Our Trip to IL.......Part 5 Saying Goodbye, Coming Home & Secrets Revealed

On Thursday morning we bid adieu to Sonya Ann and Den.....well Den was at work so we said our goodbyes to him the night before.

Before we get into how this day went I want to say a few things about my cousin, Sonya.
She had a serious Halloween addiction.
The glimpses of her Halloween decorating she has shared on her BLOG are just the tip of the iceberg!
Oh yes!

Sonya Ann and Den are very serious about Halloween.
Not like those people who do stuff like THIS or THIS......yet!
Yah, she'll probably get some ideas from these clips, right? ;-)

She does do decorating the outside the house.  Her hedges were spider webbed and lit up plus there is a freestanding ghoul by the front door,  but I forgot to take a picture of all that.
But not only does she decorate outside her house for Halloween, she decorates inside too!
And I don't mean a pumpkin or witch or two.
No.

Every freaking room was outfitted for Oct. 31st!!
Even the bedroom with the "crippler" in it had Halloweenie stuff on the dresser.

THIS is what greets you at the back door.........

And in the kitchen she's got this on the fridge........

And this one by the stove......

Here's the living room.......

All the framed art is covered in black, the lamp too, the sofas have sheets on them and the curio cabinet in the corner looks like a gigantic Grim Reeper.

If you sit on the sofa and look out her picture window this is what you see(you see a part of the giant spider outside on the hedge too)......

Can you tell he is my favorite? lolz

And the "piece de resistance" is the satanic altar by the front door............

To me, Ms. Minimalist Decorations Sluggy, this all is way over the top.
But hey, I know people who do this and more for Christmas decorating.
Why not Halloween if that floats your boat?!?

I have to admit it is fun.........as long as "I" don't have to put all this away on Nov. 1st. ;-)


I have done a pretty thorough paper trail/family tree genealogy on Cousin Sonya but I discovered something on this trip that makes me doubt if we are really related.

I may have to convince SA to take a dna test because I suspect there is some Greek blood in her somewhere that I haven't found in the family tree.

And just why do I suspect she's got some Greek in her?
Why this.......

A bottle of generic Windex.

This is Sonya's constant companion when she is home.  She if forever cleaning!  
Oh the horrors!!!

Every time I turned around she was squirting generic Windex on something or someone, just like Gus Portokalos.........

So now I have outed you Sonya.
Here's your sign.......

So back to the travelogue--
We left Thursday morning after a couple of photos to memorialize the day.
First Sonya tried to hide behind the cat.........

That's better.......

We waved goodbye and hit the road toward Southern Illinois.  We decided to take a more Southerly route back east to avoid the Indiana and Ohio Turnpike(and all those tolls).  We still had to pass through Illinois Toll Hell until we got past Chicagoland(and I already blogged about the clusterf**k of not having a tollbooth on some exits).

Here are the sights driving along the highway--
A Cubs billboard, right after they lost the title to the Mets.
I told Hubs(who is a diehard Mets fan)we really needed to get out of Chi-Town fast before someone found out he rooted against the Cubs.

Now you don't see billboards like this were I live.
$10 Tuesdays at the strip club......

We got behind a fleet of shiny new fire engines at one tollbooth going South to their new homes..

So we made good time traveling South and we had arranged to stop in Mattoon to see Hubs sister.
This is the same sister who we went out to see 2 Summers ago when she got married(not that that marriage "stuck").
We had lunch and I snapped this photo of them before we left town.........

Man was it hot for late October!  Look at this bank sign........

We had to drive through Charleston IL after our lunch date and right by the University.....the main building of which looks like a castle.......

I spied the King and Queen of the castle standing on the sidewalk outside.........wtf?
It couldn't have been Homecoming or something because it was a Thursday??

We drove until dark and stopped on the eastern edge of Indiana for the night.
Next morning we overslept and missed the free hot breakfast at the motel so we hit Taco Bell after filling the car and before hitting the highway.......

I had my first taco biscuit.  It was strange but tasty.

But I can't think of the word "biscuit" anymore without thinking of that Honey Boo Boo Show and Mama June's definition of a "biscuit".  *snort*


Our approach into Columbus......big buildings............

