Day One. 889 Miles to Chicago.

I couldn't write yesterday because I was so wiped out and woozy. To back up from the start, the night before I left I literally got NO sleep. I didn't feel nervous, I just didn't feel able to fall asleep. I blame good old hormones for this, as I get one night a month where no sleep comes to me and it's just before something "else arrives"...if you catch my drift.

So no sleep. I still managed to get up, but was too queasy to eat, so I decided to just get on the road. It was bit later than I wanted, but I left at 7:30am.

This is how great I felt about leaving-

Sam was truly great about the whole thing. I really didn't want to go, but he reminded me that it's time to do some growing (upwards), so off I went.

The first few hours passed easily. The rolling hillsides of central New York State, along I-84, were dotted with freshly turned gold and orange plump looking trees. I loved seeing all the colors. It made me smile, as I began to settle in to listening to tunes and watching the time on the GPS drop down from arriving at 8:12pm to arriving one minute sooner. Oooo...a game! The faster I go, the sooner I get there! I like this!

New York passed by quickly and I stopped at a rest area to, err, rest, where I found out, yes, I got my f-ing period. Great. Now I know why my back hurts, too. Cramps, 900 miles, queasy, ugh...but I kept going.

I entered eastern Pennsylvania and it was like a dreamland of brilliant color. The cloud cover made it tough to get a good photo, but I just absorbed the beauty around me. There was plenty of traffic, but light enough, in spots, where I didn't get held up too much. I did see some lunatic truckers and one crazy SUV driver literally almost hit me! That said, I'm fine and dandy and was still happy to see all that great color and rolling hills.

I even saw a Bald Eagle! It made me think of my Mother (long story about seeing an eagle I'll tell at another time). She would have been so great to have as a companion on the trip!

Well..Pennsylvania doesn't end. I do manage to be entertained by something I see when grabbing crappy peppery lunch at the ever popular KFC

It keeps on going and going for miles and miles. I'll fill in more details, but have too much to cover right now, but I finally got through the state, hit Ohio with some relief. It was about 5pm.

Ohio was BORING and it cost $9.25 for the TOLL!

I was getting pretty tired, but I pressed onward. I got through Ohio and entered Indiana. I was thrilled, but feeling really wiped out. I wanted to just get to my friend, Trevor's place in Chicago come Hell or high water.

I didn't expect the Hell part, but I sure got it.

Thing is, if I HAD slept the night before I wouldn't have started to feel toxic when I had about an hour left of my drive. I started to feel the world spinning and it was dark by then, too. I knew I should just STOP driving, but I was also so CLOSE. I had to make it.

I hit the Chicago city limits and some insane traffic. Thank goodness I had the GPS. Even though the volume (where is the volume control?!!) was barely audible, I could hear enough to get my way through the spaghetti of highways and avoid getting hit by high-speeding maniacs.

I got to Trevor's in 14 HOURS-almost exactly.

Problem was...after I got out of the car. My body felt like it was STILL moving!!!!!!!

I didn't get more than 3 hours of sleep, so I decided to stay in Chicago today and Trevor graciously took a day off of work to keep me company. I plan on leaving for Des Moines in the morning and will fill you all in on today's activities once I land in Iowa and get settled. For now, I just wanted to let you all know I'm all right. I'm very tired and still woozy, but not as bad as before and am willing to keep going and see how tomorrow goes.

Oh..and Trevor's place is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More on that tomorrow, too.