From Chicago, made some serious tracks in just a couple of days.
Cruised through/out of the great city of Chicago...
...and down into Indiana. When did all of these windmills get constructed? I find them so beautiful.
Pushed on into Ohio...
...before finally stopping to rest for the night in the town of Athens, where a couple of my Peace Corps friends live. I'm not even going to tell you how great Athens is, as it must be one of the best-kept secrets in the country, and I think the residents would like to keep it that way. The Saturday morning farmer's market was announcing the arrival of spring, which I really appreciated.
If you haven't noticed from the pictures, it was cold and rainy for much of my time in the Midwest, so it felt brilliant to start driving into sunnier (in Athens) and then, slowly but surely, warmer (as I cruised through West Virginia and Virginia)...
...until I returned, finally, to my once-upon-a-time home of North Carolina.
More on that later. First I met up with a couple of friends in the Raleigh-Durham area and soaked up some warmth and sunshine, complete with a lazy Sunday morning by the pool of my friend G's apartment complex.
Enjoy the big city, as we're about to head into the best kind of boonies....
