Journey of Hope: Day 11

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Wow, another eventful day! The day started with me dropping Linda off at O’Hare Airport for her journey home to NJ, so as to be with our grandson, Austin, this week for “bus duty”. I’m really glad we had the opportunity to spend the first 10 days of the Journey of Hope together. From a selfish standpoint, I lost the best travel partner you could have, as well as my videographer. Yikes! Now I’m on my own for the next 30 days!

It was great to travel to Orland Park, IL. for a meet up with Katie Glenn, Bob Morack, and their beautiful baby girl, the Metzler’s (met them two weeks ago in Wilmington, DE, at another Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation fundraiser), Meredith McGuffage from the CCF staff, and a number of other caregivers and Journey for Hope supporters. You should have seen the baby wearing her CCF T-shirt and green skirt. Priceless! Katie lost her dad to cholangiocarcinoma several years ago and is deeply involved in caregiver initiatives. Thank you, Katie!!

I also need to point out that Meredith has been very helpful in assisting me with the journey. Additionally, Meredith presented me with a Journey of Hope T-shirt that she had made. You can be sure I’ll be ordering more from the CCF online store in support of fundraising for research. Anybody else interested?!

After departing Orland Park, I headed southwest for an hour and a half to visit my 5th town of Hope. I must say, although my GPS indicated I was in the center of Hope Twp, I saw no people, nor any sign indicating I was even in Hope. Since it was Sunday, I decided not to go knocking on doors to see if anyone would sign my Hope logbook! I did see a lot of nice farmland and had the chance to appreciate just how vast our country is. Oh well, that’s just more “swag” I can give away in my remaining towns of Hope.

I then reversed directions to head east into Indiana and Michigan. I must say, it’s vastly different than being in the west. Judging by the large billboards I have to believe anyone that drives on I-94 into IN. from the west, for the first time, has to think the only thing sold in the state are fireworks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just sayin’! It was a pleasant diversion to get off the interstate and proceed on U.S. 12 to Indiana Dunes National Park. When you stand on top of the sand dune at Mt. Baldy (126′ feet above the water at the southern end of Lake Michigan) you have to be impressed with nature. It was a good way to end the day!

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Journey of Hope: Day 10 Journey of Hope: Day 12