Reconnecting

Finally, it was beautiful day after all the rain and mist since I’d left home. I was up early to make sure I made check out at 11 and had time to drive the Danada forest preserve to meet my friend Lori.

Buddhas was feeling perky this morning so I took her on a long amble, for her, along trails behind the camp ground.

I got hooked up without a hitch. Hah, pun intended. And I arrived athe preserve early enough that I could have a walk around the little lake. Fall colors were great and I saw two blue herons. One I actually walked pas not two feet away from

It before I realized it was there. It was in stealth mode.

Lori arrived on time with a Chicago deep dish pizza. There is a divide Chicagoan’s between Giordanos or Lou Malnati for the best pizza Lori is team Lou Malnati.

I think the last time we spoke briefly was at our 30th reuinion in 2015. She contacted me this spring before our 40th to see if I was coming,

But I was not due to attending my last Knowledge conference before retiring from ServiceNow. We had tried to connect earlier in the summer when I was in Chicago for a greenhouse conference but we couldn’t make it work. So finally!

We were able to get right into it despite the lack

of connection for so many years. I found out her kids are a bit younger than mine. Most of my college friends have kids in their late 30s and grandchildren!

We reminisced about why neither of liked the Lit. department. She stayed the course but I initially declared a communications major with the intent to emphasize journalism before switching to history because the communications head seemed so phony to me. Lori had exactly thw same opinion!

We tried to remember how we met. It was probably sophomore year through my roommate Margie. We had this little clique of those of us who did not come from wealthy families nor were we second or third generation Wheaton “royalty.”

One of the reasons I didn’t bend myself into a pretzel to get there for the reuinion this year was because I didn’t want to go to all that effort just to be snubbed by the royalty who were the big wheels on campus and continue to stay tight.

Midway through our visit,Lori noticed a man behind us who was having car trouble. He needed a jump and as always, I had jumper cables in my car. Lori pulled up her car to connect to his and we got him started. He told me had Parkinson’s disease and I said I was I sorry. My dad was diagnosed with that and that it sucks. He said it sure does.

It was a great visit and she said that I am still me only more amplified. I liked that. We left it as we are mid conversation and will meet up again. Being the generation that we are, we forgot to take a selfie!

We had talked a long time and I didn’t get in the road until after three. I was planning to stay westerly on Rt 355 before connecting with I80/90, but unfortunately Google maps changed my route on the fly and put me on 294, which i absolutely did not want to be on. It Always has construction with no shoulder and lane shifts which are not ideal when pulling a trailer. but there I was on 294 in rush hour traffic making it happen.

I was smart enough not to plan a long drive today so I only had to get to Elkhart, IN, world capital of recreational vehicles. That never meant much to me until now. I did a practice run at a rest area to get gas and so I could just roll in the morning. Due to the time change which I forgot about, I didn’t get to my site until 7:30. :(. But again the practice at home was helpful and I set up quickly in the fading light. I had some left over pizza and called it a night.