Sunday…
Another 5am wake-up. Deflate the air mattress, pack the tent, pack the car, get on the road while it’s dark.
Lawd, give me the strength and ability to stay awake and alert to make it home in one day.
The morning was pretty uneventful, lots of backroads and county highways with no interstate. Lots of nice views, zero pictures. I guess today was more about keeping an ass in a seat. We left with a crew of 7 cars, 4 of which had mentally committed to driving all the way home. John in his 924S and I were in our cars by ourselves, Dan/Hattie were in the S2000 and Kyle/Brynn in the red 924S were all the ones planning to drive the entire way back to the Twin Cities.
Once getting on the road, it felt like it took forever to get to the interstate (I65) towards Lexington, in reality it was about 5 hours plus two gas stops and one Mcdonalds pitstop for a mcmuffin and a large coffee.
As I mentioned in the last post, we were expecting to drive through some storms today. We had a group chat going with a few people that left earlier than we did. Julian was one of those and we were getting a play by play that would only be considered nothing more than intense. Strong winds, buckets of water, light hydroplaning, a bit of puckering. As soon as we hit the interstate, we hit those storms.
The storm front was immediate and violent but relatively short-lived. I was immensely thankful for brand new all-seasons and fresh wipers. When that first bucket of water hit, the rain alone reduced visibility but it also immediately fogged the inside of my windshield, super sketch and this time at 80 MPH (compared to yesterday's 30mph but going down a curvy hill). I grabbed a clean rag from the back seat and had to wipe the windshield every minute or two. This is getting old, sigh.
We planned for a lunch stop at a distillery in Lexington. By then the rain had slowed but more was incoming. Remember I mentioned ass in seat earlier? This is probably boring to read through since it was just time on a freeway with friends trying to get home.
After lunch, we stopped for fuel and then got back on the interstate headed toward Louisville before heading north toward Indianapolis and Chicago.
We hit a lot more rain between Louisville and Indianapolis, made a gas stop before Indy, and then got back on the freeway prior to hitting traffic. Maury in the Audi Coupe Quattro and Kyle in the red 993 split up with us here because they had different destinations and decided on a different route to get there.
We all got a bit split up in that traffic and had several bouts of nearly 3 digit speeds to get caught up with each other prior to Chicago. The Avocado performed admirably and comfortably. Brent/Amy split up with us in Chicago. They had enough time on the road for the day and were welcoming some R&R, grub, and a hotel bed.
This left me and John, Dan/Hattie, and Kyle/Brynn. The four of us slipped through Chicago without incident or traffic. A miracle. One more fuel stop and it’s starting to get dark.
What 14+ hours in a car felt like visually:
Our last fuel stop at a new Kwik Trip in Wisconsin Dells. Ethanol-free fuel, bathroom break, hot sandwiches, friends that are as loopy as I am.
Clearly had a good time this long weekend...
After more time spent on I94, we made our last rest stop outside of Menominee, WI before a group hug and ~80-90 miles back to the twin cities.
It felt pretty surreal to get back into the cities after nearly 3,000 miles in 5 days. Each of my friends peeled off I94 down a different freeway as we got back into town. John down 694, Kyle down 35E, and Dan/myself down 394.
Even writing this, 2 weeks from when I got home, I feel the sense of relief that looking at these pictures provides me. It was a hard fought journey and we EFFING MADE IT. 19 hours, ~1100 miles, left at what would be 5am central, home just before midnight.
Hot shower, wind-down, head-hit-pillow. Good night.