Returning to Illinois

We spent yesterday driving back to Illinois from Tybee Island, Georgia. The drive, almost to the mile, is 1,000 miles. We were returning with our dogs (Lily and Teddi) along with three of our granddaughters (Vannessa, Audrey and Johnnie). We had to rent a car to accomodate everyone and the luggage. It was clear that five people and two dogs were not going to work in a Ford Escape. I reserved a car with Enterprise in Savannah and we went to pick it up Friday morning for the drive on Saturday. When we got there the car wasn't there, it had to be brought in from Hilton Head, South Carolina. We went to lunch and when we returned we had been upgraded to a Dodge Durango SUV. It is a brand new vehicle with less than 5,000 miles on the odometer. It was a little bit too high tech to begin with for this old farm boy. No key, just a remote and a start button. I pushed the button and nothing happened. I looked at the remote. I pushed the button again. Nothing. I looked for somewhere to stick the remote. No luck. I pushed the button again. The notice on the dash said to start car push on brake pedal. Stepped on brake pedal and pushed the button again. We have ignition. When I rented the car I listed myself as the only driver. When I picked up the vehicle I was told no smoking and no pets. Since Carol couldn't drive the car and the dogs couldn't ride in it that meant I had to drive the kids all the way. Me and three girls. What could go wrong? How bad could it be?

The trip home to Illinois started at 4:30 a.m. which in Illinois would be 3:30 a.m. You would think three little girls getting up that early would just go right back to sleep. You would have some wrong thinking going on in your head. The first part of the trip actually went pretty well. We hadn't yet had the time to get on each other's nerves. When we crossed into the central time zone the girls determined they were hungry. They wanted lunch. Well ladies it is only 9:30 a.m. now. We drove on as they snacked across southern Tennessee. When we got to Murfreesboro the complaining about being hungry reached the we must stop now point. I didn't want to waste much time so we stopped at McDonalds. If you haven't been to McDonalds in a while this story won't encourage you to try them again. We got there about 10:45 and I got everybody to tell me what they wanted. I went in to order and was advised they would not be serving lunch for another 8 minutes. Really? Lunch starts at 11:00 a.m.? I sat down and waited. When the clock hit  11 and they turned the sign to show the lunch menu I got up to order. There were 3 people in line ahead of me. It took 10 minutes to get up to the clerk and place the order. I stepped aside and started to wait for the food. Remember when McDonalds was quick and hot? When the food was good? Not so much any more. It took 15 minutes to get the food. Now I have 5 sacks and 4 drinks. You don't get a beverage carrier unless you ask for one. Now I have to get the drinks, hold the bags, put the lids on the full sodas and shove them in a carrier while I am battling other customers for a spot. The line was now from the clerk to the front door. Notice I said clerk, singular. They had three cash registers but only one open. It would have been a waste to open the other two since the food was slow coming out. Since it takes longer than it did in the past you would think the food would be neatly presented. They basically just slap crap together and throw it at you. We ate in the cars and the dogs got double cheeseburgers for lunch. The girls managed to spill sweet and sour sauce on the rental car seat. The hopefully quick stop for lunch turned into an hour. Back on the road and the trip was weighing on the girls. We had gotten to the "she's looking at me" she's touching me, are we there yet phase of the trip. We were in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the halfway point. Let's have a screaming contest. See who can be the loudest. I was the loser. Papa, we hate the 70's on 7 on the radio. Can we listen to something else? We tried the 90's on 9 which they claimed to like. I lasted two songs. Back to the 70's we went. They complained about the music the rest of the way home. When we crossed into Illinois they thought we were close to home. We had about 5 hours to go. Every 10 minutes I would get either "Are we there yet? or Are we closer to home?" We finally arrived at the log cabin in the woods at 7:30 p.m. It had been a long day. We turned the girls over to their parents and headed to Budde's for what we hoped would be a quiet and well deserved beer. When we got there we found Frank F. Sidney's Western Bandit Volunteers were playing and the bar was packed. It was good new actually since we love that band. A couple of beers later we headed home for some sleep. Here is a picture of the band and the scene at the bar.