Visit with the Quinn family









After a later start [ 6:30 am] from Syracuse, along with a stop in Rochester – I finally got on the road to head west. After spending the day driving on route 90 through Ohio and Indiana, I headed to Elmhurst Ill to visit my cousin Kelly and her family. Her son Sean was born last September and I had not yet met him. So I promised to do my best Uncle over stimulation mode to compensate. We spent Wednesday touring Elmhurst, with stops at the Farmers market and the new pool. Stan, Kelly, Sean and I went to dinner at a local Irish pub for dinner. Irish Soda bread and Guinness Pie. Yummy! Kelly also got a chance to show me baby Pilate's. Wednesday night, Kelly and Stan helped me prepare the cobbler mixes for my week at Burning Man as I told them more about what I expected to see at the festival.
































I headed out of Illinois around 9:30 and got a fitful start. Soon after I got on Route 80 – I spotted a sign for the J.C. Whitney Outlet. JC Whitney is a cheesy auto parts catalog company based in Chicago. I spent many hours when I was younger – looking through their catalog at Lite UP Skulls, fuzzy dice and other great upgrades for my VW’s.










[they actually had some OK VW parts as well….] So I HAD to stop. And I picked up some lite up valve stems for my bike and a solar panel for Chilipepper.





















Illinois took longer than I expected to get through and I crossed over into Iowa in the early afternoon in a rainstorm. It was a very hot and humid day to drive. But on the upswing – I made a Burning man poster to put in the window of the van for the trip. And I got the honk from and Art Ark [ from Boston?] and passed a giant black school bus with flames painted on it also headed to Burning Man. Fun!