'There's No Place Like Home'

As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, "There is no place like home!" How True!

I felt like this trip to Michigan was a cross between a United States Postal Service ad and National Lampoon's Griswold's Vacation! What a wild crazy trip it was...shall I bore you a bit? It does have it's funny side...if you can believe...it is all true...I can't make this stuff up!...

...first we headed off in a snow storm. The storm continued through Wisconsin and into Illinois. Every been on the Illinois Tollway traveling around Chicago in a snow storm?! Take my advice...don't! Any way, we reached the Indiana border and the snow switched to rain then the temperatures started to drop which caused the roads to freeze over in Michigan. We made the turn to the final leg of our trip and we found a parking lot on the freeway. Luckily for us, DH loves to motorcycle and knew the backroads so off the freeway we go. We reached our destination 9 hours after leaving home. Normally, a 6 hour road trip! We ate supper with my family then checked into our hotel.

At 11:30pm the smoke alarms are going off! and I'm totally unaware as I have hunkered down for the night complete with Ipod and head phones. DS pounces on me, we all put on our clothes over our jammies, winter coats and boots and head downstairs to the lobby. This is the real deal and there is water flowing everywhere! The local fire department shows up. DH and DS brave the water and rescue our belongings in one trip! Onto Plan B, luckily there is a Hilton across the street with rooms. So at 12:00 midnight we are evacuating one hotel and searching for another! I got to admit, the Hilton was an upgrade. :)

Christmas Eve day was pretty calm in comparison and even a wee bit warm. The Blue Treasures quilt was a hit and my youngest niece was the lucky recipient of the quilt. My SIL#2 wanted the quilt but was too sweet *to steal it* away! That night we head out to my in-laws across the state. High winds caused the mini van with the car top carrier to be a bit unstable but DH had it under control. I would say about an hour into the trip, the temps fell below freezing and the roads glazed over. We would be traveling at about 65 mph then drop right down to about 10 mph. Many cars were in the ditch and I could only hope that someone would arrive and rescued them.

Christmas Day was very mellow and I even received a few quilt-y things over the two days. I especially loved the cupcake pincushion and the newest additions to my growing library of quilting books.

On Saturday, we awake to dense fog and heavy rain. DS and I headed back across the state to visit my Mom. On Sunday (the day of the bridal shower) we awoke to no power!
We head over to Brother#4's house, drop off DS, and get SIL#4, her girls and Mom and I head to the bridal shower. I was a tad game-y and told everyone to sit down wind of me. :) Brother#4 promised to take his generator and get Mom 'plugged in' so DS and I bailed and headed back to Grand Rapids. Thankfully this trip was very uneventful.

Monday we made the management decision to return to Wisconsin. After a Birthday Lunch at Chili's for SIL#2 on DH's side of the family we headed west. All was going good and even the sun had peaked out of the clouds. But alas, somewhere in Indiana a 18 wheeler kicked up a mudflap that hit the driver's side bumper. Both DH and I flinched but the comment by DH, "Gee, That's gonnna leave a mark" was an understatement! At this point, I was happy that the errant mudflap stayed low and didn't come crashing into the windshield!

So you see, we travelled through wind, rain, snow, sleet, ice,and sun to visit with our families this Holiday Season (the USPS part of the story). We had a hotel evacuation at midnight, power failure (unrelated events) and a free flying mudflap (part of the 'Griswold's' Vacation). I was very happy to see our driveway without a moose telling me, "It's Closed!"

On a quilt-y note: I was taking alot of grief about the T-Shirt quilt I agreed to make about 6 months ago so here is the first update for Uncle Mi: The T-shirts have been washed, dried and are downstairs outside the sewing room. This is the first load getting ready to be washed. :)

Thanks for hanging with me and reading my story...it is a tad funny as I wouldn't believe so many different and varied 'things' could happen on one vacation! We are home safe and sound now, working back into our routine. :) As time permits, I'll answer my comments and visit your blogs!

Thanks for a great 2008 blogging and all the inspiration around blogland! I look forward to *seeing* what everyone is creating in 2009!