Me with Michael Lynagh and Richard Hill

My last night in Brum for 2.5 weeks was unexpectedly exciting with a few free drinks at the Cube and a chance to meet some famous rugby guys. One downside of this though is that I didn’t get chance to do much packing as you can see from the photo red wine was flowing, this may turn out to have been a tactical error. So far packing with a red wine head hasn’t presented any glaring ommissions from my suitcase, yet, there is some concern however that I may not have packed enough underpants, supplies will have to be closely monitored, and updates on the pants supply will be provided.

Following an early-ish start I flew from Birmingham to Chicago via Amsterdam and couldn’t recommend that route enough, KLM were brilliant and I only had 10 minutes of transfer time at Schipol before boarding the Jumbo to Chicago. The picture below is the final approach to O’Hare passing over Lake Michigan.

After Arriving I checked into the excellent Allerton Hotel did a quick bit of impulse buying on Michigan Avenue and then had a night on the town with Dorin, who may well be the best Cab driver in Chicago. Dinner consisted of Fillet Mignon and an excellent bottle of Red (I think its safe to say vegetarianism is well and truly behind me now!) although Dorin was driving so I had the Lions share, which is why we ended up trying to go to a Casino, fortunately they didn’t accept my drivers liscence as ID and I therefore still have my Holiday Money!

I think its safe to say I have got a bit of jet lag but in the interests of exploration an early was he order of the day, Bendy Dave and I therefore had an early morning stroll and photo shoot.

I’m about to check out now and head for St Louis after a quick stop at Fermi Lab to see some physicists.

It also looks like I’m going to have an early taste of storms with Lightning storms forecast this afternoon 😀