Day 2-4

So after we checked out of the motel in Buffalo (which we noticed had blood splatters on the bathroom mirror), we went to Niagara Falls. The falls were lovely and misty. We did tourism the way only Paul and I can. We looked at the falls, took a few silly pictures then roughly 7.5 mins later we were on our way.

Our GPS, a pretentious British bitch, kept directing us towards Canada. I kept ignoring her, then after being confused for about 15mins we ended up on the Rainbow Bridge going to Canada. So for about an hour we were in Canada. We were technically refugees from the USA or so our paper work said. After escaping Canada we were back on the road to Chicago.

Can I just say there are a few states that I, personally, could do with out. Ohio being one. (interesting Ohio fact; did you know that more astronauts come from Ohio than any other state? Yup, they flee the planet because they are from Ohio). I’ve now added to my list, Indiana. Sorry but other than the Cinnabuns at your gas stations I could really care less.

About 3/4ths of the way through Indiana Jean, Martin’s girlfriend, calls us and tells us we are driving though an area where a tornado warning is in alert. Awesome. I see how it is Indiana, well the feeling is mutual. The weather got a little dicey.

We finally made it to Chicago only to find that we didn’t have a place to stay for the night. We were going to be put up by Jean but for whatever reason she changed her mind. So, thanks to our amazing father, we ended up staying in a Hilton. Swanky!

So after a long day filled with illegally emigrating, tornadoes and rejection we finally ended up in fuzzy hotel robes and ordering room service.

The next morning, after over sleeping in the fancy Hilton beds, Paul and I met Martin and Jean for breakfast at a breakfast place where they served pancakes instead of toast. I mean everything came with two pancakes.

We went back to Martin’s and watched a few episodes of West Wing. Then Jean brought us to her house. Jean’s house is more or less a natural history museum. She has amazing art, sculptures and a library!

Elden, a friend of mine from high school who now is working on his PHD at the University of Chicago, came over. We talked about our lives. He mostly talked about his cancer research which is mostly just mass mouse genoside. He had some crazy bloody mouse anecdotes.

After some very authentic Mexican food and driving through the ghetto adjacent Chicago area Elden headed out and Paul and I passed out.

As I was repacking the next morning I managed to royally slice my finger. I mean gushing blood. Thank you mom for packing band-aids for us!

We brought Martin and Jean breakfast in the morning and had a long philosophical discussion about education, logic and life choices. Martin and Jean are both incredibly intelligent. Martin with his life long philosophical back ground and Jean with her extensive knowledge of botany and biology. We left with some lovely books, a gift for our dad and I now have a beautiful pocket knife and an incredible door knocker (insert dirty knocker joke here).

After we left we drove. We drove across Iowa. Iowa is beautiful! All we did today was drive through Iowa, I mean seriously that’s all we did. Surprisingly it was not bad, it was so pretty and all highway.

Now Paul and I are at a Day’s Inn that is directly across the street from a prison!