We drove to the south Chicago area on Wednesday to visit Suzanne’s nieces and nephew and their families. To our surprise, everything was closed on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and we ended up eating sandwiches from the only place open, Whole Foods (which was out of many of the ingredients for their sandwiches, but we did manage to get dessert and wine). We drove back on Saturday and traveled the last hour and half in a snow storm. Always fun.

Anyway, I observed some interesting things on our trip.

Herewith:

— I counted eleven cars from Kansas on our trip back, one from Wyandotte County, one from Brown County, and nine from Johnson County, where we live. They all drove faster than we did, especially in Illinois. Maybe they were heeding Satchel Paige’s dictum: “Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.”

— Mobile home parks in Illinois all seem to be called “Estates.”

— There’s a taxidermy business in Indiana that advertises “realistic bait.” I wonder if, when he mounts the fish you caught, he also puts that “realistic bait” on the plaque, too. Seems only right.

— You might be in rural Missouri if the cashier at the convenience store where you stop to buy gas only has one tooth and steps outside to vape with her boyfriend. Couldn’t tell how many he had.

— The town motto of Crete, Illinois, is “Visit, shop, live, drink, eat, play.” I’m guessing there are more bars in Crete than restaurants.

— According to helpful billboards along the way, you can get a complete funeral service, including casket, for $6995 in Missouri, but you can be cremated for $695 in Illinois. Both great deals.

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.