It takes Ali and Kristian a long time to mobilize today, but eventually, we hit the road by 11:30am. We need to cover over 130 miles before 6:00pm. Relaying back and forth, we manage to get to Penfield at 5:30pm. Ali, who has a love of photography, suggests we take pictures of ourselves in the fields of pea and mustard seed plants. At first, Kristian is a little apprehensive to be standing in front of people's fields in this little town in Illinois with lots of truck and tractor traffic going by, but eventually, feels more comfortable.
After half an hour, it's 6pm, and we decide it's time to begin driving up to Chicago. Passing through Rantoul, Il, Ali and Kristian see a Dairy Queen, and remembering it's not a healthy living tour, like their tour across Canada in 2005, they decide to stop in for a sundae!
After their sundae, they realize that they want real sustenance, so they buy a head of lettuce each and some vegetables from the local IGA.
By this time, they are really eager to get up to Chicago, so they decide to eat the veggies on the road. Eventually arriving in Evanston, IL (15 minutes north of Chicago) at Fred and Debra Poneman's house, We are welcomed by the whole family with big hugs and told that nobody can talk right now. Everyone runs back into the family room to finishing watching the end of "the greatest movie ever made", The Sound of Music.
After the movie, Ali and Kristian spend time with Fred and Debra and their daughter Dianna (pronounced Dee-ahn-ah), her boyfriend Ben, and the two family Boston Terriers. Their son, Daniel, is out watching a basketball game at one of the Chicago high-schools. He is a sought after by scouts from Universities all across the US for his analysis of high-school basketball players throughout the state of illinois. He has a sophisticated website www.illinoishsbasketball.com that coaches and NBA scouts look at on a regular basis. He has contracts to write for the top scouting magazines in the US, and all this while he's still in High School!
After the movie and talking about the tour and our adventures to date, Debra shows Kristian and Ali the place she's prepared for them. It is really comfortable, and they get ready to have a great sleep.
