Dawn, Aurora

Well, it's really 8:45 here, but in our host's basement (finished, and nicer than many hotel rooms) it's dark enough for Jodi to get a little more sleep.

We got here around half past midnight. I'm glad we don't have any more 700-mile days ahead of us.

I love having FeederReader on this phone to download Coverville and Thing a Week.

I love finding little places like Uncle Johnni's in Kankakee by checking Wikitravel at a rest area. (Soft drink with one refill: $1.69. Soft drink without ice: $2.29, no refill for you. But the food was good, honest, and fairly priced.)

And now it's almost 9, and time to wake Jodi so we can see NIU, drive to Madison, see UW-Madison, and drive to Milwaukee for the night.

Hi, yoliesraft! If you haven't already, will you please tell me the LJ/Facebook/MySpace identities of David and our Chattanooga hosts?

Our host's home in Aurora

Our host's home in Aurora

Our host's home in Aurora

Our host's home in Aurora

Zulauf Hall, Northern Illinois University

Zulauf Hall, Northern Illinois University

On the way to Milwaukee

On the way to Milwaukee

We're going to try to drive to Madison early in the morning, see UW-Milwaukee on the way back east, and get to Kalamazoo for the night.

Bohemian Milwaukee

We're at Beans & Barley, just a few blocks from our hosts's home. I had the best $5 salad of my life and a Sprecher Black Bavarian Style lager, and Jodi said her vegetable lasagna was some of the best vegetarian food she's had.

The restaurant is just a wing of a natural-foods supermarket across the street from the East Library, which has an open wi-fi connection. We're going there after this so we can plan our next moves.

I could SO live here.

Lj-mood: suffonsified
Lj-music: Blinking-marquee interstitial from Rocky & Bullwinkle IMH