Well, my time at Michaela’s house was all about bingeing. Late nights, late sleeps, loads of food and lots of drinks. Well the purge has come at Scott & Jenni’s, and boy has it been fun.
It started three days ago now. I thought the afternoon would be spent lazing around the house & eating the fudge that we had bought in St Louis. Instead, I found myself perched precariously on top of a racing bike (the last time I found myself astride one of these terrors was at age 14! Mountain bikes are far less scary)circumnavigating the twin towns of Normal/Bloomington, with no brakes & a habit of looking in the wrong direction when checking for oncoming traffic.
On day two the stakes were raised. The plan, lazing in some tubes as we float down a waterway called “Sugar creek”. The eventuality, hiring a canoe and a kayak which needed a fair bit of paddle power to push it down the river. The result, another smash hit! I loved getting out & powering through the water. Finding things like a 5 meter jump-off into the water & a bunch of great things to photograph just sweetened the deal. The bonus, once we had finished at 6, we had two hours to trek in “Turkey run National Park”. We followed a track which led through a bunch of amazing little canyons, maybe 15 meters deep and going from 15 meters wide to a couple of feet! The temperature was about 10 degrees cooler in the canyons & the rock, the trees & the fog was just amazing!
This leads us to today. Having only managed to get about 3 hours sleep last night (for reasons that remain a mystery to me… just couldn’t sleep), I was greeted by a 7:19am phone call from Briana confirming that she could pick me up this evening after dinner in Chicago. A two hour drive with Scott & Jenni became a 3 hour one thanks to road works. The light at the end of that tunnel was a cheap “North Face” polar fleece at REI. Scottish weather here I come!
Having parked in the city, we did about 5 hours walking as we made our way across the city, through some gardens, into an art gallery and along the lake shores. It wasn’t all purging though. Lunch saw us at the famous “Ed Debevicks”, where the waiters are about as polite as a smack in the face with a wet cod!
That evening I found myself at another great food icon “Giordano’s” famous for an amazing deep dish, stuffed pizza. My appetite wasn’t there though & I put in a dismal effort, not even finishing a single piece. That was not my only disappointment that evening though, cause Briana had succumbed to get lag (having just got back from Denmark) and was unable to make it, so Scott & Jenni graciously let me stay at their house for another couple of nights. The only thing between me and bed, another 2 hour drive….. wait, make that another 3 hours. Stupid night works!
Be it through exercise or needlessly long driving trips, I feel I have paid my penance for my fast food excess.
Though Jenni says there is a great Oreo sundae that I HAVE to try tomorrow. When will the vicious cycle end?