Off to Wisconsin

After a wonderful night's sleep Bonnie and I joined Ed and Joyce for Breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Had waffles, sausage, and fruit with a lot of good conversation. We changed out plan at breakfast and decided to head to my bother's that afternoon instead of waiting until Monday. So we finished packing up, checked out and loaded up the car for a short jaunt back to Chad and Heidi's before we started the drive to WI.

Heidi's family was still there and we all had a wonderful morning of conversation and watched Rachel open the rest of her gifts. That girl got a lot of turtle stuff but then that is what she wants to do with her life. No, not be a turtle, study them and bring them back for endangerment. A noble avocation is you ask me.

We all enjoyed a lunch of left over food from the day before and there was a lot of it. The food was still delicious and the company was fantastic. I called my niece Kelly and her husband Jeff to find out if we would be welcome for dinner that evening instead of Monday in the original plan. They said they were looking forward to seeing us and the steaks would be ready when we arrived. All in all a wonderful way to start our journey to Wisconsin. We said our goodbyes and loaded up for the 5 hour drive north.

As we journeyed north we ran into some nasty weather just south of Springfield, IL. Wind and heavy rain were with us for an hour or so. The sky was very dark and ominous. We watched for the possibility of a funnel cloud but fortunately none were sighted. We did follow a Target 18 wheeler through the storm. Our speed on many occasions dropped to forty-five or lower as visibility was ofter very restricted. On the north side of Bloomington, IL the rain pretty much ceased and we pulled off the highway for a pit stop, a stretch and to change drivers. My brother was pretty much exhausted from the last hour of tense driving. We also refreshed ourselves with some custard from Culvers before we returned to the journey north.

Our next leg to South Beloit, IL was pretty much uneventful but once again the skies were getting ominously dark. Just as we pulled into Kelly and Jeff's it began to rain once again. We switch Joyce's luggage to her car and then went inside for a pleasant reunion with the Graminske's and a wonderful dinner. While we were eating it once again began to thunder and flash lightening. The rain came down in buckets and was mixed with pea sized hail, very loud storm in general. We turned on the TV to catch the weather and found that there were tornado watches throughout the region. We didn't resume our trip to Wales until the weather system had passed by far enough that we thought we would not catch it on the road.

We said our goodbyes once again and were on the road to Wales and Milwaukee. Joyce followed us until we reached Mukwonago, WI. We then went our separate ways and each were shortly snug at our destinations. Boom-booms continued through much of the night. We all went to bed relatively early and I laid awake for some time listening to the thunder and watching the flashes of lighting eventually drifting off to sleep.