Blogs from Illinois, United States, North America - page 127

Day 1Christoph Hall Tour word of the day: Masturbatorium (not sure how that one came about) Beverage of the Evening: Sierra Nevada So here we are on another tour. We have the same crew as last time (Myself, Brian, Laurie, Martin, and Edward). The Nebuchadnezzar has been getting quite a workout this year touring. 20,000 miles in 6 months. As seems to be the standard, Brian along with his girlfriend Julie, spent the days up to departure working on the bus. At 350,000 miles it's showing some battle scars but is running strong. Finding Vegoil in Minneapolis this time was a bust for the most part but we did find enough to get us to Chicago. We were in the bus for only about 10 minutes when the same old jokes surfaced. We enjoyed a breakfast ... read more

Hey! I'm in Chicago right now and the traffic is crazy! Makes you appreciate all the room and space we have back home. But the weather is fantastic: warm and not a cloud in the sky. I laugh at all of you down in Texas there in the rain! Anyways it's been pretty fun. On the first day we walked through what felt like all of downtown Chicago. Just walking and walking. My feet were sooo sore, but there were some pretty cool sights (it'll NEVER compete with New York though!) like Sears Tower, the place where they make the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Then we had lunch at the 95th floor of this huge skyscraper. The view was terrific. It's a good thing heights don't scare me too much or I would have been hyperventilating. ... read more

Today is July 4th, my first Independence Day here in the US. My friends and I have barbeque and loads of other grilled stuff by the lake here in Evanston -- my new-found "hometown". (What is it with barbeque here in America? I also remember having picnic here on another holiday called the Memorial Day. Anyway,....) There are so many people by the lake... immigrants and non-immigrants. As I walk by the lakeshore, looking for my friends fanning the coals of their barbeque grill, I hear people speaking in all sorts of languages -- some Indian language, Arab, Spanish, ofcourse English, and finally Tagalog. All afternoon, an orchestra have been playing country and jazz. At past 9 pm, only did the fireworks start because that's only when it's dark enough to appreciate the fireworks display. Since ... read more

Did you know that Bobwhite Quail actually say "Bob White, Bob White, Bob White"? And did you know that they start saying "Bob White" at about 6 AM? It is actually a surprisingly wonderful way to wake up-even though my body thinks that it is 4 AM. It was also hard to sleep much longer when I realized that today would probably be the most important genealogy day of my trip. Today, I was going out to the old house on the Maxfield land-now owned by someone else- to see if we could identify it against the picture that my second cousin Richard had sent to me. I had been in touch with the Stark County, Illinois Genealogical Society and corresponded with the master of genealogical information, Don Schmidt. My trusty side-kick, Cay, and I ... read more

I depart at 5:45 pm today from O'Hare--could not be more excited....now lets just hope my luggage isn't too heavy! Alli... read more