That’s what I sang as we drove past the Illinois state sign this weekend. It actually made Mark laugh, he only laughs at one out of every twenty songs I come up with so I thought I should share it with you. The ’s’ is silent of course.

As you read in Mark’s Sunday post, we’re in Illinois visiting his family. Everyday I think “Oh no, what am I going to write about to make the readers think this is the most exciting time of my life?” You see, I imagined that by this point of the trip we would have mountain climbing, horseback riding, finding hidden waterfalls where we camp for days, and discovering delicious restaurants in cities we never visited before, all under our belts. Sure, we have found some good restaurants (Cleveland was surprisingly delicious) but we haven’t done much of the other romanticized road trip activities. Well, we haven’t done those yet, but believe me, if mountain climbing, horse back riding and waterfall camping do not happen on this trip, I’ll continue road tripping until it does. So far it’s been a drive through Amish country, a drive through RV country (apparently lots of RVs are built in Indiana) and a visit to Mark’s family (both sides of his family, to be exact). All of these destinations were planned out before we ever left Montclair, and have forced us to rush past peach orchards, winery tours, and Saugatuck, Michigan to arrive on time. Well, we’re left Monticello, Illinois and Mark’s family this afternoon and we’re headed towards Chicago, but believe me when I say that hanging out with Mark’s family beats waterfall camping any time!!! I mean, really, how could we sleep with a loud waterfall crashing down behind us anyway? I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe we’ll just opt for a day trip to a secluded waterfall we stumble upon after throwing Samantha out the window and getting lost (Just kidding Samantha, I love you and need you).

I believe Mark told you about our first day or two here in Monticello. In my story, we open after a night of sleeping at Uncle Lee’s country house. Originally we were to stay in the ‘Little House’ over at Aunt Louise and Uncle Larry’s, but the basement flooded (come on rain, leave Illinois alone already) and we moved to higher ground. We slept in the T@b and it felt pretty damn awesome waking up with a red barn and horses in the background the next morning.

This is Rosco, a handsome mutt with his own super large dog run, shed/house and pool. Before we met I heard he was a huge dog who would eat Mister. It turns out he’s not as huge as that other Rosco I know, and is as sweet as his twin Lennon (Kate’s dog).

I think they might have been Mules. That white one and one of those brown guys are in love, and it’s also a little creepy because the white one is so small, she’s got to be too young for him. But a couple of serious cuties nonetheless.

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Alright, we went to Allerton Park today and had a blast…but the Sun Singer exhibit was closed! Maybe the statue came to life and started terrorizing the countryside, so the park management was forced to contain the Sun Singer and hide him from the public. That’s most likely what happened.
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We’ve been hanging with my extended family for the past couple days in Monticello, Illinois.  “Just chillin’,” as my 71-year-old Uncle Ed says. They’re a splendid group of kinfolk, all of ‘em — as evidenced by their combined amount of laugh wrinkles and smile lines. This is Katie’s first time meeting my oddball relatives, and she’s palling around with them like a pro. “I like your senses of humor,” she told my aunt and uncle. They’re the kind to insult your ingenuity while kicking you in the butt.  Still, you can’t help but lapse into a fit of giggles when you see their eyes twinkling and their lips curling up into a big, warm smile. Then they invite you into their home, give you more food and drink than your body is able to digest, and charm you with compliments and stories of their life experiences.
“They’re teasy, but they’re not mean teasy. They’re nice teasy!” says Katie.

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