Crazy Trip to Chicago

Nick and I had wanted to get out of town for the weekend, but we're not good at planning trips. Usually all my vacationing is done by showing up where and when Kate tells me. So, we had thought we would leave after Nick took his test on Friday, but we still didn't have anything planned. Friday afternoon we went online and bought bus tickets to Chicago. On the next whim, we called Chad and Angelina, med school/ward friends, and amazingly they were also game for our crazy plans. Riding the bus to Chicago is not necessarily crazy. But leaving St. Louis, spending the day in Chicago, and returning to your home 29 hours after you left is a little bit nuts.

We caught the bus Saturday morning at 1:15 AM, so essentially late Friday night. We rode on the upper deck of the bus and each had a row of two seats to ourselves. We tried to sleep with some success. The bus makes a scheduled 20 minute stop halfway. This trip the bus also made an unscheduled stop when it got pulled over. We never figured out why we were pulled over, but it seemed to take a really long time. I was getting worried that we were being put out of service. But eventually we were on our way again and arrived in Chicago at 7:30 AM.

We hit the ground running, found something to eat, and made our way to Michigan Ave. Just over 16 hours later, we were boarding the bus again for home at midnight. We got back to St. Louis at 5:30 AM and were in bed asleep 20 minutes later. We were exhausted by the time we got back on the bus but we'd had a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll always bring this trip up as something we did when we were young and spontaneous, back in the day.