental car and hit the road. Whoever (Google) said it was going to be a five hour drive obviously was out of touch with reality. Traffic was a nightmare and there was a lot of construction. There was a goodly amount of navigating to do through Illinois, so I stayed awake to help, but once we crossed over into Michigan, I was finally able to doze off.
It seemed as if I had only dozed off for a moment or two, but in reality I had a good nap. Bill, who certainly isn’t used to getting up at 4 AM, was fading fast. When I moved a little bit and fluttered my eyes, he asked if I would drive. I wanted to ask, “Are you kidding?”, but instead I told him to pull over at the next opportunity and I would fight it for a while.
The Torture Chamber
Bill dozed off the second I took over the wheel. A few moments later a sign announced I was approaching some construction and I thought to myself, “HA! As if we haven’t had it all along.”
It was true that Bill had driven through some construction, but nothing like I was about to face. As the lanes narrowed down, one truck pulled in front of me and another fell in line behind me. Then suddenly there were concrete barricades on either side of me and the road was rough. That’s when it began to rain.
Tears came to eyes just as they had at 3 AM, as I fought to deliver the images to our customers, so they’d have them within our designated time frame. I knew I had a job to do. I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. Bill may not have been up for as many hours as I had, but he’d valiantly driven for hours on end, while I dozed. It was his turn.
Imagine driving, in the rain, on a strange road, with a truck ahead of you and one behind you, when you can’t see over the concrete barriers on either side of you. Oh, and don’t forget the rough road. I had no idea how Bill could be asleep.
I remembered a trip we’d taken many years ago. Bill was driving a moving truck, pulling a car. We were in Albuquerque NM and rain was pouring so hard that you could barely see the car ahead of you, much less the signs over the road. I was behind Bill, in my car, and we were using our phones like walkie talkies. In spite of the fact I could barely see, I was directing Bill, as he drove ahead of me. I looked over to my dog who was in the seat next to me. I thought animals could sense danger, but my Shih Tzu was dead asleep. I must create a false sense of security when I drive.
Back in Michigan, I put in about an hour and a half in that moving torture chamber and I was done. That’s about the time the road opened up and the trucks zoomed away. I pulled off at the next McDonald’s for a potty stop and for Bill to take back the wheel. He took us on to Clarkson and to the home of our family. Come back next week, because things do get better.
jane sadek 