Driving Cross Country in the Hopes of Arriving on Time
The Adventure and Travel From My Hometown to My New Home, Chicago
Travel and Sports
This story is a hybrid. It’s a blend of travel and of a long-suffering baseball fan wanting to make it to a new home in time for a celebration. The date was November 2, 2016. This date might sound extremely familiar to any sports fans. Our moving truck and all of our possessions were ready to move along with the car that I was towing behind us on a hitch. The day, by the way, is the day that the Chicago Cubs broke the longest World Series and professional sports drought in history by winning for the first time in 108 years.
Moving Day
My partner and I had spent the day moving and cleaning out our apartment in what had turned out to be our very last day in Sacramento, California. I had been transferred for work. We were getting ready to drive cross country in a 24-foot moving van. We were ready to go to Chicago to transfer my job with Verizon Wireless there.
It was late since the game finished late at night due to going to extra innings. It was late but I was determined to get to Chicago in time, not only for my job, which was set to start November 7th but also for the parade scheduled for the night of the 4th. We had our cat with us in the cab in his cat carrier with the windows rolled down and his door open. We knew there would be no way for him to escape the spacious cab while we were on the road. We were ready to go.
Driving in the Hopes for a Major Celebration
I had two days to drive cross country if I wanted to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event. I was psyched. Even though Chicago wasn’t my favorite baseball team, they were certainly at least top 5 my whole life. The first baseball game I attended with my dad at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1990 was against the Chicago Cubs. By the way, the Cubs won that day 3–2. I was excited to continue following the Cubs after I had attended that game.
Cubs Baseball Was a Huge Part of My Life
I was treated to some good baseball in the 1990s. There were a few good teams in the early 2000s as well, even without the help of Steve Bartman. Okay, Chicago fans, don’t get mad at me for that last reference, you should’ve already had the game in hand before a random fan blocked your chances. You know goat curses and such. The Chicago Cubs finally made it over the hump and it was the day I was scheduled to leave my hometown and live somewhere else for the very first time.
Intertwining the Travel and the Historic Win/Getting On The Road
I felt like my move and leaving my hometown had some part to play in helping to break that curse. I know this in my brain to be a logical fallacy but in my heart, I felt that I wanted to be a part of that story. I drove like the wind and didn’t want to stop at all except to sleep for a couple of hours here and there. The first stop was later that same night. I slept for four hours on the side of the road near Reno, Nevada, just a couple of hours outside of our hometown. Then it was time to drive again. We got to Winnemucca, Nevada. I was still tired.
Ground to Make Up
We decided to stop and eat and rest for the rest of the day until we left again in the early morning on Thursday. I started to be resigned to the fact that this trip would take longer than I expected and that I may not make it in time to participate in this citywide celebration. I had only driven about 4 1/2 hours at this point and had worn myself down. It had only been a little over a day and we had only traveled a little over 300 miles. We had some ground to make up.
Salt Lake City
The next stop on our trip was going to be when it got too dark to drive safely again. I got to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was Thursday night. We were less than 24 hours away from the parade. At this point, we had driven 650 miles but we were still less than halfway there. We were still in the West. I figured that there was no way to make it to Chicago in time. I started to get disappointed and dejected. We ended up stopping at a Days Inn for the night near the Salt Lake City airport. There was plenty of room for truck parking and comfortably fit our truck and our car across multiple spaces.
The Day of the Parade and the Realization
Friday was coming when we were set to wake up next and I was still about 1,400 miles away from the city I was moving to. It was time to abandon hope. There was no way to make it to the parade in time when we woke up. The drive would be at least another 21 hours, and I didn’t want to tire myself out. We slowed down and were set to celebrate the Chicago Cubs win in our own way away from the crowds. We had to make this trip special now since there was no logical or safe way for us to make it to the parade in time. We not only had to consider our own fatigue and pain. We also had our old man, our cat, with us and he needed to rest and get some air, too. He had food and water in his carrier with him and we put a mini litterbox in there for him to do his business.
We started driving and then just enjoying the landscape around us through the mountains.
Good Old Wyoming
A lot of our drive this day was us going through beautiful, spacious, wide-open Wyoming on Interstate 80. We stopped once at a Walmart in Evanston, just across the Utah-Wyoming border near a gun and fireworks shop. Yes, Wyoming is very fond of both of these things. The state is a famous open carry state and they absolutely love their cheap fireworks. We even saw a few men carrying their rifles with them inside the Walmart while we were grabbing snacks and supplies.
Sense of Adventure
Our next stop wouldn’t be until all the way across the state in what seemed to take nearly the whole day when we stopped for gas in the state capital of Cheyenne, also Wyoming’s largest and most famous city. It was getting late. I still had a sense of adventure and still wanted to at least get closer to the events that were happening at this moment. The parade was happening while we were in Wyoming. We stretched, got some food, celebrated our own personal victories of getting out of our home state of California. My partner and I were road warriors, and adventurers.
