I MADE IT!

This trip should have taken about 5 1/2 hours. When we were children, coming to the Northwoods for our camping and fishing vacations, it took more like 8.

Now the highway goes almost all the way up here. And the only little kid in my car this time was me. That makes a road trip quicker too. (Everyone who has to go to the bathroom, go now, cause we aren't going to stop until we get there!)

I set out later than I wanted to. I'm moving slow, tired and sore, and didn't really hit the road until midafternoon.

As I gassed up for the highway in the Far North Suburbs of Chicagoland - paying $3.62/gallon! - I noticed the Saturn's left front tire was a little low. A sensible person may have checked it, or put air in it. Better yet, a nice can of Fix-a-Flat. I love that stuff.

But me? NOOOOOooooo. No, I was just too interested in leaving.

I got on I-94, a tollroad there, and toodled along, happy as a lark to be on my way.

My cell phone rang. I saw the call was from Wisconsin, but I didn't recognize the number. Maybe Livey? I answered.

The funny thing was, the voice was my sister-in-law's voice.

So why was my sister-in-law calling me from a Wisconsin phone number to tell me about how the praying mantises hatched in the school terrarium and got out cause the teacher forgot and left the lid off and hundreds of tiny baby praying mantises escaped into the classroom and got all over and all the kids were running around catching them to put them back in the terrarium and the Big Monkey was so excited she couldn't stop talking about it and...

OH!!!!

It was LL!!!

Whereupon, *I* got so excited I almost dropped the phone in the car, and blew past the tollbooth in the EZpass lane, which I don't have an EZpass for. Second time that happened.

Oh well. Priorities here, okay?

Besides, I figured with the scooter carrier in the upright position, the tag was obscured from the rude License Plate Photographers anyway. Probably won't get a ticket in the mail after all. Hmmm. Tempting idea, that...

So I got to hear about the wee babies just after they hatched. LL has 2 more egg cases to go, which had more variable temperature conditions, so they'll surely take a little longer to hatch.

That was fun. Afterwards I made it all the way up to Kenosha just fine.

For those of you In The Know, that's not very far along on this road trip.

I heard a telltale rattling thumping sound...and felt the car pulling to the left...and knew I had a flat. That same damn tire I'd noticed being low.

I saw an exit coming up. Off the exit was a big old Mobile station.

For a lot of reasons, I'd rather drive on a flat than pull over to the side of an interstate. I chose to ruin the tire.

At the gas station I saw some tires up on a rack. Yay!

Gas Station Man told me, Sorry. That's a separate business and he's gone for the day.

Okay.

Meanwhile, a guy on a motorcycle gassing up there asked if I'd like some help. Yes. Thank you.

He proceeded to change my tire for me and tell me about where to go to get it replaced. Can't go far on that little bitty emergency spare.

Glancing in my car he said, Are you a Deadhead?

Which cracked me up. Because if you saw all my Road Trip stuff crammed in there, it did look like it.

No, I told him. I'm from Florida.

Florida! Oh. Got any weed?

Um, no. Even if I wanted to I wouldn't. Sorry.

He said some other strange things and I started thinking the guy was a little...hinky.

To my relief, I saw a sheriff pull up.

He jollied the Motorcycle Guy along - the tire change was almost finished - and sweetly, gently, talked him into a field sobriety test.

Which he flunked.

Gas Station Man had seen what was happening, smelled beer and figured Motorcycle Guy seemed drunk, and called the cops so nothing bad would happen to me. Nice man, huh?

The sheriff grounded Motorcycle Guy, and I was ready to go. I went inside the station and thanked Gas Station Man like this:

--I'm off now. And thank you. For everything you've done.

He solemnly said, You're welcome.

And off I went to find Ed's Used Tires.

The sheriff's directions were fine. He'd drawn me a little map. But like most locals, he assumed I knew more about his area than I did. Didn't realize, maybe, that 158 street also had a much bigger sign saying, County Road K. Or that it's hard to watch for little street signs when you're pulling over every few minutes to let the 55-MPH drivers by, since I was driving about 25 on this dainty little Spare Emergency Backup Tire.

After wandering a bit, I found Ed's Used Tires in time. They were wonderful. Extremely fast and efficient, and only charged me $25.32, including the $3 disposal fee for the old tire, totally ruined from me driving 2 miles on it.

It took longer for me to tear myself away from playing with all their parrots than to fix the tire. Finally one bird nipped me on the finger - totally my fault, I'd been warned that one was a bit feisty - and I had to go get my Silvadene and bandaids from the car. Time to hit the road again.

By then it was around 7 PM.

I still had daylight for a long time.

So I can't blame the darkness for me missing my exit for I-39.

Nope. All my fault. k the navigator not only took a wrong turn, I was a good way toward Minneapolis/St. Paul before a call from Livey had me thinking I'd better check my maps program. And realized what I'd done.

This was extremely embarrassing.

Well. She worked it out that she'd go to sleep on the couch, telephone by her head, and I'd take a nap in the car if I needed to and call her once I got close.

Now, changing the tire meant all sorts of digging through the stuff in my trunk, and disarranging my careful packing, so I couldn't stretch out in the back of the Saturn on my sleeping bag like usual.

No.

I used some of the 11 pillows in the car to make up a smaller bed across the front seats.

I took my nap a little before Steven's Pointe. Slept like a rock.

When I woke up it seemed lighter now. It started getting light here around 4 in the morning.
So I didn't have to worry as much about hitting deer, like Livey warned me about. Good.

I straggled in around 5 am. Totally wiped. Livey unloaded everything I needed and brought it into the house for me. I could breathe in here! I didn't need to sleep in the tent after all. And she made up my bed with my low-allergy sheets I'd brought from home, and set up my c-pap, and arranged the 11 pillows...and I got in there and remember nothing else.

Livey is wonderful. Her animals are a riot. I'm completely comfortable here. Livey's treating me like the Queen of Sheba. As I was writing this she brought me a great grilled cheese sandwich, all hot and gooey and cheesy with a piece of ham in it, yum!

Her place is just beautiful, too. Full of flowers and great rocks and, oh, everything. I mean, beautiful.

I didn't wake up until around 4 in the afternoon. And I can feel the sleep coming on again. So I must leave you guys now, but I'll be back. Much sooner this time!

Tomorrow we'll go look for a bear.

And oh, what pix I already have.