retired from what?

Millenium Park. The Bean. The Human Statue makes a break for it... That would be check, and mate, sucka!  Notice (down the table) these dudes will beat you at checkers, too. If I were going to this trouble, I'd have made sure things lined up...but that's just me. Us and them.

Through the carbonite hills of Southern Illinois to the flat cornfields north. It is rainy and chilly and we stopped for a bite in Champaign. Despite the alluring signage, we did not have burritos. 

You know it's a road trip when the place you stop to pee carries CB antennas. 

Broadcasting out of Hugo, OK (just north across the border from Paris, Texas), and proving classic small town radio is NOT dead, yet. Neither is the East Texas accent.  For sale this morning:  2 "real nice" saddles, a SHIV-RO-LAY Tracker "with some problems starting", "a china cabinet for $150, and a male pug puppy".  A log carrier with a country scene.  Alas, as we barreled toward Texarkana through lush pinery, the signal faded out with the offer of "some hog dogs & rabbits"...

So it's the night before the early departure and we are reinflating this blog.   Hope interesting things happen. Oh heck- they always do.