kitchtrips

It’s like a full force gale
An American storm
You’re buried far beneath a mountain of cold
And you never get warm
It’s like a wall of mirrors
You charge `em at full speed
You cover up – you hear the shattering glass
But you never bleed
You never feel the need

                                                                                                                   – Bob Seger

Sunday 30 July
Wheaton, Illinois

Back in Chicago after a great weekend in Michigan, and getting ready for a very busy four days ahead. Staying with Matt and Jaimie (and Brooke, Miles, Paige and Graham) again in Wheaton, and I can’t thank them enough for once again making me feel like I’m at home even when I’m a long way away.

Woke up feeling pretty good – and a little surprised that we hadn’t been woken up earlier by someone. I’m glad I didn’t switch from Bud Light to anything else last night, or I reckon I would’ve been feeling much worse.

Thankfully Jane’s shoes turned up overnight, and the only other thing we were missing was the car, which stayed at Black Star Farms all night (with the windows wound down, unlike some others) but Mr Donahue arrived and took us back to collect it, and we were on the road back to Chicago a little after 9:00am. Not without stopping at McDonalds for a greasy breakfast that all made us feel a lot better.

Air-Conditioning update: it worked brilliantly, and we were all so glad of that.

Halfway through the return trip, we stopped for a burger at Wendy’s, and arrived back in the Chicagoland area around 3:00pm. Bri was very happy to see us. Apparently the accent is big with her, and we spent a fun couple of hours playing upstairs and downstairs, before we went, pretty exhausted, across to Matt and Jaimie’s house.

We had another round of Giordano’s deep dish pizza for dinner, sitting outside in the backyard on a really beautiful summer night, before the kids went to sleep, at which time Nathan, Matt and I went to sit out the front, enjoying a few quiet beers as we solved the problems of the world.

Got to meet Matt and Jaimie’s newest son, Graham, for the first time. Brooke, Miles and Paige seemed pretty happy to see me as well. Whether that’s because they like me, or because me coming to town in the summer signals a trip to Six Flags, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s safe to say that we’re all very excited about heading up to Gurnee on Tuesday is a major understatement.

I’m going to sleep well tonight, safe in the knowledge that we’re not going to be woken up for a sunrise, unbelievable or not.