after madison, we really had nothing to do but make our way across the country to home. of course, we found a few little stops along the way, but it was mostly a ton of driving. by derek.
our route took us to an old familiar city that i really had never expected to see again. good old chicago. trafficky and gray just like i remembered it.
while i’m not a huge fan of gummy candy (save for sour patch kids which are the GOAT of all candy), my family are huge enthusiasts, especially derek. so when an insta-quilt-friend suggested the albanese factor store, we couldn’t pass it up. we shopped our little hearts out and bought so much gummy candy and then ate so much gummy candy and then felt super bad. life lessons.
in indianapolis, we stopped at a couple of quilt shops, where i made some final road trip purchases. i was pretty pleased to score some older ruby star prints at one shop.
of course, we hit up the capitol building while in indianapolis. it was a little stressful though. there was a kid (young man?) riding his bike haphazardly around the premises. up and down stairs, in and out and across the street into traffic. all the while muttering/shouting racial slurs and other unintelligible nonsense. we steered clear, but i was still pretty sure he was trying to pretend unintentionally run into one of us, so we made it quick and got out of there. (you can spot him next to the stairs in the pic below).
it was getting late. and we were tired. and hungry. but ike really wanted to walk down to the colts stadium, even though it was closed and a dome, so there’s really nothing to see. it was only a mile round trip, so we made it happen. after a long day in the car, it wasn’t that bad to actually be moving our bodies.
for dinner, we got a hot tip from the local insta quilt friend about a warehouse-y cool spot downtown with lots of eating options. it was a little overwhelming, probably because we had eaten out so much and everyone was tired and there were so many option and so many people. but, we got fed. got to our hotel. and slept our one final night on the road.
in the morning, we packed it up for the final drive from indianapolis to home.
we could not have been happier.
as we cruised through cincinnati, we took an ever so slight detour to do a drive-by (and around) the bengals stadium to appease this football loving kid. manchild?
before we knew it. we were home. reunited with ruby. and our house. and our beds. and our space. and our routines.
before i move on to regular life things, here’s a pic of all of my fabric (etc) haul from the trip. i might have gone a little overboard. especially as i type this in retrospect knowing how little time i have for sewing these days. oh well. it will be there when i’m ready.
