Land of Obama

Here is the skinny. I got on a train in Spokane, got off the train in St. Paul and got on a bus so that I could make my connection in Chicago (work on the track), got off the bus, got on another train and was picked up by my mom at the train station in good old Quincy, Illinois. Here is what I have been doing since I got here: repaired some spots on my parent's roof (the old man is still stewing on whether or not he wants me to do the whole thing and I am trying hard to be patient), currently in the middle of building a shed with my sister, drove to Kansas City, for a day to see my incredibly cute great nieces and great nephew, helped my dad get his power chair out of the house (MAJOR ORDEAL), and have hung out a little bit with my friends driving around and goofing off (not enough). The weather has been great in between the horrible spells. I miss the hell out of Walter. He had to stay home but he has been here before. When he was three months old he rode here in the back seat of my truck and got to hang out in the nursing home with my grandparents (grandma was quite smitten with him). So here are just a few pictures of things.

Getting off the train in St. Paul (the guy in the picture butted in front of me when I was getting on the bus)

Union Station with the Sears Tower (it is no longer the Sears Tower but cannot think of the name of it)

Some of Chicago's cool art deco stuff

Sculling in the Chicago River (yuck)

A hawk in the tree behind my parent's house

The floor of the shed (it now has walls)

A lovely storm

One of the many WAY cool Victorian houses in Hannibal, Missouri


My mom and some pretty sweet kids

The largest privately owned mausoleum in the country...space for 100! It is down the street from my friend Kim's house and is a cool place to walk around.

The weird city vault. It may have been used to store bodies from riverboat accidents until their families could arrange for transport but no one is sure.

The graves of the children from the orphanage who died in a cholera epidemic at the turn of the 20th century


View of the Mississippi River