Wisconsin Trip - Part 1 (First Two Days)

Note from the IBS - Boy: This is the first part of a three part series covering my trip to Wisconsin. In this particular edition I will discuss the two days of travel at the begging of the journey. 

Day 1

The day finally arrived; it was time to leave for the Wisconsin trip. Fear and horror clouded my mind as I realized four of the seven day journey would be full of travel. I felt hopeless - like someone jabbed a knife into my side, and I couldn't break free.

Eight o'clock was my wake up call. My bags were all packed the night before, so I didn't have too much to worry about. However, an extreme spurt of anxiety took me by surprise and started to make my stomach churn. This was shaping up to be a lousy day.

For breakfast I indulged - reluctantly - a bran muffin and half a bagel. It wasn't the best thing to eat right before a long trip, but it was about the only thing I thought I could keep down.

I made a big mistake, though. Instead of drinking thirty minutes after my meal, I had a whole cup of tea before my meal. In other words, my stomach was nervous and it had a belly full of hot tea.

"Oh no," I thought. "I'm going to throw up before we even get on the road at this rate!"

Fortunately, I was able to hold back and fight off the nausea. It looked like I had dodged another bullet - at least for now.

By eleven o'clock, around two hours after departure, my family and I began getting hungry. For some reason sitting in a car for hours really works up an appetite. Of course, I didn't necessarily have the largest meal for breakfast. But, I was glad to have regained my appetite.

Realizing that McDonalds wasn't the best place to stop for food, we decided on a near by Chick-Fil-A. After all, chicken is easy on the stomach, and I needed something light.  

From noon until five o'clock post meridian, I felt perfect. What a blessing! Maybe this wasn't going to be a bad day after all.

When we arrived at the hotel, after nine hours of travel, I had an awful gas cramp that I needed to work off. But, it was nothing compared to what I've been going through in these past couple of months - especially when I've been trapped in a car for the majority of the day.

Overall, day one was very successful. I could only hope that day two would be just as nice, except without the morning anxiety. Maybe I was hoping for too much...

Day 2 
Unable to sleep in the hotel room's measly beds, I spent most of the night counting down the hours until I would feel miserable in the morning. I wasn't really enjoying this game too much.

When morning finally came and I walked down to the breakfast buffet, the smell of food nauseated me.

"No! It's going to be another one of those days! Darn you chocolate muffin."

Anyway, I managed to scarf down a plate of nasty hotel fruit, one whole wheat muffin, one bran muffin, and five little potatoes. It was only eight o'clock in the morning when this was taking place, so I knew that by noon I would be starved.

Like usual, a sudden bout of nausea (anxiety-ish) hit me right as we were departing. Although it was a rough morning, I managed to thwart the nausea yet again and make it to lunch with minimal pains.

After eating at a KFC restaurant in Indiana, we began to travel closer to Wisconsin. However, the traffic jam at Chicago was unmerciful. For two hours we sat in the car and did absolutely.....nothing. The license plate game didn't work since we were surrounded by the same cars the whole time. Plus, I had a strong urge to go to the restroom. Shaddup.

By five o'clock central time, we finally arrived in Wisconsin. Fifteen hours of sitting really starts to wear on you.  Fortunately, I would be sleeping in a much better bed than last night's.

So, a monosyllabic synopsis of day two would be this: not bad, but not great. At least it went better than the last trip.