Mr. Mistake

I was a bloody fool today 

    I know, some of you are snickering and saying, "Today?"  

    But I did something stupid.

    Those of you who know me understand that I tend to act rashly, spur of the moment, off the cuff.  I don't always plan things out, believing spontaneous actions are quite fun.

I went to see The Big Boy today.  That is the gigantic UP steam powered engine currently on tour.

    I wanted to go as early as possible.  So I left the house even before the Bear game started.  Instead of going thru town, where traffic was impossible, I went the back door. I got to Brush Grove Road and headed to the parking area.

    Here was my first surprise.

    This was approaching the facility from the west.  At this time, which was about 11:40.  Instead of pulling into the parking lot, I decided to follow what others were doing and park on Brush Grove Road and walk the rest of the way. 

    I got out of my car right after the Bears first possession and walked.  And walked.   And walked.  It took me 40 minutes to actually get to the rear of the train.

    Now, I am a 7 f-in 6 year old man who has had an issue with balance for the past 4 weeks.  I did not bring water, sunscreen, or anything that would have helped me.

    I even texted Julia and told her if she doesn't hear from me again, check the local hospital.

    But I got to see the train up close.  It is truly impressive.  It's too bad the cars were not open for viewing, but I can understand why.

    UP was passing out little bottles of water, so I grabbed 2 for the walk back.  I was dreading that.

    I also found a seat under a tent and sat for a few minutes. 

    As I started back I noticed a 6 passenger golf cart with 3 people on it.  Turns out it was a shuttle to the entrance to the parking lot, which cut my walk back to the car down by about 15 minutes. 

    As I was walking I noticed people my age were also parking on the road and walking to the train.  I pondered yelling, "Don't go...get in your car...save yourself," but hey would have put all that on the ravings of a deranged lunatic.

    It was hot.  And sunny.  At one point I saw camels.  Or elephants, they seemed to look the same.

    I got back to the van.  Well, I got back to a van that looked like ours but wasn't.  So I continued walking and was shocked at how far people had parked.  Farther than me!  They might have been in another zip code!

    I posted a video of the cars parked as I drove home.

    Then I had to pick up the hoses because my young man was coming to mow.  I went to let Emily's dogs out because she worked today.  After the dogs, I decided to drive into town for an iced vanilla half can latte but when I tried to order on line I got he message that it was sold out at the Rochelle Starbucks.

    Sold out!!!

    Julia's friend said traffic on I-88, the tollway, was backed up from 251 to I 39 because of cars getting off to go see the train.

    People had said 30,000 would be here to see The Big Boy, but I bet there was more than that.

    I managed to watch about 2 minutes of the Bears game.

    While I was letting out the dogs, Julia was making a salad and cookies for us to take to the block party.

    That was a lot of fun.  Met some new neighbors, visited with some I knew.  But again, I sat on the outside and did not mingle very much, although I did go talk to 2 new people.  That is a giant step for someone like me.

Peace and Love