corn fields and college towns

From Marshall, Minnesota we took some back roads to our next destination, Madison Wisconsin, passing by miles and miles of corn fields, a number of wind power jammies, and Sleepy Eye, a quiet little town with, you guessed it, a bunch of people with sleepy eyes? Who named that town? Regardless, it was a fun trip and led us to a very fun evening with Tom's good friend Brian Hansen, Brian's very cool girlfriend April, and Ernie, their dog who is smarter and better looking than I could ever hope to be.

They took us out to have all the fun that Madisonians like to have, showed us how to walk into the street without concern for oncoming vehicles like you do in a college town, and took us down to the edge of one of those Madison lakes where there was a table where you get beer, and three hundred picnic tables where you could sit and drink it -ingenious! We had a great time with Brian, April, and Ernie, solved many of the world's problems in one evening, and decided that lawyers arean't that bad after all. Law school students, anyway.

From Madison we ventured south and east again to Chicago, where we sat in traffic for hours and hours and swore a lot. Once we got through the toll booth that was holding us and twenty thousand other cars up, and had vowed to support public transportation systems in every major city we would ever enter, we headed downtown to the preppy area around DuPaul university and bunked up at the Arlington House, an international hostel full of internationals. Being surrounded by Europeans and Asians makes you feel like you're somewhere exciting. Once we were showered (public style) and detoxed from the road madness, we went a few blocks south to meet up with Sarah, a great friend of mine from JMU and her girlfriend Jane, who, like Ernie, is shining and fun to be around. We strolled around town, Tom and I pretending like we're super at ease in the city and don't even think about getting mugged every time we pass an alley, and we hung out in restaurants and bars catching up, ripping on the government, and sharing stories of our sortid religious pasts -a topic I never tire of. I wish we'd had more time with Sarah and Jane, but we were all just passing through town and were lucky to get to play as much as we did.

Jane and Sarah. Check out Jane's blog: my silence is your comfort. It's rock solid.