On the road again...
I spent last night southeast of Madison, Wisconsin in a small town called Ft Atkinson at another Holiday Inn Express. I am going to visit an old "friend" early in the morning, Rowe Pottery Works in Cambridge, just about 7 miles northwest of here. Jamie and I stopped there about 15 years ago.
Those of you who have visited my home have likely seen the various collection of pottery we had gathered, of which most are from what was once a small shop in Wisconsin. I can remember when we first stopped in the factory on England Street in on one of our trips east in the 80's. Started in 1975, they had the salt-glazed gray with cobalt blue pottery that I fell in love with. Over the years, we carefully selected pieces every now and then and occasionally, one would arrive in the mail to me sent by Jamie for Christmas. I was anxious to see how things had changed.
The heart pattern I have is not the one they are chosing to design with now (I like mine better!) but I wasn't goint to gather more of that, looking instead for new patterns and specifically for a loaf baking pan and a pie/quiche pan if I ran into one I liked. The chance to get these and save shipping and buy at store prices was too tempting and I ended up with unique patterns I don't already have, one with the pinewood pattern and the other a happy little bird on a branch. Made me happy too.
I left there about 10 CDT and headed south for Illinois. It was HOT in this area and I was so thankful to have air conditioning in the car. This was the day they had been telling everyone about in Minnesota and why I was also thrilled to be leaving. Rochester area was supposed to have temperatures between 88-95 with heat indexes between 95-105 and a low heat index at night of 95! Eeewwww! Wisconsin was feeling the heat and so was northern Illinois. The closer I got to Chicago, however, the clouds had moved in and were helping out a bit.
Traffic started to get pretty heavy as expected and the 294 exit south came before I could get over to take it. Oh well, I'll just go in on 90/94...ACK! That was an additional 50 minutes that I didn't really want to spend being a snail. We crept along for that length of time, inching our way due to road construction on the various exits and the looky-loos too. Did discover some other good radio stations around Chicago that perked me up with some variety.
Once I was south of Chicago, it was clear sailing home. Stopped only for gas in eastern Indiana. Didn't even take the time to stop in South Haven at Sherman's for my favorite ice cream for dinner stop. And some of you know what a sacrifice THAT was! It was cooler here, the traffic was moving comfortably, and I knew if I kept going, I'd be home by 6:30 at the latest...because I was DEFINITELY stopping at Panera Bread in Grand Haven for some cream of chicken and wild rice soup, a bagel and then one more stop at Starbucks a white chocolate mocha latte too before I headed home. That would be dessert!
I enjoyed the drive even through Chicago. It will be nice to pick up Foxy tomorrow, get my mail, and find out what being home again is like. It will take some adjusting I know. It will be good to see everyone once again too. But for tonight, I'm just glad to get the house cooled down, eat my soup, drink my coffee and relax from the rigors of the road. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat!
Night all...
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