Holidays of 2009 - 1st in a 6-part series

I have decided to do a 6-part series of the holidays for 2009. The one that has just occurred and our XMAS.

Part I.

I broke a driving record on a wonderful trip to Ithaca, WI without any unnecessary risks. I live in a SW suburb of Chicago and was going to Ithaca, Wisconsin which is an hour west of Madison, WI. Ithaca, my hometown, is where I grew up all of my 20 years and is where my parents still live. Population growing up was about 30, and it's about 70 now. My high school graduating class was 29 seniors

Now, it's about 220 miles from my current home and about a 4 hr. trip. I wanted to get to Ithaca by 11 am. which meant leaving around 7. That meant getting the kids up around 6:30. They had to be all set before they got up - packed, know what they'll where on the trip and what they would wear for Thanksgiving.

We travel on I-90, and when you are traveling north of Chicago, you have to pay around $3 going from the Illinois border to Chicago. We also had to travel on I-294 which is another toll road as well. You get a discount for using the I-Pass, and you don't have to stop to pay, your mobile transponder pays the toll while you are going 30+ mph. Maribeth was nice enough to give me her I-Pass. (MB works at Loyola and has to pay twice each time she goes to work). We packed, we gassed the car, and we were 1/2 hour late and didn't leave until 7:30. I didn't think that was terrible, and what I suspected came true. Only a few motorists would be on the road on Thanksgiving morning.

After an hour or so of driving with no jams, no stops & smooth sailing, I was getting ahead of schedule. If you can go a couple hours doing nothing but 70some miles an hour, you can cover a pleasing amount of distance. Maybe I could get to Ithaca in under 4 hours! The thing that helped the most, by far, was no stops. No stops for gas, for the bathroom, for eating something, just moving northwest at 70some miles an hour. Things kept getting better; we crossed into Wisconsin, and it wasn't even 2 hours into the trip - it was closer to 1 1/2 hrs. Crossing into Wisconsin from Illinois is always significant, because that marks exactly the 1/2way point of a 4 hour trip.

Later, we drove on the Beltline of Madison which meant we only had about an hour. IT WAS ONLY 10 AM! So, I turned and said to my 3 kids (who were behaving great on the trip and mostly sleeping through the trip), "If you don't stop for a bathroom break, you can spend $10 at Walmart Friday instead of $5". (No, that isn't much money either way, but like my parents, I try to keep on budget and cut costs!) So, they, too, were fired up about making Ithaca by the 11:00 target! Closer and closer and the excitement rose. We were in the same county as Ithaca (Richland County).

We rolled into my parents' driveway, and it was 10:47. We got out of the car beaming!!!

Out of all of the times I drove to Wisconsin since 1989. This was the time when I broke the record for the best time from Chicago to Ithaca. DRIVEN IN UNDER 3 1/2 HOURS!!