Lake View at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Yesterday was mostly a maintenance day, but we did get in one sight-seeing trip and it was superb. One of the problems with long-term traveling is given to us courtesy of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries - managing your prescriptions. I guess I didn’t mention yesterday when talking about the benefits of napping when old, is that another great privilege of aging is you get to take more pills. Joan and I are both managing cholesterol and blood pressure problems and we each also have a couple more ailments that are being treated by medicines. But the drug industry, trying to wedge themselves into every cranny of your personal life - and vacuuming up money in the process, has set up the system to really work against your own ... read more

River North/Streeterville Neighborhoods, Chicago, IL Today’s rebellion item was food and, once again, Joan had to twist my arm to join her. Specifically, we did a ‘food tour’ offered by Chicago Food Planet, one of several companies that provide these things. The first time we did one of these was last year in Savannah, Georgia, and I have to say that this is a great way to see parts of a city. The basic idea is that you gather a group of tourists, usually on-line, and match them with a young, energetic resident of the city who is proud of her town and has studied quite a bit about history and architecture. Then you gather at a particular restaurant and begin the tour. You move between restaurants sampling different signature foods that are either specialties of ... read more

Indiana Dunes State Park, Chesterton, IN Yesterday was a regrouping day. Partially it was a down day - we did get a nap in late in the day. And partially it was to gather information for the coming busy week. After a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs, we took a short walk with the girls part-way up the nature trail. One of the great things about walking our corgis is that everyone loves to stops, pet the dogs and chat. We learned from a local resident that the town of Valparaiso, just south of the park, had a delightful small town center of pubs, restaurants, and shops and we should check it out. Our goal today, though, was to bicycle down to the train station and get information about the fares and schedule. So we ... read more

Wisconsin Dells, WI For our third day in a row, it was completely overcast here yesterday. It threatened rain, like it did the days before, all day long, but then seemed to hold it all in for the evening. Sure enough, last night around dusk, it started raining and didn’t stop all night long. It is now 6:30 AM and it is still raining intensely. But while we could, we headed out yesterday for the tourist town of Wisconsin Dells. I have to admit I had never really heard of this place until we started planning this trip. If someone had told me that southern Wisconsin was a tourist trap spot, I don’t think I would have believed it. No-one ever suggested it as a go-to place when I was a kid. But there it was, ... read more

Devil’s Lake State Park, Baraboo, WI By the time I finished yesterday’s post, the clouds had definitely arrived and it was spitting rain. We hurriedly finished up breakfast and then dishes. I packed up the chairs and outside gear and readied all the equipment to hitch-up. Although we’ve become well versed in hitching and unhitching, it still takes at least 30 minutes, and more the longer we’ve been there since we have more junk to clean-up and pack away. So by the time we actually rolled in the slider, lifted the stabilizing jacks, and started to attach the trailer to the car, it was raining. Hitching up in the rain isn’t one of our favorite activities, but we’ve become accustomed to it and now have towels waiting in the car to dry off. It was relatively ... read more