Day 4: Upland, IN -- Chicago, IL

Oh dear! Why didn't we make this trip much, much longer? It is too hard to only stay each place such a short time. We hated to say goodbye to the Trudeaus and I had to rout the kids out early this morning so that we could get in and see Aunt Barbara once more. Now that she is so much more "with it" again, it is very hard for her to let us go. She wanted one more round of hamburger and french fries before we left, but I couldn't wait until McDonalds switched over to their lunch menu at 11:00 and they are too snooty to make an exception, so we tried White Castle and they were as nice as could be about it. The clerk said "If you can wait a few minutes we'll make some up for you and that way they'll be hot and fresh!" So we said our good byes to Aunt Barb as she ate her White Castles (they were always my dad's favorite) Then we hit the road for Chicago. We stopped at Panera for lunch and then before we knew it we were looking at the Chicago skyline. It was exciting driving through all of the Chicago hub-bub. Mindy sent me a text this week, jokingly asking if we'd stopped at any rest stops where you had to pump the handle on the well to get water like we used to do traveling as kids. As I was driving today I was thinking about how modern and convenient so many aspects of travel have become. The GPS is such an amazing device and makes everything so much easier. We have an EZ Pass to pay our tolls so we don't even have to slow down. Parts of Chicago don't even have tollbooths; they somehow just dip into your checking account as you drive under some scanner - isn't that such a lovely combination of convenience and highway robbery? The restaurants and rest stops are so fancy and nice. It is such a different world than the one we traveled 40 years ago as kids. The car that my friends Dave and Les (whom we are visiting tonight) has a TV screen in the dashboard that gives you a wide angle view of where you are backing up so you can see if there are any children, bikes, cars, or skunks behind you! Speaking of Dave and Leslie, we arrived at their specatacular home in the Chicago suburbs about 3:00 this afternoon. Dave and Les were some of my dearest Arkansas friends but we haven't seen each other for probably 12 years and I don't even know how to begin to describe how much fun it was to be with them again tonight! And not just because of their beautiful home or that they took us out for incredible Chicago pizza...the biggest reason is the sheer joy of the comfort, laughter, and ease of a friendship that extends clear across the years of our lives. Being together tonight made us feel like we were in our 20s again and we happily regressed into all of the jokes and silliness of those good ol' days at JBU. The kids are in hog heaven because the LeVans have a high tech rec room and their son Tyler is such a nice host for them. None of us want to leave! But the road beckons and I must get to sleep - tomorrow we drive to the Twin Cities for the Foleys and our next adventure.