Oh boy this is a doozy of a day people! lol ;P Just hang tight with me for a bit.
After Chicago we headed further East, okay well first we had to get out of the neighborhood...
We've had to do this a few times where we end up on some tight residential streets with cars on both sides of the street. It takes all of us looking out the windows to make sure we clear the bystanders. lol
And of course, our last Starbucks in Chicago. :(
We had a fabulous time with Kevin sister, Christie, her husband, Mark, their girls, Piper & Finley and also Kevin's mom and her husband, Jim. In fact, there were tears flowing when we said we had to depart. It's so hard when you have fun cousins to play with and you don't understand there's more cousins and friends to come. ;)
Along the way, we had LOTS of these....
Yes, the tolls were a plenty! Not something us Pacific Northwest folk know a lot about. lol They even proved to give us some fun driver poses as he reached for the ticket.
We did stop at a Target in South Bend, Indiana for a few supplies we'd racked up on our list. However, we sat in the parking lot for a bit because of the torrential down pouring! And I mean TORRENTIAL! Like so torrential, we have never seen rivers of rain water in a parking lot like this! This photo doesn't quite do it justice, but let's just say there's no quickly-running-into-the-store unless you want to be completely drenched on the way. What's also strange about this rain storm is that even though it's pouring buckets, the temperature is WARM!!! So weird....
And although this normally goes against our Starbucks vow, we did attempt to consume a beverage obtained from an inside-a-store location. Guess we were desperate.... lol
So we headed back out on the road and in being good google map followers we obeyed her directions on how to get on the highway. However, she failed to mention this little ditty on a country road, which caused our driver to show off his 12 point turn skills in someone's country driveway. And in all his genius, he found a way back to the highway, despite Mrs Google, that did NOT include a closed road. He's so good!
And on the way we came up on this vehicle, only made cute by K9 decoration popping in and out of the sunroof. :D What a great reason for a chuckle!
As we were getting further on into the evening and it was clearly almost dark, Kevin decided to pull off on the side of the road to check his phone for not only directions, but to assess his radar app. {yes, he has a weather radar app} It actually was quite helpful during this time.
You see there was a big mid-west storm bearing down on our present location and the location we were supposed to be driving right into. Yes, it was a BIG mid-west storm including wind warnings of 60 mph, advisories to take shelter and go to basements.
Our choices were...
- stay where we were, basically a truck stop
or
- continue on
Driving past our camping site that night was not really an option since
1) it was getting late for driving in the night
2) that's where the more serious part of the storm was headed
So we prayed together, asked for wisdom and waited out the storm a bit. With his constant eyes on the radar, the brave driver decided we would be on the very edge of the storm and at any point we could certainly turn around and come back the opposite way or pull off to the side of the road. I guess that's the bonus when you are driving with your beds in the backseat.
That was only the beginning.... ;)
When we finally arrived at our campsite for that night (which did not look like the bright beautiful photo above at the time), which was only a white-knuckled 20 miles away, we were all a bit relieved. It was a KOA in Streetsborough, Ohio that Kevin had found and reserved a spot at earlier in the day. When we pulled up to the gate it was about 9pm. It was still pouring cats and dogs and pitch dark outside but we were at the tail end of the storm at this point, or so we thought. Kevin ran up to the {now closed} registration office and got our paperwork with our assigned site number. He opened up the info and read the instructions in the tin can as we all watched the heaven's pour buckets. The letter of instructions states that enclosed in the envelope will be a key card to swipe through the gate's reader, allowing it to open in order for us to enter.
Needless to say, there was NO KEY CARD anywhere!!!!
After Chicago we headed further East, okay well first we had to get out of the neighborhood...
We've had to do this a few times where we end up on some tight residential streets with cars on both sides of the street. It takes all of us looking out the windows to make sure we clear the bystanders. lol
And of course, our last Starbucks in Chicago. :(
{btw... that young man decided he wanted to buy his own bucks on this particular day. After $4.32 (actually $5 w/ tipping the change) left his wallet that day, I think he might be reconsidering his future bucks expenditures! lol Plus it was only a MINI frap!}
We had a fabulous time with Kevin sister, Christie, her husband, Mark, their girls, Piper & Finley and also Kevin's mom and her husband, Jim. In fact, there were tears flowing when we said we had to depart. It's so hard when you have fun cousins to play with and you don't understand there's more cousins and friends to come. ;)
Along the way, we had LOTS of these....
Yes, the tolls were a plenty! Not something us Pacific Northwest folk know a lot about. lol They even proved to give us some fun driver poses as he reached for the ticket.
