We left my parents house in Chicago at 7 AM and arrived at our apartment door at 1:30 AM. Another long trip has ended safely. Traffic was pretty typical, with some rain, but nothing horrible. Usual batch of accidents. The worst was a really bad rollover caused by a car hitting a deer (in western Arkansas–between Little Rock and Texarkana).

Now off to sleep.

Mike has been pretty busy, so I thought I’d put up some of his “firsts” that were done over this past camping trip:

• First time camping
• First time in a canoe
• First time portaging a canoe
• First time pooping in an outhouse
• First time pooping in the woods (with flies!)
• First time sleeping in a tent
• First time sleepign in a tent with his brother
• First time wearing camo pants
• First time hiking with a full pack

Mike and I got back from the fishing trip very early this past Sunday morning. After that, it was back to a very busy work week. I’ll write more about our trip later, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we’re alive and well; just really busy.

Another 1,147 miles. Another 18.5 hours. In the end, we got up to Chicago safe-and-sound. The moron drivers started up a little earlier this time, but they were generally fewer in number. (Unlike last time, where I thought I had stumbled onto the Indy 500 once we were north of I-80.) A little rain near Waco, a little construction in Illinois, but nothing that really slowed us down.

We’ll be heading up to Chicago again tomorrow (Thr 8/2) for a birthday, a wedding, and a shower–all in one weekend. After that, it’s a couple of days fishing up in Ely, MN. Followed by a couple of weeks of work, then back down to Austin in late August.