We stopped mid afternoon for a snack when we refilled the gas tank in the car.

1 little WC slider kept our tummies from rumbling until we stopped for dinner at a truck stop with a Denny's.

I was tempted by this t-shirt at the truck stop(after so long in a car for 2 days with Hubs ya know!).....

The scenery on the trip home through western and central PA was a bit more colorful that it had been on the trip out to IL......

We got home before dark after an uneventful 2 day drive home in which we didn't stop even one time to buy liquor.  Shocking I know!
Sometimes uneventful is GOOD. ;-)

It seems like it's been 6 months since we took this trip but it hasn't even been 2 months yet.
We had fun and enjoyed good company and I am ready to do it all again.
Thanks for hosting us Sonya and Den!  8-))

Sluggy

Our Trip to IL.....Part 4 PTSD, Old Stuff & ERs

Monday and Den went to work although he felt like crap still.
So what did Hubs, Sonya and I do?
Why we went off on an adventure north to Wisconsin to an Apple Farm/Destination called Apple Holler.

This was a Pick Ur Own Apple Orchard/Farm with Fall activities for the kids, Pumpkins, Animals, etc.
They also have a fresh bakery, a gift shop with food/drinks and a restaurant.

Of course we couldn't find the entrance once we got off the interstate and made a big circuitous 5 mile drive around the place before finally finding the entrance.

The place was packed with cars and school buses full of little kids and I had a brief PTSD episode in the car before we went into the restaurant.
You see, when College Boy was in Kindergarten I was a classroom mom for his class and had to chaperone a field trip to a local to us place just like this one.

I had to watch 5 little 5 year old boys on that trip and one of them was totally out of control.  2 of my little charges spent half the day tracking down ADD Boy and dragging him back to the group with me. ADD Boy was climbing on buildings and ended up in the fenced off area with some animals(wasn't suppose to be in there of course).  All those little kids running around took me back to that bad, bad day.....

Anyway, after I got over the flashback, we wandered around outside and waited on Sonya's mother in-law, Donna, to arrive.

The plan was to meet here for lunch in the restaurant and then us gals would go off thrift store shopping for the afternoon and Hubs could drive back alone to Sonya's house for some quiet downtime.

The restaurant was cute and country-ish and we sat out on the enclosed porch and stuffed ourselves.

Here's a photo from across the table.......

Donna insisted on paying for lunch.  That was so sweet and totally awesome!

We wandered around the bakery and gift shop for awhile.

I have no clue why I took a photo of this jar of pickles. lolz

After lunch we bid goodbye to Hubs and went off in 2 minivans to hit the Goodwill Circuit in this part of Wisconsin.
Hey, we were in the neighborhood so why not, right?

We had a devil of a time finding the first store as it was hidden behind and to the side and down a hill from a Walmart.  But we persevered and finally got there.

I think I bought a few things(including 1 of the items in the Giveaway this month)and some books.

These aren't all the books I got in IL/WI at the thrift stores and a couple I got other times/places but this is what I was working through in November.  Missing are a biography on Cole Porter and a book I finished before we left Sonya's house.

I found a set of interesting music cds of music from the War Between the States Era.....

While in the second Goodwill Store we hit Sonya got a phone call from Den.  Still not feeling well he had left work early and gone to the clinic.  They were sending him to the Emergency Room as his throat was almost closed up! Donna gave me a lift back to Sonya's house and Sonya hightailed it to the ER.

As it was dinner time Hubs and I went down the road for a meal at Culver's.

If you have to have fast food, Culver's is the way to go.  I sure wish they had these in PA.
I had Hubs get me a "concrete" for dessert but he came back with an XL one and I could only eat 1/4 of it.  Seems a shame to throw out good ice cream but oh well......

Sonya came home a couple of hours later with Den.  They had to scrape an infection in his throat, sent him home until the next day and put him on a myriad of pills.
Hubs went with Sonya that evening to an all night pharmacy that they had to call the meds into since it was in a bad part of town.
What a guy........

On Tuesday Hubs and I made an excursion into Wisconsin.
We hit some bad traffic heading north....

But soon hit the state line........

