A while ago my cousin and I started the tradition of going to Chicago once a year in the summer to visit our other cousins who live there. About three years ago we decided to make the journey by car because actually, it's cheaper to drive than it is to fly...how sad is that?
This year I was especially itching to get there ever since I got back to the states in June, it was something to really look forward to. However, the day to finally leave crept up on me. I've been pretty busy with work and before I knew it it was time to pack up the car and drive. And of course, true Crystal fashion I literally started packing an hour before I left. I'm getting pretty good at that. God, I'm such a procrastinator.
It's about a 12ish hour drive from Amsterdam to our cousins house in Chicago with stopping and such. Well for a couple of irritating reasons, the drive this year was particularly awful. Good thing my cousin Matt and I get along because we were trapped in that car for a very long time, things could of gotten ugly real quick. Overall it was a typical road trip, (minus the whole peeing in a bottle thing, you know, that scene that's in just about every road trip movie) I'm just over dramatizing things. There was traffic, we got hungry and then we got tired.
The random bouts of traffic happened quite frequently, I guess it's bound to happen when you are on I-90 for just about the whole length of it. Whenever I hit traffic I feel like such a stereotypical driver, blaming everyone else on the road shouting, "It's your fault that I'm here right now you bastards!"
Ohio is where the hunger came. We decided we were going to do PB&J among other healthy snacks so we didn't have to stop as much, and so we didn't have to shave a couple years off our lives and our wallets with the awful rest stop food. We also realized that we forgot the PB and were only left with the J for our sandwiches. Using our handy dandy smart phones we found a couple of stores near us to go on the hunt for the peanut butter. Little did I know it would actually be a hunt. I made a smart-ass remark in the car, "Ohio doesn't have peanut butter"...whelp, Ohio really doesn't have peanut butter. Sort of.
We got off I-90 and found ourselves in the saddest little town I have ever seen. Matt and I both agreed that we would rather live in Amsterdam, now that is saying something. Everything had very direct names like "The Car Store" and "Haircuts." F: for wittiness, A+: for never getting confused about where you are going. We found some stores that looked like they should of sold peanut butter in a little plaza with one of the biggest parking lots I've ever seen. The parking lot was far superior to the stores they housed. But not by looks, oh no, because everything was run down and cracked. I'm all for giving something a bit of character, but this was beyond character. This lot needed a couple coats of straight sealant and some TLC...the band would probably even work as well (I'm hilarious). On a side note, Lisa-Left Eye- Lopez has been coming up a lot in conversation lately. Weird.
Any-who, after two or three stores and 45 minutes, we finally found some peanut butter in the smallest section on the bottom shelf of a supermarket. I do say, that is was too long to be on a search for jar of peanut butter, so I have come to the conclusion that I don't like Ohio because of this minuscule white girl problem and have denounced to ever live there. I am obviously being 100% rational.
Finally after being in a car for the whole day we arrived at our destination at about 3am Chicago time, we left at 11am New York time, you do the math.
It's nice getting away, it's nice seeing family you don't normally get to see, I mean I don't have to tell you all that. When we came up to that Chicago skyline in the middle of the night I felt that old glowing feeling, like I was saying hello to an old friend. It was like I was home again.
I'll be updating soon with all the wild and wacky adventures I go on this week. The first couple of days here were spent on some much needed relaxing and family outings. Oh, and I saw The Dark Knight Rises, so good.
Tonight I'm attempting to cook dinner for the family, here's to hoping I don't burn the house down.
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