I thought I’d fill ya’ll in on the rest of the trip before I was rudely interrupted by furniture. LOL 

After leaving Minnesota we headed into Wisconsin (FYI – Wisconsin is all about the 3 C’s, Corn, Cows & Cheese.) Didn’t see much of MN because it was dark when we drove through and, in case you are geographically challenged like I am, Minneapolis is right next to the Wisconsin border. So I’m sure MN is beautiful, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it except they have tons of frogs that run out in front of speeding cars at night. And when I say speeding, I mean going fast, after the speeding ticket in WA, cruise control became our constant companion. 

Ali was researching the Chicago area and read something about this great little area called Lake Geneva, WI, so we decided to take a break there before heading into Chicago, otherwise we would be hitting the city at rush hour, and what idiot would want to do that?

Lake Geneva was a quaint little town and we stopped at Caribou Coffee for some much-needed refreshment and computer time. Lake Geneva wasn’t very far from Waukesha, WI where my friend Rebecca grew up, I should have called her for advice about where to the spend the night because we were having a hard time figuring out where to stay, it was all expensive and we couldn’t decide on what area in Chicago. So eventually we decided not to go into Chicago at all and instead decided to spend the night in Algonquin, IL. It looked like another quaint little town outside of Chicago. Of course, I was thinking Algonquin hotel in NYC, which is very chi-chi, and home to Dorothy Parker and the Round Table of famous writers and critics of the 1920’s. So I had high hopes for Algonquin.

Well we got to Algonquin and it turned out to be one long strip mall. We drove around until we finally found the quaint part of town, which was all close by this time, and there wasn’t a hotel around, there was only a B&B and a Holiday Inn Express—we opted for the Express, and believe it or not, it was almost full, only 2 Jacuzzi rooms available. So here in Algonquin we made the most for any room along the trip for a musty smelling room with a huge Jacuzzi across from the bed. We went to eat at a Japanese Steak house and headed back to sleep.

We had breakfast from their free continental breakfast bar and headed off to find the AAA so we could make a better decision when we got to PA. After chatting with the woman at AA and with our PA travel book in hand, we got back into the car, and who should call, but the guy about the furniture. This is when we learned we were going to have to make a mad dash to beat the furniture to VA.

Ali took the first leg and drove us through IL, IN and into PA. Driving in WI you could really tell we had left the rolling hills, mountains and plains of MT, WY, & SD. The evergreens were fewer and there were more trees with their leaves changing, yellow, orange and red. IN was about the same except the leaves hadn’t changed color as much, they were just beginning. It was getting dark as we headed into PA, but the PA handbook that we picked up in IL did come in handy as it helped us find a nice little Italian restaurant in Beaver Falls, right off the interstate.

After dinner, around 10:30pm I took on the homestretch of the drive. I like driving at night, so that’s why we planned it that way. PA I know is beautiful country, but again, its dark so we don’t see anything here or in Maryland except the highway stretching ahead of us.

Finally, signs for Washington, DC and we have big whoops when we are only double digits away, and then under 50 miles away, and then, WHAT??  Where the heck are we?

After successfully transversing the entire country, we seem to be lost. They were doing a lot of construction and we couldn’t turn off where we needed to and then we just ended up god knows where. I have to admit at this point, that we were traveling without a map for the most part. Just google maps and the gps on my iPhone (look for a post regarding the iPhone to come soon). We had used the iPhone so much that it was tired of working and the screen kept going blank on us just when we were figuring it out. So finally we pulled into a gas station and asked directions, and also called the concierge at the Apt. complex to get directions. We were on International Blvd., and it turns out there the only International Blvd. is in Fairfax, VA. We were 40 minutes away from our destination.

So after some back tracking (thanks to Ali’s sleepy but brilliant mind) we finally got to where we needed to be after a few wrong turns and merging the 2 peoples directions into something that worked for us. And then finally things started to look familiar to me and there is was in all its shining glory. Home! At 3:30am.

We arrived and Alicia at the desk gave me the lease to sign – I’ve NEVER in my life signed & initialed so many pieces of paper for an apartment in my life. Frankly, at that point I didn’t care if I was signing my life away.

We unpacked a couple of things from the car, parked, got into the apartment, inflated the mattress, and by about 5:30am, we were finally asleep. The movers were potentially to arrive in 2.5 hours.

At 8:10am the phone rang and the movers were calling to confirm the address. I mumbled it to them and promptly went back to sleep until they were knocking on my door at 9am. Went over some paperwork and they went downstairs to get started.

I deflated the bed, and Ali went into the walk-in closet with 2 pillows and a blanket and closed the door! LOL She remained there til they were about done at Noon. So she got 3 more hours of sleep.

The guys were really nice, they were giving me tips on the neighborhood and telling me I would have a great view of the 4^th of July fireworks from my balcony. I of course love that, I had a great view from my kitchen window in Seattle and I like not having to get out into the crowds to see it.

After they left, I crashed on the bed to get my nap and Ali headed out to explore the neighborhood for me. =)

Just a few pics here that I shot on the last leg.