During our stay in Muscatine, we made a trip to Tipton, Iowa to have dinner with friends, Don and Barb Krueger. Don, a friend throughout elementary, middle and high school continues to work at ACT in Iowa City and Barb ministers two churches in the Mechanicsville, Iowa area. It's always great to visit Don and Barb and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner in a Tipton Mexican restaurant.
 During the trip, there were three things Dolly wanted to see: 1) a working ranch; 2) a rodeo and 3) a Native American Powwow . During our trip to South Dakota, I struck out on all three counts. I have a friend that has a ranch, but didn't go there and normally Powwows and rodeos are on weekends, and we weren't there when they were going on. So...while in Iowa, I took Dolly to a Casino. Don and Barb had mentioned one about 30 miles west of Muscatine, so that's where we went.
 As we pulled up, it was big, but not overwhelming. It was well laid out, clean and not very busy. I'm not much of a gambler, so I played about 20 minutes, then would go see how Dolly was doing. Then play another 20 minutes and then find Dolly. After about an hour and a half, Dolly was down about $50 bucks (her limit) and we decided to take in the lunch buffet - which was very good. Me? I played on and off for about an hour and a half, was about $20 up, and I used when I had won to buy the buffets. To me, I had some cheap entertainment and good food. Can't ask for much more than that (except winning the big pot) which, for me, just doesn't happen .
 We also visited downtown Muscatine and stopped by a store on Second Street, the Candle Shed Effect. We had a great visit with Piper Smith Beason, but missed seeing a high school classmate Sharon Richardson Wilson. I've never seen a store like this, with lots of plaques, signs, soaps, old pictures and shelves full of other unique and interesting things.
 Saying goodbye is never easy, as was our departure from Muscatine. We had thoroughly enjoyed our week long stay. My sister and Floyd were perfect hosts and provided us with tons of great memories for the trip.
 We had an opportunity to do nearly everything we had planned to do and visit "Muscavegas" to see many friends.
 Our next stop was Chicago, about 180 miles east on I-80. An easy trip with good weather, gave us plenty of time to see the views. From I-80 we turned northwest on I-55 which took us into the city. As we drove closer, the traffic increased. We had reservations at a motel near O'Hare Airport and good ol Bertha (our GPS) got us there in good order . After relaxing a few hours, we again headed deeper into Chicago to my daughter's house on north Damen Avenue. Our trip of about 16 miles, went fairly well, even though we literally crawled for over an hour for a trip I thought would take about 30 minutes.
 Finding a parking place was a challenge, trying to fit our pickup with a rack on the back into parking spaces while parallel parking. Dolly helped guide me as we backed and pulled forward several times until we were parked legally. From there, we took a 10 minute walk to an outdoor restaurant where Jana was with her childhood friend Carly (Gates) Katz. After hugs, we enjoyed well deserved adult beverages and talked about our trip and life in the Windy City.
 We then went back to Jana's place and helped pack some boxes as Jana and her husband Kevin are moving to the "burbs" more specifically, LaGrange, IL. After packing for an hour or so, we loaded the vehicles and made the 20 mile (or so) trip. Upon arrival, we found a lovely home that Kevin, Jana and grandkids Miles and Oscar (Ozzie) will thoroughly enjoy . After unloading, we headed back to the motel for the night.
 We headed back into the city the next morning, and again loaded the vehicles and made another trip to LaGrange. Afterwards, we met Kevin's parents Kevin and Minnie who had been watching the grandkids. We met at the same restaurant as the day before, had lunch, enjoyed the grandkids then went back to Jana and Kevin's apartment. After visiting for an hour or so, Kevin's parents headed home and we played with the kids then we headed back to the motel.
 The next morning, we got a good start and departed Chicago fairly early and headed east on I-80. 
 Our goal was to get through the last major midwestern city - Cleveland, which we did and made it to Ashtabula near the eastern border of Ohio. There, we pulled over, found a great restaurant and had a great evening meal before retiring at a Motel 6. Normally, we don't stay at Motel 6's but this one looked good and after we checked in were pleasantly surprised as it was a wonderful motel. The room was big, clean and obviously recently redecorated with hardwood floors, two platform beds and stylishly outfitted with "retro" furnishings. All we could say was "wow" when we walked in.
 We continued our travels east through a piece of Pennsylvania and into New York.