My plan yesterday was to make my way up to the University of Chicago and try to find somewhere to stay with some students there. As I was approaching the campus, I got an email from my friend Lyle, a forwarded email from his friend-of-a-friend John, saying that John’s friend Joe would host me for the evening in Hyde Park. Thanks to everyone in that chain of acquaintances for helping to secure me lodging for the night!

And a wonderful night it was. I got to hear Anna (left) play the cello while Lily and Rachel (right) made a peach-pear cobbler and Joe cooked up some sardines. We had some great conversations over dinner and beer/wine, and Joe asked me some really good questions about my walk that made me think a little deeper about what I’m experiencing.

P.S. Joe is a published author!

John, Joe’s friend and Lyle’s friend-of-a-friend, took me out to breakfast this morning and interviewed me for his blog. He’s also done a few cross-country bike trips, and even wrote a book about one: Bars Across America: Drinking and Biking from Coast to Coast.

A cold, windy morning

I love informational signs about mundane-but-overlooked parts of daily life.

From Wikipedia:

In a controversial move on March 31, 2003, Mayor Daley ordered private crews to destroy the runway in the middle of the night, bulldozing large X-shaped gouges into the runway surface. The required notice was not given to the Federal Aviation Administration or the owners of airplanes tied down at the field, and as a result sixteen planes were left stranded at an airport with no operating runway, and an incoming flight was diverted.

In Chicago they have to build them.