Before I get started, I just have to point out how much better I am getting at taking photos with my new phone. You would think after a year I should have it down, but apparently I am still learning. The photo above is the stuff of magazine covers if you ask me.
Anyway, as we occasionally do throughout the year, and I made plans this past weekend to head down to Toledo, OH and meet her sisters family for lunch. We have a handful of places that we usually rotate through and on this occasion it was decided to meet at Ye Olde Durty Bird.
This isn't the first time we have eaten here, in fact, this isn't even the first time I am writing about this place. I am pretty sure I did a Tasteem post or two about it when that was around. It is in a really nice area downtown and the atmosphere is cool, so this is where my niece picked for us to meet.
It was snowing when we left our house at 9:30 AM that morning, but I didn't think too much of it as it was supposed to get up to around 40 degrees through the day. I figure that should do a pretty decent job of clearing any snow that might accumulate.
We got on the expressway and although it was a little slick, I was still able to go the speed limit with relatively no issue.
After about 30 minutes on the road things started to clear up and it was smooth sailing until we got just outside of Ann Arbor, MI. Some years ago I got prescribed a high blood pressure med by my doctor. The biggest drawback of this pill is the fact that it is a water pill, so it makes you have to use the bathroom pretty frequently for the first couple of hours after you take it.
I knew we were going to be on the road, so I limited my liquid intake that morning, but sure enough just before Ann Arbor I had to stop.
It turns out that may have been a blessing in disguise.
Shortly after leaving the rest stop and getting back on the expressway, things started to pick up again with the snow. In addition to that, the traffic was heavier too given the urban area we were driving through.
We got just a little into the Ann Arbor area when suddenly traffic came to a stop.
If you look really close in the photo, you can see that there is no snow under the cars for the most part. It was basically a parking lot for about an hour and a half. The crazy thing is, we weren't very far from where the accident took place. We were stopped only about .3 miles shy of the main accident. I got thinking that if I hadn't stopped to go to the bathroom, we could have very easily been in the middle of it.
We saw a couple of ambulances and fire trucks go by, but it wasn't until 40 minutes had passed that a state trooper finally showed up. Twenty minutes later another one showed up. It reminded me of that line from "Die Hard" where Bruce Willis says "Welcome to the party pal". During our time sitting there we could see the smoke billowing from just beyond that pine tree.
We waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually the time we were supposed to meet up for lunch ticked past on the clock. Then another half hour passed. I realized we were still a good forty minutes from our destination so it was going to be a while yet. and I passed the time talking, laughing, and keeping each other from going stir crazy.
Eventually, things started to move finally and as we rolled up to the accident my wife took this picture. It involved three cars that we could see and the one just beyond that police cruiser was burnt to a crisp.
We tried to pick up some momentum after we got past the main accident, but there were plenty of other ones that caused people to freak out and slow down and almost cause more of them.
I had to slam on my brakes and almost rear ended the people ahead of me because of this one. As you can see, the pavement is just wet, there is no snow, but people were still being a little too cautious.
Didn't they know I was starving?!
About an hour and a half later than expected we finally made it to our destination. I ordered a delicious Yuengling draft to drink and this monster of a burger called the "Durty Burger".
My wife got the Santa Fe Turkey Wrap.
With onion rings of course!
My brother in law got the "Durty Burger Deluxe" which was pretty much the same thing as me but with pulled pork and coleslaw on top of it as well.
I didn't take pictures of the other food, it was mostly just more burgers and a sandwich. By this point I was getting "hangry" and I just wanted to get the food in my mouth, not spend a bunch of time taking pictures. I am still really happy with how the photos turned out.
was a little unimpressed with her wrap. She said she probably wouldn't get it again. My burger wasn't horrible, but it didn't really satisfy that craving I get every now and then for a good burger.
In the end, I would have to say the "near death" experience on the highway (if you want to call it that), probably wasn't worth the food on this trip.
Being able to see our relatives and more specifically my nieces totally made up for that fact. Even if it ended up being shorter than we expected, it was a great afternoon spent with people we love, and you can't really complain about that!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or unless otherwise sourced