Day 17: Chicago > Chaska

At 8 am we piled our belongings into the SUV under pouring rain. The parking spot wasn’t too far down the street but we were both still drenched by the time the car was loaded. It felt good to be leaving Chicago and inside the car where it was dry. As much as I love the Windy City this hadn’t been my best trip here. We fought rain and traffic up highway 94 into Wisconsin for an hour until we were beyond both the natural elements and the concentration of commuters.

As we’ve crossed into each state Adler has posed next to each welcome sign. When the trip is over I’ll put together a scrapbook so he can remember all of the states that he’s visited. It’s something that he’s enjoyed doing almost every day. There was road construction when drove from Illinois into Wisconsin and the shoulder was barricaded by a cement wall. Given that we weren’t technically stopping or visiting Wisconsin I didn’t make too much effort to get the photo. Besides, the drive to Chaska was seven hours long and I wanted to make it as quickly as possible. 

I did see one of the craziest things ever on the drive. Wisconsin was installing about 90 miles of new electrical distribution lines parallel with the interstate. At one point I looked up and there was a helicopter hovering overhead with a worker leaning out of of the chopper attending to one of the lines. I’m not sure why they didn’t just use a lift and/or a boom. But any gust of wind was going lift that helicopter and cause its blades to slice into high power lines. The results would be spectacular and catastrophic--definitely worthy of a Darwin Award when it eventually happens.

We were driving to a town called Chaska about 30 minutes southwest of Minneapolis to visit my godparents Karen and Larry. They relocated from Danville to Chaska about five years ago to be closer to their daughter and her family. It was our first time visiting their new home. When we arrived Karen surprised Adler with a Star Wars Lego gift that kept him occupied for most of the visit assembling the 457 pieces. Larry gave him gummy worms. This kid was getting spoiled by his new grandparents and quickly grew accustomed to the preferential treatment.

That afternoon we drove over to Meredith and Brook’s house to let Adler meet their three boys. Their oldest boy, Connor, was actually born about a month before Adler so they were the same age. They also have Penn (3) and Tate (12 weeks). Adler has matured socially this past year and become less shy. That being said, I have never seen him take to a new friend as quickly as he did with Connor. They were immediately inseparable as if they’d known each other their whole lives. He was liking Minnesotta…