OK, so our means of transportation for this trip is a massive 32-foot vehicle that shares the name of the Chicago suburb of Aurora. The gas tank has a whopping 50 gallon capacity. No service station yet has allowed us to put in more than about a half-tank of fuel, which is a $100 limit. Which means there have been days where we've spent $175 for gas, and we haven't driven for than 5-6 hours per day. It's also immense, and on relatively modest uphill grades we haven't been able to muster up a speed of more than 40-45 mph.
On straightaways and downhill grades, we've been at the speed limit of 75, when appropriate. But we hit a few sudden storms that made driving at any speed extremely hazardous -- especially in the very narrow lanes created in the frequent construction zones on Route 90. Given the width of our vehicle and the dubious visibility in the midst of the rainstorms in which we found ourselves, we had no choice at one point on Day 3 to just pull over to the side of the road and wait it out. Thank goodness for the RADIO!! We heard the weather bureau alert people to the extreme storm warning in our area and referenced 60+ mph winds. Combined with the torrential rain, it rocked our stationary vehicle from side to side as the passengers and navigator all noted that the road we were on had no shoulder. So they all moved to the driver side of the vehicle to try to counteract the direction of the wind and stabilize our RV. After about 20 minutes we were able to continue our travels, but it was a nailbiter, for sure!
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