Report from the road

Hello to one and all. It's a little after 7 a.m., and I am writing this from a dark motel room near O'Hare Field in Chicago--outside, jets are landing and taking off every minute or so. Even with the motel's thick walls, you can hear them. Here comes another one now.

Just wanted to briefly (!) fill you in on the last couple of days.

We decided to leave early for Chicago because yet another snowstorm was bearing down on the western U.P. The snow was supposed to start about midnight Thursday night, and we didn't want to get caught up in it. So we left home at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

We ran into short showers of sleet and snow on the way south. Near the end, we came upon very strong wind and rain, blowing from left to right across the road as I drove south on a two-lane highway. If it had been a couple degrees colder, it could have ended our trip--it would have been very heavy snow. But it was rain, and we eventually drove out of the worst of it it and got to Appleton, Wis., where we stayed that night. Got there about 10 p.m.

I had been letting S know about our change in plans. We slept a little late Friday (got in late, after all) and then went to visit her and her husband in Oshkosh, about 20 miles away. We stayed there about three hours and had a very nice time. (Much more to come about that later on, including some pictures.)

We left there at about 2 p.m. and resumed our journey south. It was cloudy all day, and we ran into showers here and there. Passed around Milwaukee, got gas, then continued south and into Illinois. Construction on the Tri-State Tollway and some slow places, but we got to our motel at about 6:30 p.m. Supper at Arby's.

This morning, we're heading to the big quilt show. My wife is still sleeping, but now it's just after 8 a.m., so it's time to start waking her up. Pardon me while I open the shades. (Still cloudy, I see.)

Not everything has gone hunky-dory. The motel in Appleton was supposed to have wireless internet, but they were having problems with it. :groans: I did get to watch the end of the late hockey game.

Here in Chicago, it's the reverse: The wireless internet works, but the TV doesn't have the NHL playoffs anywhere! Like it's going on in India or something! :bigger groan: I was ticked! Instead, we went off to do shopping at Target (but didn't get a thing--we were looking for three specific things and went 0 for 3). Then returned to the motel and eventually to bed.

At least I was able to catch up on the news and saw the hockey highlights at a couple of the websites I wrote about last time. I got to see that Don Cherry's jacket Friday night was much more subdued than his Wednesday night psychadelic spectacular. A photo of that is coming, too.

We also called David Friday night. He estimated we had received eight inches or so of snow by that time. He is planning to walk over to the house (it's about five blocks away) to check on the kitties and replenish their food and water. I told him to wait until after the snow ends. That should be this afternoon. He's pretty dependable, so we know he'll get the job done.

The clock radio went on at 5 a.m. today, to a Spanish language station. The TV turned itself on, too. Evidently, the last guy in this room had to catch an early flight.

We are planning to leave for home Sunday morning--as soon as we can get going. Since there will be no hockey to keep me up till midnight, we might even hit the hay early.

Oh, hello My wife is up now, so it's time to wrap this up, post it and start getting ready for a busy day.