Sargie's relaxing in our hotel room Tuesday evening

March 3, 2020 - Tuesday evening

49 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Bloomington, Illinois

Here's an FYI for you, a seldom known fact. 

Bloomington, Illinois, home of Illinois Wesleyan University, is where I earned my undergraduate degree in Music Education almost fifty years ago. 

Honestly, I don't recognize the town any longer. While a student at IWU, Bloomington was still a somewhat small community driven greatly by agriculture. Today, who knows what drives it? The headquarters of State Farm Insurance is here along with a six lane interstate, way too many people, and a whole lot of traffic.

I never did care for Illinois. I like it even less in my senior years. It's simply a big ol' blob on the map that's needed to connect Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

We were up fairly early Tuesday morning in anticipation of a full day of driving. Though a sleepy Sargie, still in bed, kept saying, "Just five more minutes," we were packed and driving towards Iron Mountain by 9 AM.

Dropping Sadie off at Holly and Ross's, we left after a quick visit. Time waits for no one, especially when he and his bride are heading south during these cold and snowy months!

Our trip through the northern tier wasn't all that pretty. In fact, there were times we were forced to drive at a slow crawl as the snow came pounding down making visibility difficult and the road slippery. Well, that's when you could see the road.

We broke out of the bad weather just north of Green Bay and had clear driving the rest of the way. It seems odd to see ground with no snow covering it. As I told the clerk here at the hotel, we haven't seen bare ground since early last November.

 Sunshine and warm temperatures accompanied us through southern Wisconsin right down to central Illinois. We walked to a restaurant close to the hotel earlier and enjoyed the near perfect evening.

Our journey will continue south tomorrow, skirting around St. Louis and Memphis. We'll stop somewhere south of Memphis for the day then have an easy drive onto Mississippi Brother Garry and Jody's in Laurel on Thursday.

Oh, someone asked if Laurel, MS, isn't the same community featured on Our Town on HGTV. It sure is. If we run into Erin and Ben while we're there, we'll be sure to tell them everyone says hi. 

On the agenda for Wednesday, other than driving? I'll let Sargie make those decisions. If some place or the other catches her fancy, then the sky's the limit. I'm merely the driver. 

Time to take a shower then hop into bed and pretend to watch tv while I fall asleep. 

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road... by way of Bloomington, Illinois

Today's random Alaska picture:
I'd ridden my snowmobile seventy five miles from Kotzebue to Buckland, Alaska, to supervise a third grade teacher. Of course, everyone knows that all work and no play isn't any fun!