Little Trip before BIG TRIP....Cond.

3685 miles! Me and my little blue, PT Cruiser saw a whole lot of the Midwest before we got home on Monday afternoon, June 21st.

I left you as I was leaving Wisconsin and heading into Chicago. Chicago is still 'my kind of town' and it was so great being back. I sure miss the hustle and bustle, the ethnicity, the great restaurants and bars, the shopping!!!, all my old friends and neighbors, Lake Michigan, the theater, the museums, Michigan Avenue, the ease of getting around town on trains, subways, the 'L' and buses. What I don't miss is the winters that come along with living there - but it's still my favorite city in the entire world!

Attended at 3-day textile-arts workshop at O'Hare. Stayed right downtown Chicago with my good friend Cathi Quinn and her husband Jim. It was fun to catch up, even if I end the visit by catching my little toe on her couch and dislocating the heck out of it! Still not back to wearing 'real shoes.'

After the conference was over, I moved in with friends Laura and John Radke in the far western suburb of Crystal Lake. Laura and I immediately hopped on the train and went back downtown so I could see the completed and absolutely fabulous Millennium Park that Frank Geary designed. I fell in love with The Bean and how it reflects the skyline as you move around and under it. The 'band shell' for outdoor concerts is an absolute marvel of engineering and sound. The Chicago Symphony was practicing for a concert the afternoon we were there and the glorious notes of Beethoven were wafting all across the park.

Next we cabbed up to Lincoln Park where we had a fabulous lunch at North Pond overlooking the Hancock building and city skyline. Ended the day shopping on Michigan Avenue. A perfect day! After visiting with my old 'sew club' members on Wednesday, dining downtown at the trendy, new Bistro Zinc on North State with dear friend Jim Woodward, and brunch with one of my oldest friends, MJ Parkhill, in La Grange Park, I was off to Central Illinois to attend my 44th high school reunion in Danville. (Oh - I do not miss the Chicago tollways and summer construction on them!!!)

Danville is the little town that everyone forgot. Located almost directly between Champaign/Urbana (home of the University of Illinois) and Indianapolis, IN (home of the Colts, etc.) Danville got left out of the growth and industry has moved away. It's sad to visit when all your memories of your home town were so good. When I was growing up there were over 50,000 people living and working there. Now there are less than 34,000 and the 'downtown' is now non-existent. But the Classes of '63 & '64 made the best of it and it was so much fun to see everyone. The women all had aged much better than the men (ggg) but the majority of both sexes now have white hair and wear glasses! Got to play golf on both Friday, at Harrison Park with Skip Pierce, and Saturday at the Country Club, which hosted our reunion golf tournament. I actually won the award for lowest score shot by a woman! On Sunday morning, my dear friend, Carol (Hall) Sims' mother Betty, had me out to the farm for a huge-mongous breakfast before I hit the road back to North Carolina.

The drive was uneventful and easy. I made it from Danville to Hurricane, WVa where I stopped at a Super 8, just off the freeway, for the night. What a hoot! It was filled with truckers, standing outside in overalls, sipping beer and grilling burgers on the back of a pickup. But those guys hit the road really early so everything was nice and quite. I managed to sleep in until 4 a.m. A cup of coffee and I was just 6 hours from home!

So here I am - back in North Carolina and the mad rush to get everything in order and taken care of before I depart on August 25th has started. My Staging Kit from the PC was awaiting me when I got home. I fly from Wilmington to Miami where I meet up with the rest of the Eastern Caribbean Peace Corps volunteers. We have 12 hours of meetings, vaccinations, and getting a lot of questions answered before we board the plane for St. Lucia where we'll spend the next 6-7 weeks, living with a host family and officially starting our Peace Corp volunteer training.

Early September will be the next time you hear from me. Thanks for reading and cross your fingers I rent my house before I leave the States!

ReAnn