Illinois-Wisconsin - Visiting the Brothers 8/27-31/10

(from Kule 9/2/10)


Midwest – From the land of Corn to the land of Cheese

Leaving our brief but warm connection with the barn yard animals, prolific gardens, and friends, at Monica's Muddy Fork Farm, we set our next heading to reconnect with that ribbon of pavement known as Interstate 90, West. Westward Ho!

Trade Offs:
In order to make it to Seattle before the “Gray” sets in for the cooler months, we have chosen to limit our stop times along the way. At times I feel frustrated with the chosen trade offs, and mourn the loss of potentially longer celebration times with precious family and friends. 'Short but sweet' seems to describe most of our connections along the way, so far.

On to visit 3 brothers:
I am the forth of five brothers. We all grew up in a northern suburb of Chicago, Glencoe. We share a bond, not all that common in families these days, and celebrate it during our monthly conference calls.

Our next stop was with brother Jon, 'number 3 son', now in Aurora, IL, west of Chicago. A one-nighter, we caught up on Jon's and wife Martha's recent cruise to Italy and Greece, and enjoyed some catch up with nephew Dan. A surprise and delight, that night, was to also catch up with another nephew, Roger, from Seattle while our paths crossed on his west coast to east coast bicycle ride. The evening was heartful and animated.

After breakfast and a few cups of Jo from Jon's latest fashion coffee maker gadget, we headed due north to catch up with 'number 2 son' and 'number 5 son' brothers in Wisconsin. In route, we lunched with a friend, Davi, who we know from our Network for New Culture Summer Camp group. Davi had put up Roger when he bicycled through Madison a week earlier, after some telephone introductions on my part.

We made it in time for dinner to my older brother, Kim's, place in Rhinelander, WI, with my younger brother, Mark, having extended his own visit, from near Chicago, to catch us. Kim lives in 'God's Country', his house abutting the Wisconsin river. Swimming, evening campfire, 22 target practice, and dining on a table at riverside punctuated our visit. (Note from Michelle. Impressed with Kule's hitting the dime sized bullseyes several times from 50 yards away.)

I got my brothers joining me in a celestial navigation project, using the sun's position to calculate our Lat. Long., which worked out with minimal error, but (in retrospect) took more time than I had hoped, so I missed out on some time fishing, or otherwise spending time with my brothers getting dirty in the outdoors or with some household projects, or more protracted discussions about what is meaningful in our lives. We headed out the next day for Minnesota.