Day Five - On the Road Between Chicago and Des Moines

We’re excited, devastated, elated, and a little tired.

SO excited to go Colorado. We’ve never been there and we can’t wait to explore. We’ll have about ten days to see everything before we head for Las Vegas. Is there anything we shouldn’t miss? We’re going to be around the Denver area.

Devastated to leave Chicago. It feels like we never left and also like it was a lifetime ago.  We loved being in the city.  (Notice how bundled up I am? Did not miss the bitter cold wind.)

Elated to have seen lots of our friends! We stayed with Chris, who lives with three fine gentlemen.  We saw several of Bear’s old college friends on New Year’s Eve. Last night, we saw the one and only, the incredible, the fantastic, Justin Arnett Graham.  We met him and Bear’s wonderful friend Sam for sushi. We went to Sushi Mon on Clark, about a block north of Fullerton. It was fannnntastic. Also, it’s BYOB. Love that. Makes everything cheaper.

Sidenote: We’re currently driving by the birthplace of Ronald Reagan.

A little tired because we went to Small Bar with Justin after dinner. It’s right in Chris’s neighborhood and it’s also Justin’s place of employment. 

This morning we woke up and packed the car, which takes us about half an hour. It’s like Tetris, except it isn’t fun at all.  We drove down Route 55 to Morris, Illinois, where we took Charlie to the park.

Brief description of taking Charlie to the park:

Bear and I get out of the car and I turn to open the back door to let him out.

“Um, where’s the dog?” I ask.

“In the car,” says Bear.

“No, he’s not, unless we put him in the trunk.”

“HEY! GET THAT DOG ON A LEASH!” yells a mustached park ranger.

Charlie had darted out of the car when I got out of the front and sprinted probably 100 yards away in 20 seconds and was manically running in circles chasing birds.

So we call him and leash him, walk 20 yards away and let him off to run again. We’re terrible listeners.

Then we went into the little downtown and had lunch with our caravan buddies. Our friends, Ericca and TJ, live in Colorado and we’re planning to stay with them for a few days. They were in Ohio for Christmas so we coordinated our drives out west.  Bear keeps singing a song about convoying. It’s not so good. Ericca and TJ are with their dog, Ranger.  Charlie is excited to stay with another dog. I know because I speak dog. Here are the humans.

Now we’re on the road, heading into the sunset. Literally.