Lazing in Champaign

Lucy and I left Kalamazoo today and drove to Champaign. We had a great time in Kalamazoo hanging out with everyone and going to the art fair. This morning, we started out early.

We drove to 5th street and, while crossing the train tracks, saw a box turtle. I rescued it from the tracks and put it somewhere safe. I hadn't seen a box turtle in years -- I don't think I've seen one in Massachusetts. He was a handsome, active fellow who'd lost a foot, but didn't seem the worse for it. I was glad to get him out of danger.

We met up with everyone, packed the car, and then saw Phil and Jackie onto the train. Afterwards, we went to what used to the Country Maid for a wedgie.

The place has changed owners and is now the Eldorado Cafe, but seems mostly the same inside. They still do a great trade. The wedgies seemed as good as they ever did.

Lucy and I hit the road before noon and decided to just take the expressway. Unfortunately, as we got close to Chicago, we saw a warning that I-57 was closed and suggested looking for an alternate route. We decided to turn south on highway 41 and then turned west on highway 30, which we hoped would be south of the problem. It was rather slow going. About half the way along highway 30, huge thunderclouds began to roll in and we had a driving rain storm -- a real toad-strangler. We crept along and eventually came out the other side, around the time we got to I-57. Unfortunately, it turned out that we were still north of the closure, so we had no sooner gotten on the highway when we were diverted onto a detour.

The detour went really slow. Looking at the map, we saw that when the detour went back west to meet up with 57, we could just continue south and 57 would eventually join us. We escaped from the detour and made better time after that. The road was in poor repair, however, and after several bone-jarring miles, we saw a sign that said "rough road ahead".

We arrived in plenty of time. We picked up beer and got pizza for everyone before Phil and Jackie got back and just sat in the shade drinking beer until they arrived. A satisfactory day. Tomorrow, we start trying to ride our bikes to Phil and Jackie's house.