Being we were in Chicagoland, I thought that was an appropriate title for today's post! Let's get to it.
This morning we woke from our slumber in the First Presbyterian Church in Sandusky. We ate our breakfast in the Fellowship Hall and packed-up our things. We had a little extra work as well to help clean-up the spaces we used. Our mantra, "leave everything better than you found it" was in full effect this morning. This was a good example of that. After the cleaning was done, the boys loaded the bus and we headed-out for Chicago.
The theme of the day was staying cool. With much of the US sizzling in the sun, we had little sympathy as we trudged on through the temps in the high 90's. The bus air conditioning is good, but not that good. The temps in the bus throughout the day hovered around a muggy 82 degrees. By the time 3:00 in the afternoon came around, it never dipped below 85. It was fairly uncomfortable, but I don't recall hearing a single complaint from the boys, now that I think about it.With today being an "off" day - our second in a row, the boys were able to stay in comfortable clothing. We put them in their play clothes right away this morning and we stayed in them all day. Very rarely does that ever happen on a tour. The red polos will be getting a good workout the next two days, so I hope we can get them washed while we are in Neillsville, WI.
When we arrived at the motel, neither Aaron nor I really wanted to fight traffic in this heat and on a hot bus for 3 of the next 6 hours. In addition, we needed to find a place to eat the Chicago-Style stuffed pizza we had been promising the boys for 2 weeks now. In order to simplify our evening plans, we needed to find a better plan, and fast. Aaron found a great fireworks display in a park 1 mile from our hotel and I worked on getting the pizza we promised delivered to our motel. Once the plan was set, we had to sell it to the boys. I made my pitch, room by room, and not a single boy voted to go to Navy Pier. I was expecting at least a handful of unhappy boys, but the vote came down to 34-0.The pizza came from Giordano's and it was incredible! Many of the boys could only handle one piece since they were so large. Rodney said it was probably the best pizza he has ever had in his life. I probably concur with that. After filling our gills to the gills, we spent a little time digesting the food while we waited for the darkness to get closer. Around 7:00, we grabbed our hats and cameras for the short walk to the park.
Along the way, Adam and a pair of boys took a detour to get three cases of water for the boys. With all the heat the past few days, we have been going through water like crazy. Counting the 3 cases this evening, we have gone through 13 cases of water in 3 days. You don't have to worry too much if your boys are drinking enough! (The bathroom breaks are at a high pace as well....)The boys had a little more than and hour to kill until the show, so several of them checked-out the band playing at the park. There were a few other attractions, but the boys were mostly content playing games in the field. Around 9:32, the first shot fired up into the sky and illuminated the entire surrounding area. It was a very good fireworks show. (We figured it would be as thousands of people were staking-out their spots more than 2 hours beforehand.) The whole show took about 35 minutes and ended with the Grand Finale, which I posted on our Facebook Page. The boys had a great time at the fireworks and we walked the mile back to our motel.
All the boys showered and hopped into bed. I just did another round of checks and they seem to be well on their way to dreamland. I feel like a broken record, but it was another great day!
There is still time to join our Tour Fundraiser. Two more donations occurred today, bringing our total up to $2,562 towards our goal of $4,000. Thank you to everyone that has helped to keep this program strong and available for all boys! To contribute, please click here and help today!
P.J.
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