The drive back from Wooster is, like the drive there, 3 hours (plus change). I left Wooster around 3:30 and got home at 8:50. Why so late? Well, this camp was by far the best B-WISER camp ever. But the drive home was by far the WORST drive home ever. Blech!
Construction on I-71 – of course, there’s usually construction on interstate highways. Areas of slowdown, but nothing major in the way of delays. 5 minutes max for the delay.
Sawmill Road – My usual rest stop on the way back from B-WISER is a trip to the MediaPlay just off Sawmill Road in Columbus. I take I-71 south to I-270 west and take the Sawmill Road exit. But today, EVERYONE was taking the Sawmill Road exit. And what’s worse is that there wasn’t anything at MediaPlay for me to buy! Wah! I miss my half-price computer books! (Well, I missed ’em, but my pocket book didn’t!) Still, the Sawmill Road rest was only about 10 minutes traffic and half an hour shopping or so.
After I-270 comes I-70. There was a bit of slowdown before I got to I-70, but once I was there, we all just speeded along west. And then, half an hour to home (well, just over that) we hit the BOTTLENECK FROM HELL!!!! To give you some perspective, I text messaged judiang about 10 times during my long, long wait. At one point, I hadn’t moved a jot between text messages that were about 15 minutes apart! It took one hour and 20 minutes to get out of that bottleneck – usually the same drive is less than 2 minutes. BLECH! Towards the end, it looked like it might have even been construction (my hope) but instead, it was a car accident (what I hoped it hadn’t been). A single white car, which had had the jaws of life used upon it. 🙁 I hope the people involved are OK! (Though the j-o-l is never a good sign.) I must admit that I was relieved when I saw it was a white car and not a gray van. Two of my camp co-workers go home the same route as I do and had left before me. They were in a gray van.
The whole time I was in the bottleneck, I was nursing a 24 oz Pepsi Cola. (I don’t normally drink caffeinated Pepsi, but for long drives, it’s best if I caffeine up.) So, of course, before we were out of the bottleneck, I needed to pee. Before I could get home to my kitty, I stopped at the McDonald’s in West Milton and used the restroom before getting supper for me (and Leo, it turns out). And then, finally, I was HOME! With Leo! Who was VERY happy to see me.
After refreshing Leo’s water and food bowls (nearly empty and empty respectively), I had my Big Mac & fries, and Leo stole a fry from me and happily munched on teeny pieces of burger that I pulled off for him. So we’re now happy that we’re together again! Woohoo! Oh, and as tired as I am, the hot chocolate at breakfast, Coca Cola at lunch, and the 24-oz Pepsi on the way home will make sure that I’ll not get any sleep tonight! 🙂