When Doug and I made plans to go to Florida together, one item that we had to make allowances for was the fact that I would have to pick him up at the airport when he returned. We didn't want to have two cars at the airport for over a week and Doug really wanted to avoid Midway Airport if possible. Fortunately, we were able to get him a flight into Indianapolis today, so I didn't have to drive back into Chicago on a Friday afternoon. Although our plan started off well, today ended up being a very long traffic day for me.
When I realized that Meg was moving out of her dorm apartment on the same day that I'd be picking up Doug in Indy, I decided that I would leave early in the morning and stop in Bloomington to help her organize her belongings at Brett's apartment. I would also get a chance to see Brett as we hadn't been to B-Town since the beginning of April. In the end my decision led to nine hours in the car. Had I known that, I probably would have just driven to Indy and skipped the Bloomington trip.
My day started off late as Cameron had forgotten his lunch and then his key had gotten stuck in the ignition when he stopped at Casey's for a Friday morning snack. We sorted all of that out and I was on the road by 7:45, only 15 minutes later than I planned. The GPS still had me arriving in Bloomington by 11:15 a.m. so I just changed my plan to see Brett at his apartment and instead catch him at Storage Express before he headed into work. All seemed to be going well until I got to Carmel. I realized at that time that my expected time of arrival kept getting later and later. I called Brett once I got to Martinsville to let him know that there was no way that I could arrive before 11:45 a.m. well after his start time at work. He decided that it would be ok if I stopped by his parking lot for a quick hug and to give him his small gifts from Disney World. I was glad to see him even if only for a few seconds and he was happy with his Duck Tales socks and Oswald pin.
I then made my way to Brett's apartment to help Meg. She was still working Bell Trace's lunch shift, but I was able to get a lot done before she finished. She and Nick had gotten everything out of her apartment last night and had put away her clothes and several other items as well. I unpacked and organized the rest of her bags and boxes in Brett's living room while Nick cleaned out and moved her fridge, fans and a few other items as well. By the time she arrived, we had made a good dent in the pile. We ordered lunch at McAllister's and a pizza at Mother Bear's for Cam and Doug's dinner. I appreciated Nick picking it all up for us, so I could continue helping Meg and give her the Disney utensils I had picked up at the Boardwalk store in Orlando. She loved them and by the time Nick got back, we had everything organized, so that all that she had to was put the rest of it in tubs and place the tubs into Brett's two storage areas.
I ate lunch with Nick and Meg and left by 2:45. I couldn't believe how quickly my time in Bloomington had flown by. Besides the pizza, I had also ordered Doug and Cam breadsticks from Pizza Express. I stopped there before leaving town and was on the road by 2:55. I was glad to see that my GPS said that I would arrive at the airport in an hour and ten minutes. Doug's flight had been delayed, so I would have plenty of time to get to the airport before he arrived and even get in some steps as I was only at 3500 on the day. The closer I got to Martinsville, the more my phone kept rerouting me through the town. I was extremely disappointed to see the time to Indy increase rapidly. In Martinsville, traffic came to a complete standstill and I finally decided to get off of the suggested path and drive through the downtown area. I don't know if it saved me time, but at least I felt like I was moving forward. By the time I reached 67, I had spent over an hour in the car and was only halfway to the airport.
Traffic was still heavy the rest of the trip, but there weren't anymore long traffic delays. I did have to drive around one accident and through the town of Mooresville, but thankfully I was able to reach the airport just as Doug's plane landed. The parking garage was packed, but I did manage to find a spot and meet him right as he walked out of the terminal. I was excited to be reunited with him and ready to get back home. Unfortunately, Southwest had a different idea and we had to wait an extra half hour for his luggage due to lightening strikes in the area. After an already long day of traveling, I was frustrated, but still happy to see Doug and thankful that I would have time to get in 5000 more steps before we left the airport.
I enjoyed visiting with Doug on the way home and was glad that rush hour traffic had cleared out by the time we had left. He appreciated that I had saved him half of my McAllister sandwich as he hadn't eaten much today. That allowed us to drive without stopping. I called Cameron on the way home to let him know that we'd be later than I originally planned, but had pizza and breadsticks for him in the cooler for his dinner. Our trip from there went well until we reached Wabash. We got stuck in a fifteen minute traffic jam on state road 13 while cars lined up to get into the drive-in theater. I couldn't believe it.
Thankfully, we made it past the movie traffic and were finally home by 8:45. Cameron was happy to see us and to enjoy his favorite Mother Bear's pizza, Paulie's Pine Nuts. I was so incredibly glad to be out of the Pilot. I had spent nine hours of my day in it and was more than ready to be done traveling for awhile. After dinner Doug broke out the Ticket to Ride games and we played multiple rounds while I walked around the house finishing out the last of my 10,000 steps.
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