We hit the Sprecher's Brewery gift shop for a few things but Hubs didn't want to buy anything until after we had lunch at their restaurant a few miles north of the brewery.

So we went a couple of miles into downtown Glendale Wisconsin to the "mall" for lunch at the Sprecher's Brew Pub Restaurant.......

"Mall" is a misnomer.  It's really a shopping district downtown with not much parking(outside of the parking garage which we didn't see until we were leaving the town).  Hubs dropped me off at the restaurant and I waited outside for him to find a place to park and hike back to where I was.

Hey! What's that across the street?
A Vera Bradley store......I was tempted to take off for it but I resisted.

I hung out with Rooty the Griffin instead.......

The parking was metered so our leisurely lunch wasn't so leisurely.
We did have time for some drinks however........

Why oh why did we get this fried cheese curds appetizer?!?
By the time we chowed down on those I was full!

But I still had a cheese curd topped burger to eat, not to mention the side of beer cheese potatoes.......ugh.

Hubs had a duo of Wisconsin sausages and a jalapeno cole slaw.

OMGosh.....I got a quarter of the way through that burger and had to fly the white flag of surrender.
I don't think I've EVER said it's just TOO MUCH CHEESE before until now. lolz
So I just ate the meat outta the sandwich.

We waddled back to the car in a cheese coma.  After another stop at the brewery gift shop to actually BUY things this time, we hit the road back to IL making a quick stop at the outlets in Pleasant Prairie WI.  I wanted to check out the Pepperidge Farms outlet there.  The skies opened up and I stood out in a lightning storm waiting for Hubs to notice me on the curb and come pick me up in the car.  He must of been playing with his phone though and I ended up running to the car before a bolt of lightning took me out.

A strange massive inflatable at a car dealership seen on the way back to Sonya's house.

Later that day we found out that the infection Den got started at his dental cleaning.  They must have nicked his throat during his appointment and by Monday the infected place was so big it was closing up his airway.
Yikes!  I don't blame him if he never wants to go back to that dentist!!
He was on meds the rest of the time we were at their house which cut down on the amount of drinking that went on. ;-)

With Den on the mend by Wednesday and back to work Sonya and I had some "girl time".  Hubs took a trip east to visit an Indian Museum by himself and Sonya Ann and I hit the road to check out her personal thrift store circuit.
Yep, SA has all the thrift shops scoped out in these parts.

I lost count but I think we hit 5, or was it 6?,  of them that day.

This was one of my intriguing finds....an entire collection of Princess Diana calendars for every year for 15 years. All new and unused?!
Why people, why???

Just one of the innumerable Goodwill's we went into........

This penguin platter/tray was cute........but not something I needed.

We even hit a Salvation Army store.  We only have Salvation Army stores here and no Goodwills.  In IL SAs are a sad, sad affair......dark, dirty, overpriced and ramshackle.
The Goodwills on the other hand are well lit, organized and have good prices.

We even hit one of these thrift stores where the merchandise(and prices)were a bit more upscale. Unfortunately I didn't find anything here that met my needs.

Soon it was time for a late lunch and Sonya Ann took me to Portillo's.  She kept raving about this place so we did lunch there.

I had a really nice salad with chicken and Sonya had a soup and sandwich plate.  Next time(and you know, there WILL be a next time!)I need to try something Italian.  The smells in that place were amazing....

I got another couple of photos of Sonya Ann.  You know she REALLY detests having her picture taken but yah, I just keep torturing her....lolz

Smile SA!!

That's better....

So she returned the favor and took my photo outside.

And then we had another "selfie fail" in the wind........I think you can see a booger hanging outta my nose.......*snort*
And we can't even blame the drinking on this fail! '-)

After lunch we walked around Hobby Lobby.......

Aha! Santa's elves are pervs......

Ribs on a bbq grill ornaments........

I couldn't get this sock monkey hat on my big fat head, no matter how I tried but that didn't stop me from having Sonya take my pic in it.

And nothing says "Christmas" like a little chainsaw hanging on your tree..........

Unless it's a shotgun shell wreath and a rifle..........

We had a blast just poking around in stores and talking.
That night Hubs sprung for take-out pizza(and a sub for SA)and we just hung out.
So ended Day 7 of the trip.

Sluggy