A very successful trip to Illinois

We had our fall Illinois Indiana trip this past week, celebrating my birthday there and seeing our cousins and siblings.

On Thursday we went to the lovely home of cousins Dianne and Frank for a tasty breakfast, after which we went hunting for the Nachusa Prairie Grasslands near Oregon and the bison (that adventure will be another post).  On Friday we drove to Dixon to see my cousin (once removed--my grandmother and his father were siblings) Chuck Ballard to catch up since college days at the University of Illinois, where he attended after a stint in the Navy. I think I last saw him in 1983, and we are both interested in genealogy. We had actually met a good friend of his when we were touring Ireland over a decade ago. Friday evening we had dinner with our Illinois siblings and spouses with a long chat afterwards.  On Saturday the members of my graduating class (1957) got together at the Campus Cafe across from the campus in Mt. Morris.  That afternoon we drove to Winnebago to visit with my cousin Judy Buffo, but as it turns out, that was her mailing address but she lives much closer to Pecatonica. so we drove around a lot in that area, and were just about to give up when I found a clerk at a gas station who had a smart phone and wrote down directions for me. We had a nice 2 hour visit.  I think I last saw her in 1996.

Early Sunday morning we started out from Mt. Morris  for Indianapolis arriving about 1:30 and had a good visit with our sister and brother in-law and our niece and nephew and dinner and dessert.