As soon as I left Summer Camp, it was right in the car and headed north!
A nice roadtrip up to Minneapolis in Friday afternoon rush hour with temperatures
just over a hundred degrees. Good planning, huh?

Kicking back in the car, air conditioning cranked up high & singing all the way,
it was a slow go just trying to get out of Chicago. Hot, humid, congested.
I finally made it over the Wisconsin border and stopped off for gas & grape pop!
When I paid and returned to the car, I noticed a huge storm headed my way.
Seconds after getting back in the car, the sky opened up and flooded the place
with heavy rains and a smattering of hail.

As I’m battling the rain, there were times when it was so tough to see the road ahead
that I actually considered pulling over under an overpass and waiting it out. Instead,
I just made sure to keep the tail lights of the truck in front of me in view. And since
I love a challenge… I had to take some pictures at the same time!

Further up the road, the rain finally stopped and the sun came back out. With beautiful
cloud formations across the sky and a striking sunset highlighting the clouds.

Enjoy it while you can… because there was another storm about a half hour ahead.
The skies got dark again and there were lightning flashes all around. Ominous looking…
and again a little scary when the crazy storm finally unleashed its fury on the freeway!

So I finally made it up to Minneapolis and checked in to the hotel – and met up with
my friend & fellow potter Amy Higgason. She had driven down earlier that day from
northern Wisconsin and shopped the day away at the Mall of America. So although
I was exhausted from my morning bike ride, day at summer camp and the treacherous
drive… it was great to see Amy again – and we chatted for HOURS when we should
have been sleeping. Knowing that we had big festivities planned for the next day.