when ya gotta go, ya gotta go

One of the first things I learned on this trip is that when you have 7 people in a car, ages ranging from almost 2 up to adult, there are far more pee breaks to stop the car than usual. I had finally decided before we got out of Indiana, that I was not going to stop the car for me and I'd just hold it. I began to vigorously question my decision as we inched forward in the construction zone right where you get off 65 and onto 80/94 to head into Chicago. That took a little while, although not as bad as the other side of the road going out of Chicago. By the time we got up to interstate 88, I was, as I so politically incorrectly told my sister, "rockin' like Rainman." Paid the toll at the latest plaza and saw the virtual parking lot in front of me. I didn't want to pee myself and as there were no astronaut diapers in the car.....Meanwhile, Maria notices at the edge of the construction zone, a port 0 potty. She suggests to me that I hop out of the car and she'd jump over to take the wheel so I could use it. Traffic was a drifting parking lot but I couldn't decide. Finally, she talks me into it after I hemmed and hawwed about 3 minutes and out I go. Maria tells me afterward, the kids in the car were all in a tizzy, "Where'd Mom go? Why did she get out of the car? What is she doing? Are you going to leave her there?....."

I now know where all those Illinois tolls are going. It's to keep the port o potties clean and the workers happy so they'll do a good job, because that was the cleanest one I'd ever been in, and I found myself singing "sweet Jesus, thank you for this port o potty and this construction zone to make traffic stop enough to use it...amen!"

The funny part is, since I couldn't see out the back of the car, no one behind us could see Maria jump across the seat to take the wheel until I got back into the car. They just saw me leave, the car keep moving with no driver (or so it seemed) and the brake lights go on and off....and by that time, the kids were laughing about it, especially watching me run back on the other side of the cement barriers to catch up to the car. I can only imagine what entertainment this provided for the backed up traffic. I got a shot of it by looking back after getting back into the car.