So many miles, so many yarns!

So in my completely delusional state, I thought it would be a swell idea to drive all 900 miles from my house to scenic Illinois, to avoid having to park my car here at the outrageously expensive Newark/Liberty airpot parking garage, buy a plane ticket to Chicago, and then rent a car to get me around to all of my events. Why not just drive? Why not? Because it is boooooooooring and you can’t knit when you are supposed to be steering. But off I went, and here are some musings and photos from the first part of the trip.

The photo above amused me no end. This “Insect Identification Drop Box” was nailed in the window of an attorney’s office in Stroudsburg, PA. I really hope there is a pest control office in there too, or this guy has a really odd hobby. Love Stroudsburg. I stopped there for some coffe, but there was a terribly cool looking Irish pub there since the last time I visited, so I will have to go back in the evening hours some night soon and knock backa few Harps.

I drove quite some ways on Tuesday last, and wound up driving through some awful thunderstorms in western Ohio. Since in the interest of fuel economy I was driving the weenie Toyota and not my usual min-van, I was feeling a little exposed to the elements. But I wish I could have taken some photos – the lightning was close, and as it was moving off the quality of light was amazing – I wish I could have captured it somehow.

Tuesday night I pulled over in Fremont, In and grabbed a motel room. I was anxiously trying to figure out what time I would have to get going to get to Unique Yarns in Rockford when the light dawned – I would gain an hour because of the time zone difference! Yay! So I took a leisurely drive around Chicago (which made me vow to be less critical of New York City driving in the future since I thought Chicago was much worse!) and check into the hotel in Rockford.

After an amazing transformation from schleppy road-rage enduring long distance driver to actual female with brushed hair, mascara, and a dress on, I headed off to Unique. I was a little worried about the directions even though I was only a few miles away – John there had given me a different way to go than Maquest – but I knew I was on the right track when I saw this…

If only every venue put up my name in six foot letters so I would know I was in the right place!
I can’t say enough nice things about this store – it is lovely and spacious, the staff and the customers alike were friendly and fun to talk to and I kept leaping out of my chair to pet some yarn I had seen out of the corner of my eye.

And the best thing yet? See those beautiful flowers? I let slip on the phone 45 minutes before I got there that it was my birthday that day, and they ran out and got me that gorgeous bouquet! Which goes way above and beyond the call of friendly LYS!

More trip musings soon, right now I want to go take a nap – just got home last night and my brain is still driving…