Sunday night in Elkhart, IN we took the night off. Heather was then attacked by Martian monsters, which is the fate of all slackers who take nights off.

February 21st, 2012.
I’ve found myself a beautifully appointed Starbucks, and a window seat in view of the El station in the Bryn Mawr section of Chicago. It’s gray as an eraser smudge today, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem is unfurling day by day in my head. Yesterday, it was only the first three lines. Today, the fourth and fifth come with the weather:

The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where i first
fell in love
with unreality
Jellybeans glowed in the semi-gloom

I did fall in love here, in a different part of the city only a few weeks from now, only a few years ago. I took, what was at that point and may very well continue to be, the greatest leap of faith of my entire life.

That night we ended up in another hotel (we've been truly Living the high Life on this tour) and relaxed in a Microtel... our very first hotel ever on the road in 2003 (?) was a Microtel outside of California, PA.

It’s warmer today than it was yesterday, but Lake Michigan could not be denied, and I went down to the waterfront anyway. I took off my shoes, and stuck a toe in the water. It’s not enough to see the edges of land. I’ve made it my business to “poke” the waters. I’ve touched the Atlantic in many places, the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Lake Erie while aimlessly driving north from Oberlin, the Pacific sometime during the tour with Dar Williams, and Lake Michigan yesterday. I’ve jumped into the Missouri River fully