On Our Way!

Loki and I are in Chicago; we drove here yesterday and he was an unbelievably good cat. I didn't even have to drug him! I will tomorrow, though, if only to get him through the airport. It was a seven hour drive with a lot of road construction, but as always in the midwest in the summertime, the lush green leaves crowding the landscape more than made up for the length of the journey. The rolling Wisconsin hills, dotted with the occasional farmhouse or two; the patches of cultivation amidst the wild and rowdy natural prairie...maybe you have to be a midwesterner leaving home to appreciate it, but I was awestruck at how beautiful my everyday world can be. A few tears clouded my vision once in awhile, such as the moment I crossed the St. Croix river, but there are always a few growing pains when you leave the places you've called home.

Wisconsin

Our hotel is near O'Hare airport, which is very convenient and not nearly as noisy as I though it would be. Loki has been making himself at home in the hotel room; he helped the maid make the bed earlier, much to her delight. I drove in to downtown this morning to get my visa from the Turkish consulate, and while I was waiting for it to be processed, I drove up the shore to Montrose beach, which has a very lively dog-friendly section. I waded in the water (which is MUCH warmer than Lake Superior, for those keeping track of such things) for awhile and watched the Navy's Blue Angels fly by overhead in preparation for this weekend's show-WOW are they loud!-before returning to the consulate to retrieve my visa. So yes, campers, Chicago is a highly navigable town as long as you keep in mind where the lake is! We're off to Istanbul tomorrow evening; in the meantime I've managed to achieve the calm to which only those who over-prepare are privy.