I took a quick shower, got dressed and looked at my lottery ticket. You can imagine how excited I was to learn I would get to return to work the following week! I know it is going to be hard to break the news to my fellow coworkers Julie and Karen about the loss. I had told them I would share the sizable amount of ten dollas each if I had won. I still do not know how I am going to break the news to them when I return, as I already regret seeing their sad faces when they find out!
Both flights were on time and travel was going well. I got into Chicago early and had no issues at the rental car facility. My sister Katie, was coming in from Colorado and I had about an hour to kill before her flight arrived.
Since I had flown into Midway I decided to go to the local White Castle's establishment to get a cup of coffee. This is the same place my dad would stop in over forty years ago to get a cup before work. I remember him telling me White Castles always had the best coffee. I didn't get any of the burgers, but I did enjoy my cup. I looked out the window down Cicero and wondered what occupied the thoughts of the much younger version of my father when he was hurrying in to get a cup of coffee and hurrying back out to get to work?
I still had some time to kill, so I decided to head over to the first house my parents lived in when they got married. It is really close to the airport and I thought they might like to see a picture of it. I called my mom and she gave me directions. I was soon in front of their old house being the weird guy taking pictures in broad day light. There was an older lady who was looking out the window at me. She didn't seem to happy I was snapping pictures, so I decided I had what I needed and headed off to pick Katie up.
Katie was waiting for me when we arrived and as usual, she was very excited to see her favorite little brother. With Katie loaded up it was time to head to the greatest pizza dinning establishment known to man. Home Run Inn! The plan was to have lunch with my Auntie Cookie and Cousin Kathy from my dad's side of the family.
I absolute adore my Auntie Cookie. She has always been one of my favorite people in the world and she treated us kids very well when we were little tike's! Both her and Cousin Kathy looked great. Kathy is my dad's first cousin and very close to him in age. She gave Katie and I some insight and great stories on what he was like as a child. We now know why Jeff and Denny were so wild growing up!
The pizza was wonderful, but the company was even better. Getting good quality pizza in Midland, Texas is a hard thing to do, unless you consider Pizza Hut quality??? Which I don't! We can now get Home Run Inn frozen pizza in the stores, but eating in the restaurant is always better! On a scale of one-to-five, Katie gave Home Run Inn the rare score of a five while pizza sauce dripped down her face!
As all good things, it was time for it to come to an end and head out to our next stop. We said our good bye's and with a few hugs and kisses later we were on our way to Aunt Sue's house. The plan was to stay at Aunt Sue's for the night and meet up with Cousin Beth and her son Johnny for dinner.
We found our way across town in no time. Katie and I both enjoyed sitting and visiting with Aunt Sue. After awhile, Beth arrived with Johnny. We were soon putting down several of my new favorite beer called Spotted Cow. Beth claims you can only get it in Wisconsin. Which is a bummer for me. I guess it just means that I will have to load up on it while I am in town! After several beers we found ourselves chowing down on some Italian beef sandwiches. They are another wonderful Chicago delicacy that is hard to find in West Texas. I know I enjoyed my sandwich, and I am pretty sure Katie enjoyed hers since she had licked her plate clean!
It was a fun night of hanging out, talking and catching up. Day one was great, but no doubt day two will be even better as we will get to visit with more aunts and uncles, get more nourishment from the Spotted Cow, and head up to Wisconsin and let the Cousins Weekend officially kick off! Rumor has it...Cousin Beth might even get us a few White Castle burgers to eat on the way.
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