The Long Road Home

Love to travel, hate to pack. Did I say hate? I meant loathe.  It seemed an insurmountable task to tuck away four weeks of life back into two suitcases, one duffel bag and a purse that can hold a small third work country.My roommate laughed when she saw the roll your clothes technique I employed to ensure everything fit.  (Insert dental nerd joke — she said it like doing the PAT — perceptual ability test that is on the DAT.)
After lots of squishing, rearranging and praying, I finally managed to get all my stuff consolidated.
I had a few last minute errands to run before having to catch a cab at 11:00 am to make our 1:42 pm flight back to Atlanta.  Me and Maggs walked back to the Chicago Public Library to drop our books off and I stopped into a McDonald’s to pick some coffee up for my roomie.  The one I darted into had all the 1996 Atlanta Olympics memorabilia proudly on display.  I felt like I went four weeks with only seeing two or three Georgia shirts and then to walk into a restaurant with lots of decor paying homage to the best state ever…

Throw back to the 1996 Olympics

It seemed fitting to me that on the day I leave for Atlanta that I get all these wonderful reminders of home.
Before leaving the dorms, I finally got my hands on a road bike.  Although clearly i couldn’t ride this bike because I wasn’t dressed for the part and it was too big for me, I enjoyed posing.  Again, another reminder to get me ready to go home!

Bye bye dorm ID card and room key!

I snapped this parting shot on the way to the airport –
En route to the airport, Maggs phone started ringing and a recorded message started playing stating that our flight had been changed to 3:50 pm, two hours later than our original scheduled time.
Love you too, Midway.  Next time it will be O’hare.
The silver lining in the flight delay was that I was able to duck into Harry Carray’s bar to catch the World Cup consolation game — Germany and Uruguay.  Not gonna lie, after going pretty much non-stop for four weeks and packing like a fiend this morning, all I wanted was coffee.  I had planned on sleeping my afternoon away on the plane after eating lunch, but clearly that didn’t happen and exhaustion had started to set in.
Instead a ordering a beer at the bar, you better believe I ordered coffee.  Straight up.  Not on the rocks.  With a twist of milk.  Stirred, not shaken

Coffee…at an airport bar.

I had sat down next to a Germany fan from Vegas and I was pulling for Uruguay, it made the game more fun to watch.
Before it was all said and done, our plane was delayed another 15 minutes and Uruguay lost
My mom came into the baggage claim area and surprised the heck out of me and Maggs.  After lots of hugging and luggage dragging, we made our way outside to the curb where my dad was waiting for us.

In the words of Dorothy, there is no place like home!

“Whether you turn to right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’”
Isaiah 30:21

Southern count -2.

Before the end of the week (the 18th), expect a final update.  And the 4th of July post.  That should accomplish my goal of blogging everyday in Chicago!  For everyone who read, commented, emailed, whatever — thank you so much.  I’ll touch on this more on the final post, but this was easily the biggest adventure, get-out-of-my-comfort zone thing I have ever done.  And I couldn’t have done it without y’all’s support and prayers.