Plans Fail
Another uneventful, lovely travel day until we hit the Illinois state line. I had this great plan to get off the I-94 in Wisconsin to get to the east side of the flooded Des Plaines River but found both the roads I knew we could take were closed! So OK...we headed on down the 94 planning to take the Route 41 cutoff to Gurnee. Suddenly there were construction signs all over the place that were unreadable and confusing. Which way do we go?
We wound up locked in a single lane designated for cars only. It was about 9 feet wide; we are 8.5! There were concrete construction dividers on both sides! You see, this part of the interstate is being reconstructed to put in a toll booth and some bridges. Since we were in the wrong lane we couldn't get over to pay the toll. Jeez, I hope they did not have their cameras working. If we get a ticket for this I will claim utter confusion. (Note to self: Why didn't I take some pictures to defend us? Too scared!)
We survived it though, without a scratch and got off at Route 132 where we pulled into the busy Gurnee Mills parking lot to take a deep breath and unhook. Then we headed east and hoped the roads weren't flooded. All my worry was for nothing because we got to Mom and Harry's just fine although the water is up right to the edge of the highway and is flooding several business.
We met a nice fulltiming family from Mississippi last night. They work construction to support themselves and are taking the summer off work to complete some of their home schooling for two teens. The oldest will go to college in Florida this fall. Nice kids. We encouraged them not to take 94 but to take Interstate 39 so they could avoid the construction. Glad we did and hope they had a great trip today.
They live in a huge Teton 5th wheel that he tows and she follows in a pickup with their construction equipment and bikes. They get jobs just by word of mouth and referrals. Sounds like a crazy way to live but they seemed real happy and were pleased that they could give their kids this real life education. More power to 'em!