July 27th – 31st – Chicago, IL and Sawyer, MI

We drove from Grinnell up to Chicago, or rather, Riverside, IL. This is a lovely community outside of Chicago proper, but has commuter trains. We were here to visit Hope and Michael, and meet their three children, Felix and his twin sisters Lethea and Cordania. Toby and Hope met about 10 years ago, while fishing somewhere in Northern Norway. Things have changed since then, but luckily people retain their fun-loving and interesting natures! (=

We spent the first few days hanging out in Riverside, playing with the kids and walking around the cute town and enjoying DELICIOUS food! Hope is a conniseur of yummy food. As she put it, "My New Year's resolution is always to eat better. For most people, that means to eat healthier. For me, it means to eat more deliciously!" No wonder she and I got along!

Toby and I did get into Chicago downtown one afternoon, and explored some of the beautiful buildings and saw the Gehry-designed Millennium Park, and watched yatchs at the marina.

Then we all went to the weekend house in Michigan. It was quiet and right near the lake. We went for a bit of a hike one evening to watch the sunset from atop the lake dunes. Wow! Unfortunately, Toby was bitten by some bug, and we think it might be a black widow. Luckily, he had fairly mild symptoms.

July 26th – 27th – Grinnell, Iowa

It was blissfully cool and rainy! Woo-hoo! I think the high on the 26th was down around 67 F – room temperature. The rain was a welcome relief too, after days in the desert and then into the rain-starved prairies. We stopped for lunch at a cute diner in a small town, where Toby and I stood out like sore thumbs. The food was good and filling though, and people were friendly.

Then we arrived into Grinnell, the town of Toby’s alma mater, and went straight towards the college. It’s a beautiful campus, full of old buildings and green spaces and many trees. Toby showed me the science buildings and residences where he’d lived. Much had changed in the last 8 years since he graduated; buildings had been added, knocked down, or renovated. Still, it was great to get a feeling for the place!

In town, we found a café with coffee, tea and snacks, and rested for a while. Got a motel for the night, and went out for a memorable steak meal! Rube’s even has internet ordering capabilities now! There is no menu; instead, visitors get a tour of the meat fridge, choose a cut, and grill it on the gigantic brickette-fired BBQ! Potatoes, Texas toast, and a salad bar are included. What a fun place! I had a small (8oz) filet mignon, while Toby had a 20oz rib eye.



The following morning, we headed back to campus, where Toby was able to meet up with one of his mentors, Luther. We sat in Luther’s office/lab and had a lovely chat. Having to get to Chicago that afternoon, we had to leave Grinnell before lunch, and drove eastward into Illinois.

July 24th – 26th – Kirksville, MO

Kirksville is a small town in northern Missouri, a state where all the secondary highways are named with letters! Like Kansas, Missouri’s highway system is fairly grid-like, making navigation easy. We continued to follow the heat-wave. Although the air temperature was dropping (it was only about 100 F), the humidity was rising!



Here, we were visiting Maria (Toby’s college friend), Eric and their nearly-two-year-old Andrew. As with Toby’s other friends, Maria and Eric were wonderful hosts! And Andrew was sweet, constantly babbling to himself. Toby and I could only understand a few of his words, most of which involved trucks; “dump truck” and “fire truck” were his favourites! Eric and Maria are both chemistry profs at Truman State University, and Toby had a tour of their labs and the university the next day, while I slept in and relaxed in their lovely, quiet home. Did I mention they have 4 cats? All were friendly and affectionate. There were also several fish tanks in the home, so I was entertained the entire day.




We had yet another BBQ. I love summers for the BBQ-ed food! Yum! And had another wonderful evening of chatting and laughing!

The next morning, Toby and I headed northward into Iowa.

July 22nd – 24th– Lawrence, KS

We drove from Limon, CO into Kansas, remarking how flat and prairie-like western Colorado is! The weather was still hot, plus the added “bonus” of humidity. Yuck! We arrived into the city of Lawrence, situated nearly halfway between Toledo and Kansas City. Here, we were visiting Heather and Chad, Toby’s college friends. They have a cute place with two dogs: Piper, a rat terrier – Chihuahua cross, and Houdini, a rat terrier puppy. They were energetic, especially when playing together, but adorable!




Heather took us on a tour of her lab (she’s a chemist at Kansas State University) and into the lovely downtown area. Since it was quite hot out, we went into many stores, mostly just to bask in their air-conditioning! Chad arrived home from his weekend class in time to BBQ dinner. Yum! It was wonderful to spend the evening just relaxing and chatting!

The following morning, we headed out for a humungous brunch, and then had to say good-bye. Toby and I were driving further east, across the Missouri River.