Bussing to Chicago

---

Short night at work, went in, knocked out the rooms audit and cut out just after 3am. Filled the van with gas on the way home and in bed by 4. Slept till 7:30ish and then showered and got moving, just after 10 we were on the road to Cincinnati. We were picking up the Megabus from the UC Campus so we drove there first and then with some time to kill and empty bellies we went looking for food. Wife was indecisive and we drove far away before turning around and going back to where we began. Caroline was worried about how much time we had so I went for food while she stayed in the car with Abcde. I got a trio combo from Alabama BBQ and while they were fixing it, went 3 storefronts down to WingStop for fries. Returning with food, wife was all a flutter. She thought I had been too long and we would be late. 3 minutes later I dropper her and the monster at the bus stop and then went to park the car. I found a garage close by and was back in a few minutes. Caroline was still afraid of not being ready so had not started eating except for the fries. The fries were gone, I hope she shared with Abcde. I realized I had left the car seat in the van so I stepped back across the road and retrieved it which kept me out of trouble with mi esposa. The bus was late but eventually showed up. I had purchased 4 tickets for the 3 of us and paid the extra $1 per seat to reserve them. This was great cause we didn't have to worry about sitting by a stranger. Abs traveled well and serenaded the front half of the bus with her ABC's. I ate a bit of the BBQ and it was pretty darn good. I didn't want to hog it so I passed it up to wife after I had eaten like a third. Maybe I would get it back after she finished. We made good time up to Indy where the bus took on more passengers, now the bus was almost full and that extra seat was coming in handy for spreading out. Abs fell asleep as we left Indianapolis and stayed that way for the next hour until we came to our rest stop. 15 minutes to pee and grab a bite to eat. With snack food and soda we reboarded. Next stop Chicago. I mixed myself a couple of drinks and we tried to get Abcde to share her pretzels and my pistachios. I was better at it than she was. We rolled into Chicago at about 6 local time and after reclaiming our bag and stroller, hailed an Uber to get to the Hilton Chicago, our home for the next 4 days. I had already claimed a room with a city view and this time my e-checkin was respected. We stopped by the desk and I added wife's name and got a couple of real keys, I am just not ready to go fully digital yet. We dropped our stuff in the room and ran up to exec with moments to spare to raid the nosh they put out for special gold and diamond members like me. Gnocchi and meatballs, not half bad. It was a large snack or small meal but it did the trick and we were no longer hungry. Even Caroline who it seems had wasted all that BBQ by only having 1 bite and then not telling me she was done was satiated. We took a little walk, found a park with doors that looked like they were straight out of Monsters Inc, got as far as Millennium Park and saw the set up for the festival the next day and then with the sun long gone behind the towers of downtown, we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

---