We did stop at a Target in South Bend, Indiana for a few supplies we'd racked up on our list. However, we sat in the parking lot for a bit because of the torrential down pouring! And I mean TORRENTIAL! Like so torrential, we have never seen rivers of rain water in a parking lot like this! This photo doesn't quite do it justice, but let's just say there's no quickly-running-into-the-store unless you want to be completely drenched on the way. What's also strange about this rain storm is that even though it's pouring buckets, the temperature is WARM!!! So weird....
And although this normally goes against our Starbucks vow, we did attempt to consume a beverage obtained from an inside-a-store location. Guess we were desperate.... lol
So we headed back out on the road and in being good google map followers we obeyed her directions on how to get on the highway. However, she failed to mention this little ditty on a country road, which caused our driver to show off his 12 point turn skills in someone's country driveway. And in all his genius, he found a way back to the highway, despite Mrs Google, that did NOT include a closed road. He's so good!
And on the way we came up on this vehicle, only made cute by K9 decoration popping in and out of the sunroof. :D What a great reason for a chuckle!
As we were getting further on into the evening and it was clearly almost dark, Kevin decided to pull off on the side of the road to check his phone for not only directions, but to assess his radar app. {yes, he has a weather radar app} It actually was quite helpful during this time.
{this is only an example of what we were looking at. The orange & red are the worst and that is exactly where our next campground was.}
Our choices were...
- stay where we were, basically a truck stop
or
- continue on
Driving past our camping site that night was not really an option since
1) it was getting late for driving in the night
2) that's where the more serious part of the storm was headed
So we prayed together, asked for wisdom and waited out the storm a bit. With his constant eyes on the radar, the brave driver decided we would be on the very edge of the storm and at any point we could certainly turn around and come back the opposite way or pull off to the side of the road. I guess that's the bonus when you are driving with your beds in the backseat.
That was only the beginning.... ;)
When we finally arrived at our campsite for that night (which did not look like the bright beautiful photo above at the time), which was only a white-knuckled 20 miles away, we were all a bit relieved. It was a KOA in Streetsborough, Ohio that Kevin had found and reserved a spot at earlier in the day. When we pulled up to the gate it was about 9pm. It was still pouring cats and dogs and pitch dark outside but we were at the tail end of the storm at this point, or so we thought. Kevin ran up to the {now closed} registration office and got our paperwork with our assigned site number. He opened up the info and read the instructions in the tin can as we all watched the heaven's pour buckets. The letter of instructions states that enclosed in the envelope will be a key card to swipe through the gate's reader, allowing it to open in order for us to enter.
 |
| {visual example of said gate} |
Needless to say, there was NO KEY CARD anywhere!!!!
I mean we checked that envelope inside and out, we checked the floor inside the tin can everywhere it might have fallen out.
Kevin retraced his steps, in the pouring buckets to see if perhaps the key card had fallen out of the envelope.
We called the office number to see if perhaps someone might still answer (sometimes they do live on the KOA grounds/in the office).... only a message that was not helpful to us.
We called the emergency number listed on the campgrounds map... 'this voicemail box is full.'
Yes, now we are SUPER happy! :D {insert heavy sarcasm}
Now a second time, Kevin AND Grant this time, go back up to the office to find any spark of help they can. And as soon as they walk away, a car that is leaving comes through the gate and their side of the gate goes up (you know the one arm kind, like at a railroad crossing). So I jump in the driver's seat and see if I can drive through the wrong side. No luck. The gate comes back down before I can get there.
But that sparks brilliant idea #123... Kevin and Grant decide they are going to save the day so they prepare for war (ok maybe that's a bit strong). They prepare to endure the pouring buckets. They are going to go out and try to stand, dance, jump, any form of action that might help the exit side gate open up, as if they are a vehicle exiting the park. However, as soon as they get their jig on, guess what...
LOUD CRACKING THUNDER! Knowing it sounded awfully close Kevin hesitated, sure enough....
LIGHTENING! BIG BRIGHT CLOSE LIGHTENING!
You should have seen those boys book it back to the tin can! lol Oh I wish I would have been with it enough to snap a photo but I'm sure your imaginations will work just fine! ;)
So there we sit in the pitch dark pouring rain, thunder and lightening and stopped at a closed gate which sits between us and our desired nights rest at our campsite. What to do now????
I think we probably tried all the phone numbers again but with no luck.
So in our absolute weariness we decided to pull the tin can into some parking places on the side of the registration building just so we could rest our weary heads for the night. Which wasn't really much of a rest at all considering we were on a slope, we kept worrying about someone knocking on our door all night asking us what we were doing and lastly I think we were both forming our review of the campground in our head!!!! Lol
Kevin did get up and go into the office the next morning and they said the gate was supposed to have been already open for us!?! Hmmmm...... is that right!?! So they refunded our money and said we could go ahead and park in what was supposed to be our spot for the previous night in order to dump our tanks and take showers.
Phew.... so glad we made it through that day! ;)
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