Anyway, left the house at 6:20, and only hit a little slow-down around O'Hare...didn't even make it to stop-and-go. And then after that, it was just whiz whiz whiz all the way up to Madison. It took about 2.5 hrs to Madison's outskirts, and just about 3 to Karen and Par's house. I think in the middle of the night, you could get door to door in 2.5 hrs with ease. If it were only an hour or so closer, I'd be bopping up here all the time.
The drive up was beautiful. I put on Loreena McKennitt's Book of Secrets to start, which is perfect for a grey misty day. As I turned onto the highway, a massive flight of birds exploded above me; I felt like I was driving through one of her songs. She carried me through past O'Hare, and when I hit the first toll booth, I switched her for Cat Stevens. The sun came out right around then, and me and Mr. Stevens got very cheerful in the car, sipping Kevin's coffee (I snagged his lovely silver coffee-hot-thingie for this trip), and munching a banana. The miles just disappeared, and I didn't really start getting tired until I got near Madison.
I arrived on Karen's doorstep at 9 (luckily, Tot had already woken her, though they were still in bed), and promptly sat down to watch Teletubbies with Tot, 'cause that was about how much brain power I had left. An hour or so later, I ransacked their kitchen and made myself a mushroom-onion-cheese omelette, yum. I finished Beth's critique (oh, so late), and now am officially ready to go to the convention. Which means, ready to hand over my car to Karen and catch a nice long nap, I suspect.
Enough journalling for now -- I'm going to go play with Tot while Karen finishes getting ready. Will update if I can, but if not, look for me again on Tuesday or so...