Alternative Travel Plans and Stopping Again for the Final Time to Sleep
We could’ve flown and had our stuff shipped over to Chicago, but we wanted to experience what the country, at least along Interstate 80 had to offer, and we weren’t going to let the disappointment of missing the parade cloud our adventure. I kept driving for a few more hours after this until I could drive no more. We had to stop. We stopped in North Platte, Nebraska. It was the middle of the night. We were tired. We had to sleep and the Comfort Inn seemed to offer the thing that would live up to its name. Our cat loved the motel, too. He was so comfortable and content.
Getting Lucky in Nebraska
We woke up to a beautiful November day in Nebraska. They had said that normally around this time of year, there would be storms and road closures, but that we had picked the perfect time of year to travel across the interstate from California. I needed this trip to be clear to get to my next destination and essentially the next chapter of my life. We had already stopped more times than I had anticipated. I needed to go to the bathroom often and the interstate had a lot of rest stops.
“Trucker Bombs” and the Last Day of Driving
When I didn’t want to stop, I did what my partner liked to nickname “trucker bomb” (apparently this is a common practice with truckers) which apparently means filling jugs up with urine so that you can keep driving. I did that multiple times as well on the way there. I’m a diabetic and I just had to keep moving and didn’t want to stop. My legs started getting really cramped and sore from all of the driving I had done at that point. We had now driven 19 hours and over 1,300 miles. We were about 10–12 hours out of Chicago and about 700 miles away from our new home. We had missed the festivities of the previous day but now at this point, we were just looking to get there and finally get some proper rest without having to go too much further.
World’s Largest Truck Stop and the Mighty Mississippi
Saturday was the most eventful part of our trip. We drove through Omaha, Nebraska, all of Iowa (not to knock it, but there’s not much to see here). We stopped at the World’s Largest Truck Stop, which lies along Interstate 80 just before Davenport, Iowa, in a small town called Walcott, just before the Mississippi River. We had a chance to get more supplies, reload, and also get more gas, throw away our animal waste, and get cat food.
We were about to cross the largest river in the United States and one of the most important river systems in the world. I had never seen or even been close to this mighty river before. I didn’t know what to expect. It took minutes as we started driving across this vast expanse of water. It was a sight to see. Absolutely gorgeous.
Arriving in Our New Home State
We were now in Illinois, it was Saturday evening. We were about a day late to get to Chicago, and we were still about 150–200 miles away from our destination. We were now just going to drive and enjoy the rest of our drive through the countryside of Illinois. I want to note that this is the first time, with the exception of the toll bridges in the Bay Area of California, that I had run into toll plazas in the middle of the interstate.
Going Off The Interstate
We had gone off the main interstate now and were traveling north on an unfamiliar highway. Our GPS was taking us further north into the state to pass through Rockford, one of Illinois’ largest cities not named Chicago. It was taking us over to the 90 instead so we had to go further north and through some back roads to accomplish this goal. It was starting to get late and I couldn’t really enjoy much of the Illinois countryside. Most of the scenery outside of the Chicago area isn’t very scenic, to begin with, but I still felt a bit robbed.
Getting Into Town
My job was in a town northwest of the actual city in a town called Rolling Meadows and our hotel reservations were in the quiet suburb of Arlington Heights, a bordering suburb, and just five minutes down the street from my office building. We were just mere hours away from our destination. The calendar technically ticked into early Sunday morning, the 6th. The day before I was supposed to start my new job.
We certainly didn’t make it to the city by the night of the 4th but we definitely had an adventure along the way, mostly comprised of hotels, countryside, truck stops, and gas stations. We were closing in on the Chicago area. We made it to the hotel at 3:00 am that morning.
Our New Home
We were beat tired but we had finally made it to our new home. Our semi cross-country travel by moving truck had been completed. We arrived at the Red Roof Inn, our temporary home we would hold for two weeks in our new home city before we got our new apartment a mere 15 minutes away from the hotel. We moved to the industrial town of Elk Grove Village, just west of the famous O’Hare International Airport.
Adventure for Baseball and the Open Road and Going Back to Chicago
What was the point of sharing the baseball story with the travel story? Well, those two events were intertwined and shaped our adventure to a new home. The Cubs will always be a memory I attach to the longest driving adventure of my life. I gained plenty of road and travel tips that I can currently apply to my next adventure in my tiny home. Going back to Chicago from dreary Northwestern Pennsylvania in the next week or two. Until next time, Globetrotters. Stay tuned for my next travel adventure story.
