4 hours? I don't think so.

To truly appreciate the wonderful time we had at the lake, the story of how we got there simply must be told.

Amber: "It's probably going to take you almost 4 hours to get there on Friday, just so you can be mentally prepared for that."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. After taking 2 hours to get out of Chicago (I could have walked to Indiana faster), next thing we know we are in a parking lot on the Indiana Toll Road. A put the car in park, turn it off, and get out to mingle with the truckers Parking Lot.

What do we do? What CAN we even do? How long can they keep us trapped here? At 0 miles an hour... maybe forever. My bladder is not going to make it forever. Surely the Green Bean can't hop the median like some SUVs are doing... Do we turn around and drive on the shoulder hoping for some other way to cross the median? What do they do to U-turning drivers on toll roads? Surely the exit toll people will notice on our ticket that we got on going the other way... Maybe it's a fine? How much are we willing to pay to get out of this mess? $20? $30? Who cares anymore, get me out of here!

After our highly illegal trip the wrong way down the gravel on our way to cross the median(with lots of friends of course), followed by several miles of backtracking through Indiana before the toll road would let us off (Chicago was just trying to pull us back into their traffic jam!) we ultimately ended up in an ENORMOUS line to get off the toll road. A manual pay-your-toll-to-a-real-person toll booth, this was no I-Pass lane folks. But this line was at least moving. Slowly but surely, the end was in sight. While in this line, we noticed that the police had completely shut down the toll road going that direction and were forcing all the cars to get off. I guess they decided that an overturned semi blocking ALL lanes of traffic, allowing NO cars through was reason enough to reroute people.

Best line of the night:

Bryan called Ryan with the news of our latest delay, asking him to check on a map to see what other options we could have. Ryan calls back a few minutes later with the news...

Ryan: "You're in luck my friend! About 5 miles ahead of you you can get off the toll road and---"

Bryan: "Hahaha. You don't understand. We haven't moved 1 centimeter since I last talked to you. The car is turned off. Michelle's outside. 5 miles ahead does me NO good."

Ha ha ha.

A few shots from our 6.5 hour adventure: