Cross-Country Vacation
Day 14: The End of the Line
Saturday, September 16, 2006
We left Beloit before 9 and crossed from Wisconsin into Illinois. Traffic was light on the tollway and we made good time.
We ended up having enough time that I showed everyone where I used to live in Elk Grove Village and we went and visited the elk heard. Yes, there are elk in suburban Chicago. They are fenced in but have a fairly large area of the forest preserve to roam in. After all the elk we say in the great wide open, though, I did not bother to take any pictures of them.
We dropped Cheryl off at O'Hare and said our goodbyes. It had been a great trip.
The rest of us enjoyed having a little more room to relax.
I took the Kennedy (I-90) towards the loop so that everyone could get a look at the Chicago skyline but we did not stop anywhere. We just continued on I-90 into Indiana, and then hopped on I-94 into Michigan.
We got off the freeway in Holland with only about 15 more miles to go to Mary's place. At the first stop light we stopped at I heard a funny whining noise. It grew louder as I accelerated. Something was wrong. I turned at the next light and went a couple of blocks and pulled into the Meijer gas station. The Malibu was sluggish making those turns, too. We popped the hood and had a look.
The serpentine belt that runs from the alternator looked like it was rubbing by the power steering unit. At first I thought maybe the whole engine had shifted. The engine mounts had worn out once and been replaced. I had the oil changed right before starting the trip but had only checked it a couple of times along the way. The level still seemed fine, though. I started the engine back up and realized that the pulley that goes into the power steering was what had shifted. It had moved under the belt and was rubbing up against the unit.
With it being late in the afternoon on a Saturday I did not want to leave it there, and there was no one home at that moment to come pick us up, so I took it easy and we drove the Malibu the remaining 10 miles to Mary's.
Back in 2000 when we toured the southwest US we put just over 2000 miles on the Malibu in 2 weeks. I am writing just over a year after the cross country vacation took place, so I do not recall if I set the trip odometer or what it said, but we must have come close to doubling that and I drove nearly 4000 miles in 2 weeks this time.
In all we drove through parts of 13 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
I borrowed Mary's car to drive Dawn and George back to their place near Midland.
On Sunday Mary discovered that she had misread the price tag and spent over $300 on that purse and not $30.
I got the power steering unit replaced for less than the cost of her purse and delivered the car to Doug on Monday and flew back to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
It took me over a year to finally go through the photos and organize them. It was a daunting task as I took over 1400 photos and Cheryl over 900. I had to write all of this narrative from memory, and even I was surprised at how well some of the details came back to me. Cheryl and Dawn taking pictures of the signs at places helped, and looking at the maps again brought a lot of names back that I did not recall. It was a lot of fun for me to relive these memories, and I think that is because the trip was so much fun to begin with. The 2 weeks we spent traveling back in 2000 and the 2 weeks we spent going cross country on this trip are some of the best weeks I have ever had, and I look forward to taking another family trip again one of these years.
Day 14 Summary:
Start: Beloit, WI
End: Allendale, MI
By Way Of: Chicago, IL
Route: I-90, I-94, I-196, US-31, local roads
Approximate Driving Distance:
This Day: 275 miles
Total: 3985 miles