Minnesota to 2nd City …and HOLY CRAP That Was Far!

Saturday was a travel day. A VERY long travel day. We drove for ten hours. Four hundred miles. Eek. Dr. Francois complained the whole way, “Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

…and that was just the conversation that he had with himself. Samantha Stevens, spent the entire time sitting in the co-pilot’s seat ignoring him and practicing her hypnosis on Stephanie.

It was brutal. I think there’s a consensus among the drivers that we really don’t wanna do that again.

We pulled into another Jellystone Park RV Resort, this one in Millbrook, IL. Very nice park. The Yogi Bear Parks have really put a lot of money into their resorts. For my adult campers, it’s a great place, especially if you wanna go someplace with the g’kids. There are plenty of activities to keep them busy.

The HB & I were excited to see some dear friends, Captain Brown & his wife, Vera. We hoped to get out to their farmhouse, but we spent too much time in Chicago, we ran short of time. Captain Brown insisted that we pay homage to the place that “da Bears” go to lose, we did.

Sunday, we ventured into Chi-Town. The weather was glorious! It was 95F with 112% humidity. As we drove, the Centurion was giving us blow-by-blow descriptions of his former haunts in the city he grew up in. He relayed the info to Samantha Stevens, who in turn told all of us the highlights via the handheld radios we brought along. There’s only one problem: Samantha Stevens forgot to press the button on the side of the radio which would allow her voice to re-transmit that information and none of us other than those in their car knew anything about what the Centurion pointed out. Hmmmm. Thanks, Samantha Stevens.

We cruised Lake Shore Drive, walked along Michigan Avenue in search of sunglasses for the HB, but tired of asking locals for directions and gave up. We got some local flavor by eating a Chicago-style pizza at Gino’s East and of course had to stop for popcorn at Garret’s Popcorn. Cmdr. McCroc and I rode a speedboat on Lake Erie with the Professor and Yoko. Then drove back to see Yogi & BooBoo and get some rest before taking off for Ohio.

Bonus: The Centurion has a sister, and she made the hour-long drive from the city out to our campgrounds to meet the crazies that he’s crossing the country with.

Cmdr. McCroc has made it clear that we will not be stopping in his hometown, The CLE and he further says that I’m not allowed to meet his childhood BFF “Ritchie”. And that no, I cannot call him “Ritchie'' because that’s his family name and only people that knew him back when they were walking around in Toughskins with slingshots hanging out of their back pocket and a front pocket full of marbles. McCroc will claim that those were for the neighborhood games of marbles with other kids and specifically not used as ammunition for the slingshots to get the attention of the cute girls that they did not have a crush on back in the day.

We now have enough Avon Skin So Soft to ward off the onslaught of man (and woman) eating carnivorous flying insects that the midwestern part of the country are so proud of, thank you for literally saving our butts (how did I get bitten there?) Gladys Maddin for forwarding a care package to our friends here in Malta.

On a totally unrelated subject, every morning when the HB and I wake up to make the bed, she has significantly more of the cover and spread on her side of the bed. Of course, I wake up shivering and she is all comfy and warm wrapped up like a cute little Tootsie Roll. I say that she is a blanket thief. Her claim is that I push all the covers to her side. What say you?

One band, one sound.

#coffeehousechronicles