Road Trip 2010 - Last (sniff) day

Well, here I am, sitting on the edge of the bed at the Marriott in Bourbonnais, IL, trying to steel myself to pack up and head back to KW. 
Side trip - I have to say that the sheets at the Marriott hotels are the best I've every slept on.  They're super high thread count cotton, but heavier and smoother than any I've come across anywhere else.  I have to find out where to get some.

I'm going to head into Chicago first, though, as it is St. Patrick's Day, and I'd like to see the green river (apparently they dye it each year).  It's well past checkout time now, so I have to leave it at this.  I will do at least one more update, likely after I get back.

This last week has been blurrier than the rest.  It seems I just left Flagstaff, AZ and suddenly I'm outside of Chicago.  I slept in the car for a few hours on Friday night at a Flying J truckstop, then drove to Santa Fe.  In case you were wondering, yes, I did go through Albuquerque, but I did not stop and I did not "make a left toin" as I had planned (for over 45 years).  This was intentional, and it has some significance, to me at least.  I'll be glad to tell you about that if you ask. 

Rather than poking around in Santa Fe, I drove north a bit, around Jemez Springs and Los Alamos, NM (Anna, you look a lot like your dad).  What a ride down that hill.  I have video of the drive and I will post it once I edit it down.

I stayed in Santa Fe on Saturday night, hoping to check out the culture and buzz of the downtown area, but by Sunday morning, it was below freezing and snowing again.  Figures.

So, I headed east and drove straight through to Kansas (about 750 miles).  OK, I did stop and sleep a few hours on the side of the road.  Volvo seats aren't quite a queen-size pillowtop mattress with Egyptian cotton sheets, but they are indeed more than adequate, and a lot more comfortable than some of the beds I've crashed on recently.

And, I detoured into Dodge City to get some gas and a bite to eat.  I almost stayed, due to this little creature:

He/she was so friendly, and so hungry (I bought a two-pack of tuna; they disappeared in seconds).  If I didn't have a car full of crap and 3000km to go, I would have had a passenger.

I arrived in Kansas late morning, and found my way to a small farm in Berryton, just outside Topeka.  As I made my way up the rutted and potholed drive, I was greeted by a very inquisitive and rather protective "guard dog", who turned out to be a very friendly puppy dog named "Cash".

I get to the house, and this nice lady, dressed in a housecoat, comes out of the garage to see what all the barking was about.  I introduced myself, and apologized for just showing up unannounced.  Her name is Vicci, and she apologized to me for her appearance (like that matters).  She said they were in the middle of doing their taxes (Oh crap! Another thing to do when I get back).  She was having a fine time with the computer, and her husband, also in his housecoat, was busy trying to get things sorted, but she would tell him I was here, and that he would be out in a minute.

A short time later, here I am shaking like a leaf, and shaking hands with my musical hero, the one and only Kerry Livgren.  He graciously invited me into the house, and also apologized for the clutter (as if!), and showed me around a bit.  No matter that he is a musical genius who wrote some of the most magnificent songs of the progressive rock era (the majority of which you've probably never heard... Icarus, The Pinnacle, The Wall, Miracles Out Of Nowhere, Hopelessly Human, to name a few), his home is really just like anyone else's home.  Except, that is, for a few gold records, the original cover art from Seeds Of Change and get this - the handwritten (in pencil) first draft of the lyrics for Carry On Wayward Son. 

Whew.

A gentleman, and such a gentle man; true to the term.

Other than this one, no pictures; not needed.