As we traveled out of Chicago on Interstate 55 the sun came out and the flat farmlands nearly put me to sleep.
Our first stop was the Bloomington home of our friends, Jim and Peggy. Peggy kept me sane when I first moved into the village. She was there to drive us all to the hospital when Art was out of town and Jon broke his arm on the playground. She helped me get my driver's license so I could join the preschool carpool. And then she moved away to California, then to Ohio and now to Bloomington. When we first met, I told her we'd be moving back to Hawaii in a couple of years. Instead, she moved several times and I stayed for 33 years. I tried to get Peggy onto a blog but something went wrong. I'll try again when I get a block to time to do it. I hope you'll all visit her whenever that happens because... good grief! She has got a million stories to tell! (I did get her on from Springfield. Her link is Musings of Meggie.)
After a scrumptious lunch that Peggy and Jim prepared, we were back on the road headed for Springfield, Illinois. The skies were a sparkling blue!
We arrived safely and were happy to see Gene again. Gene is a recent widower who lost his wife, Sharon just a few months ago. He is a brilliant Presbyterian minister with a million ideas to share and we loved seeing him again although I kept expecting Sharon to walk in any minute from around the corner. Ted, from Japan was also there but had to leave at 2 AM this morning to get to Kentucky for a business meeting.
