Friday, June 2

Well, here we are! Or here I am, anyway.

The flight from Raleigh to Chicago went off without a hitch. My first time flying Southwest and I rather enjoyed it. When I landed I had a message from Ann that their train, which was supposed to leave at 9:40, was leaving at 11:00. Oops? C'mon Amtrak, can you please get it together? It doesn't bode well for my Amtrak trip to Charlotte in a couple weeks. It's supposed to take three hours, but my friend Julie swears it will take six. I've been trying to give Amtrak the benefit of the doubt, but they're not helping.

So my friend Amy picked me up at Midway, we went to Navy Pier for lunch and then she dropped me off at Rick's. I'm mooching off of someone's wireless connection, sitting outside on the patio and waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive.

We've settled on Maza for dinner, a place we discovered for Sherrie's bachelorette party here a few years ago. We were pleased to discover it's within walking distance of Rick's place.

It's hard to believe this whole thing is actually happening. In 24 hours, we'll (hopefully) be in Missouri. And then Kansas and Oklahoma 24 hours after that. And so on. Here's to us!