Racing Hurricane Sandy

Sunday 10/27/12

Guy’s estate taken care of and family visits made, we left Springfield this morning and headed north toward Lansing MI. On the way up we stopped at my younger brother’s in Parma MI. Ken watched NASCAR with my SIL and I went out to the pole barn with my brother and we yakked up a storm.

After the race, we headed into Jackson for some supper. Unfortunately we sorta forgot it was Sunday. Apparently all the nicer restaurants in Jackson are closed Sundays. Shades of our 4th of July visit. So we ended up at the Hunt Club, a bar/restaurant with solid mid-western food. Decent, but we wanted to treat them to something fancier. Oh well.

My original idea was to stay in Lansing for two or three days giving me leisurely time to sort through my belongings still there and decide what to take back in this load. Hurricane Sandy changed our minds, however. The outskirts were reaching all the way to the Midwest plus a cold weather bubble was dropping down out of Canada. Snow was predicted for tomorrow evening and we wanted nothing to do with it. So I quickly went through the house, grabbed some of the more obvious stuff without giving too much thought to it, and piled it in the living room.

I also did a couple of loads of laundry. Might as well, the machines are just setting there.

Monday 10/29/12

The morning dawned fair but breezy. We showered, breakfasted, I gathered some more stuff, and we packed the car. My sister drove in from Grand Rapids early and we had lunch together. I was glad that I wasn’t going to miss her. Older brother would have to wait until next year; he lives too far away for a quickie visit.

After lunch she headed off to work and we headed toward Vandalia IL – home to another Madonna statue. We had two roughly equidistant route possibilities – one through Gary IN and the other through Indianapolis. Hating that mess around Gary/Chicago, we opted for Indianapolis. That turned out to be a mistake, however, as we hit Indianapolis at evening rush hour. In a very windy and cold rain. Plus there was construction on I-70 southwest of Indianapolis. Did I say the traffic was heavy? Anyway, we got to our hotel after dark. We’ll the Madonna tomorrow morning on our way out.

442 mi, 8:31 hrs total, 6:44 hrs moving

[written 12/14/13]