Chicago: Into the Storm.

Well, we arrived here safely in Chicago early this morning (around 1:30am) after about 18 1/2 hours of driving. We left northern Colorado early Monday morning intending on staying a little ahead of the storm that is supposed to cripple two thirds of the country as they say on the weather channel. From the get go we were in freezing rain and the wind really killed the gas mileage causing us to stop and fill up way more than we wanted too. We had an interesting trip as far as luck goes starting with our awesome idea to bring the bottle warmer in the car to heat up bottles. We borrowed a power inverter from a friend so we could plug in things into the cig lighter. Neither one of us figured the bottle warmer would require 300 watts! which as a result blew the fuse on our extra power outlet. If blowing one wasnt enough, our infinite wisdom to plug it into our main power outlet right after took out our other power source, rendering us GPS-less and unable to plug in the portable dvd player we got to entertain Zach in the back. Further into Nebraska the freezing rain wasn't letting up and the windshield visibility was ridiculous. The blades froze up and even with the defrost on full blast only a third of the glass was clear. It made it so we had to stop more often, not only to fill up because of the bad gas mileage, but cleaning the blades and buying more and more wiper fluid/de-icer.  About half way through Nebraska Debra and I thought about the power outlet situation, and getting fuses without really taking us out of the way. On the next stop (thankfully, a Truck-Stop) we picked up a variety pack of fuses, with the intent of stopping at a friend of mines house in Omaha to use his garage to get out of the wind. By now we had gone through 2 gallons of washer fluid and filled up 3 times. Just before getting to Omaha, having to stop yet again for gas and bathroom breaks we decided to tackle the fuse job right then and there. After a little arguing over the exact location of the proper fuse (Debra won) we successfully changed out the faulty fuses and were on our way. Through Iowa the freezing rain got worse but the wind died a bit, and just outside of Des Moines we decided to find a Wal-Mart or Target and get new blades thinking that would help. The GPS was great but just before turns it would update to the next part of the route causing a little confusion. So on our hunt for the closest Wally world, I (Pat) made Debra turn at the wrong spot putting us way out of our original course and we ended up stopping at a little gas station to get more washer fluid and I cleaned off the blades. Thinking all the stops were getting out of hand I picked up 3 extra gallons of de-icer, since by now we had gone through 4 gallon re-fills and wiped down the blades.  We decided against buying new blades and found our way back to the interstate. Once back on the road, for some reason the windshield was perfect and we barely had to use any fluid at all. That figured since I had just bought all the extra de-icer! With the many many stops behind us and the kids in the back being very good, we decided to keep on truckin and finish up the trip, no matter what time we got into Chicago.  Coming into the greater Chicago area, the snow thinkened and the slush started to build. The plows being on the streets actually seemed to make it worse and getting around them the streets were better in front of them...crazy. Right around O'hare a witty group of snowplows decided to form a line across all six lanes and go 25 miles an hour. As iritable as we were after the 18 hours of driving, this was not workling for us! We passed the line on the left in the shoulder and like before it was clear in front of the plows, got on our way.  We found the hotel and got checked in around 1:30-1:45am. By the time we were unloading the car the snow was coming in sideways and the temp was really dropping. Sooooo, we're here, we made it safely, and we're ready for the next chapter of this journey!