Off to Chicago

My son Tyler is off on a journey to New Zealand for three months and I am having a journey of my own. Journeys should definitely be journaled and, well, some journals should be shared with friends. I want to laugh and cry and pray with my friends and maybe in the process I will learn to be a better writer. Like I tell my kids, "The more you do something the better you get at it." Steve and I left New Year's Day from home to pick up Tyler in West Lafayette (where he had spent New Year's Eve) and take him on to Chicago O'Hare airport. Other than a late start from home and a long wait at Wendy's in Lafayette (I think the workers may have had a bit of a hangover), all went well and we arrived in adequate time for Tyler to get checked in and catch his flight. The moment worth writing about occurred when we took Tyler's luggage out of the back of the van in the parking garage. Who should be looking out at me from underneath the back seat but our cat, Spike?! We thought we left our children at home and were going to have a date in Chicago alone. What could we do but laugh and say, "We'll deal with this later."? My question to you is, "Does God have a sense of humor or did He think we needed a major distraction after delivering our son to the airport to make his journey halfway around the world to a place where he wasn't even sure where he'd be sleeping his first night?" We certainly had several laughs and quite a bit of a distraction. Granted some people have pets travel with them. We are not "some people" and we were not prepared for this. We quickly found a grocery store, a litter box, food, a dish, and room freshener. We then proceeded to check into The Drake and Spike was checked into the van for the night. While we were enjoying a scrupulous meal at The Cheesecake Factory Spike was sipping water and digesting his first meal of canned food. While we were viewing Chicago from the top of the John Hancock building Spike was confined to the 2003 Windstar. While we were strolling Michigan Avenue entering many a store and shopping for just the right purchase Spike was grooming his black and white fur and leaving it in various places within that 2003 Windstar. Steve went to the parking garage to check on Spike in the morning and reported to me that he was "acting just like a cat". He was perched on the driver's seat acting like he owned the place! This picture of Spike lounging on our atlas was taken about one hour before we arrived back in Harlan. So as you can see, he survived the trip, but I must say, I think he was quite happy to see the inside of our garage again. Most importantly, before we ever left Chicago to head home, we heard from Cecily that Tyler had called saying that he had indeed arrived in New Zealand safely. PTL I'm sure there will be many adventures ahead for Tyler as well as for me. I'll keep you posted.