Pat's Odyssey

It was decide Wednesday that I would leave Thursday after work and begin my comeback journey to Iowa City. My plan was to drive to Chicago Thursday night, crash at Russ's, and then drive to Iowa City Friday. My plan was so flawless that nothing could go wrong.

Thursday I got conflicting directions to get to Russ's house in Chicago, one from Yahoo.com and then the other from Google.com. I decided to go with Russ's Google directions but before I left at work was new employee training at Ohio State. This was strange because I have been here already for 4 months and the stuff we talked about I had to learn the hard way. Any way this took up all my day and then at 4 pm when we were done with training I had to get all my work done before 5pm when I needed to be on the road. I was rushing to getting all my work done that at 5pm but finally hit the road around 5:30 and was expected to get in around 11pm. Again the plan was so good nothing could go wrong.

I am not used to Google directions, but everyone was going smoothly until I hit Indianapolis. Now if you know me, you know that I am terrible with directions, I can not give out directions or understand them, I am just plain bad with them. Well once I hit Indy I may have accidental taken an exit I should have not taken and kept going for a good 15-20 minutes down this road before I began to get concerned. Basically what tipped me off that I was not going the right way was the road I was on which started off in the city began to turn into a country road and I drove past a country bar that looked like the same country bar the Blue Brothers went to. Now I kept going down this road because the Google map was adjusted by Russ to supposedly get me to Chicago quick, little did he know my ability to get loss. Well I back tracked and found the road again and was on my way to Chicago and nothing was going to go wrong again.

Well heading from Indy north to Chicago was no problem until I hit the city. Little did I know that at 11:00 when I hit the city I ended up in the South side of Chicago. I discovered this when poor people began coming up to my car for change at the middle of a stop light. Well I turned down my rap music and locked the doors and tried not to stand out, but it is difficult when you are the only white kid in a Subaru Outback listening to rap. Well this was one place I probably should not get lost in, but as luck would have it I some how ended down some side streets by some apartments, I think they were Section 8 Housing so again not the best place to get lost in. After some quick back tracking and some alternate roots I finally got back on track to Russ's house. Where nothing was going to go wrong again.

Now I am on the home stretch, the Google directions said to take the North Higgins exit toll then merge on to South Higgins, I was confused by this direction, was I supposed take North or South on Higgins? Well in my quick decision, I listened to the directions and went South and took it for about 20 min when I called Russ trying to figure out where I was. Russ informed me I was an idiot and was going the wrong way and needed to go North. Now that I was finally headed right direction, I was so pissed off with getting lost so many times and back tracking that nothing could go wrong again.

I am so close to Russ's house I can taste it. Russ is now guiding me on the phone because I kept getting loss so much that he gives me a simple direction that once in his town to take the road Cary-Algonquin Rd. It was late and I was tired of driving that I was losing focus on roads, when I came into a town I thought was Cary and then I saw a sign for Algonquin Rd, thought I was finally at Russ's house, when I kept driving and could not find his house. Well I called Russ and tell him on Algonquin Rd and can not find his house, he can not understand why I am not near his house. Then I describe some of the landmarks I am near and he asks if I am in the city Cary, I look around and I was one town away from his, but my big beef was why is there the same road name in two towns right next to each other? Well I was in such a rage of how a road could have the same name this close to each other to confuse the hell out of out of towners like myself, that I sent a letter to the Chicago Department of Transportation and voice my complaint to change the name of the street. If you feel the same way as me you can sign my petition. Anyway after alot of backtracking, swears, and being called an idiot by Russ, I finally made it to his house around 12:30 an extra hour worth of driving that was not excepted. If this is a sign of things to come then it was going to be a wild weekend.

Tomorrow: Pat's Odyssey continues with Russ and I driving into Iowa City.