Day 1 Almost Killed Us

Monday, July 2
We woke in our hotel in Chicago after a night of adventure in the Windy City. We ate dinner at a rooftop restaurant and then were given instructions to Buddy Guy's place on Wabash. The waitress said sometimes Buddy showed up for a set. When we arrived we discovered it was the 20th anniversary of the club and we received VIP seating that later was closed to others. Buddy played as did other musicians who had come to honor him. Joy and I had our photo taken with him. In the morning Hillary, Joy and I stumbled down to a corner market and stocked up on supplies for the trip including mimosa makings to send us off on our way. We found Lou Mitchell's for breakfast quite easily at the start of Route 66. Great place where the food is served in a skillet and after most of us ordered two eggs over medium we discovered in Chicago two eggs means four. You gotta a love a city like that.

We nearly didn't make it out of Chicago. First we got lost in the parking garage and we only had fifteen minutes to exit after having paid $15 for one hour of parking. Finally we hit the road only to have a Fed Ex truck come at us and swerve at the last minute. That was the auspicious beginning to a day filled with so much laughter that we often talked about how much our sides hurt.

We lost Route 66 at one point and found ourselves in a cornfield for over an hour but as I pointed out we came out intact because we always traveled in the direction we were going. That is only one such profundity from a day filled with the spirit of the road. There is so much more but suffice it to say Jack Kerouac ain't got nothing on us. Today we leave St. Louis after going to the top of the arch. Now that we're on the western side of the Mississippi we feel we're almost there wherever we're going.