Day 1 - Leaving Chicago

Kristina picks me up at Union Station

My train arrived around 11:30 and my daughter, Kristina, who also lives in Chicago, decided to meet me at the station.  This was an awesome gesture on her part that was motivated by (a) the goodness of her heart and the love for her father or (b) the complete lack of confidence she has in her old man's ability to find his way from Union Station to her sister' apartment, or (c) she was jealous of the road trip time Katie was going to have with her Dad and she wanted a piece of the action, however small.  Which ever reason it was, I am truly grateful and love her with all my heart.

The car is well packed!

We arrived at Katie's and grabbed subs at Potbelly or something to eat before heading out.  Katie was very proud of her packing job as she lifted the hatch of her Prius to show me how well all her belongings fit. I stood there admiring her handiwork and then asked, "Where does my stuff go?". After some awkward silence and a couple "Um"s I begin to worry that my luggage wasn't part of the plan.  I then remembered that JC was flying to LA in a few weeks and Katie was going to meet him there so I suggested he take one of her suitcases with him.  Everyone thought that was an excellent idea and with that bag out there was plenty of room for my stuff.

Pooh says Goodbye to the old place.

Now that everything and everyone had a place in the car its time for goodbye's.  JC takes takes what Katie called the band aid approach and gives her a big hug, jumps in his car and heads back to Indiana.  Kristina,on the other hand, must be in the small camp of long goodbyes are beat.  Once the hugs are done we finally hop in the Prius, program Tommy (what we cleverly name our TomTom brand GPS) and get ourselves situated (Kristina stands on the sidewalk with sad puppy dog eyes while this prolonged departure takes place).  We pull away with a final wave and 7 hours later we find ourselves in Austin Minnesota just 20 miles from Rochester!