DAY 3 - in Bartlett, IL

We are at the home of Maggie and Jerry in Bartlett, IL, and it is the morning of DAY 3 of our trip. Yesterday, we drove from Clarion, PA to Bartlett. It should not have been a difficult trip, and most of it was fine. But once we got to Chicago, it was sort of a nightmare. The traffic was incredibly congested - Jerry later surmised that everyone was coming back into the city from summer weekend trips. We made the mistake of deciding to let our iPhone take us on the "fastest route to Bartlett." Well, it wasn't. That was because it kept identifying accidents up ahead, taking us on detours. We spent almost an hour wandering around in Gary, IN - we got quite a tour of how ravaged Gary is, but we didn't want the tour just then. And then we missed an important exit in the complex network of interstate highways in central Chicago - I think the same thing happened last year - a case of being in the wrong lane and not being able to move into the right one in time to make the exit because of cars zooming up from behind. Anyway, we had said we would be in Bartlett by 7pm, but it wss 7:45pm. Not horribly late, but Ellen was pretty frazzled. We decided we'll never come that way again. There are ways of skirting all that, they just take longer. You can go around the city and approach Bartlett from the west, for example, which is easy. It would just add two hours to the trip. But it would be more relaxed driving. Yesterday was crazy. Maggie and Jerry were very understanding and they stayed up pretty late (for them, not us) talking. They wanted to hear all the news. And we got quite an earful too. Mostly family news that shouldn't be repeated here. Sorry, blog fans! But this evening, the "kids" are coming over for pizza, so we'll get to see folks. Of course Suzy and Dennis are out in Everett, WA. So not them. Jerry has some med. appts. today. It should be a quiet day, and it looks like it won't be too hot and humid. Yay!

The "famous" wall of pictures in the guest room at M&J's. This is what I look at over the foot of the bed.