If y’all have seen the news – or live in the midwest – you know there was a nasty snow-ice-sleet storm yesterday and last night… MSNBC is, of course, calling it a MONSTER STORM.

After having a blast at the Windy City Rollers/Ft. Wayne Derby Girls bout last night (more on that later), D the B and I were prepared to gut it up and drive our kickass rented Jeep Laredo through the night to Davenport, Iowa, so we could get up this morning and drive the rest of the way to my rendezvous with the awesome Kansas City Roller Warriors.

Sign #1 That We Were, Perhaps, Not Driving to Davenport last night:
We were cruising along 290 West, snug on our deep-tread tires, when a car one car-length ahead of us did a 360-spin and ended up with its trunk butted against the center concrete divide. Be glad you weren’t in the car to hear the shrieking sound that flew from my throat. I think D the B is still traumatized.

Sign #2 That We Were, Perhaps, Not Driving to Davenport last night:
The temperature gauge on the dashboard dropped from 33 to 32 to 31 to 30 to 29… and with each degree, the crunching sound of the ice under the tires got louder.

Sign #3 That We Were, Perhaps, Not Driving to Davenport last night:
I saw lightning – lighting, people! – as we circled and re-circled the frontage road to find our way to the Holiday Inn that is now my favorite hotel.

As we pulled into the parking lot, the talk radio host providing a blow-by-blow of the weather said, “It’s a sheet of ice out there on just about every roadway you can name or imagine.”

The sweetest words I heard yesterday – and I heard a lot of sweet words from beautiful, tough, kickass Rollergirls – were, “Yes, we have a vacancy.” from the really nice lady behind the check-in counter.

So I got a great night’s sleep, worked out in the hotel gym, and we’re ready to hit the road to St. Louis. I’m sorry to miss you, Kansas City… I was really looking forward to singing the song “Kansas City Here I Come” with Big Joe Turner as we pulled into town.

More on Chicago later. Those Windy City girls took great care of us.