Whoa, it has been a CRAZY week, and the week isn't even over yet!!! It all began on Monday when Greg and I took off for Michigan . . . to pick up a body in Detroit. Luckily we were able to make it a two-day trip, so it didn't seem quite as long as if we'd tried to fit it into one day. On Monday we drove to Kalamazoo, Michigan where we spent the night. Then on Tuesday morning we headed for Detroit. My friend Catherine (she was one of my classmates at EIU) works at The Henry Ford museum in Detroit, and she was kind enough to get us some last-minute tickets so that I could go see the chair from Ford's Theater in which Abraham Lincoln was killed! I know it's kind of morbid, but I have always wanted to see that dang chair. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Catherine told us that what appear to be blood stains are actually "hair oil" stains from all of the people who have sat in this chair over the years, but there are a few small blood stains on the chair.
The Henry Ford, founded, of course, by Henry Ford, has an amazing collection of historical artifacts. They even have the limousine in which JFK was assassinated (there seems to be a Presidential assassination theme going on here). They actually have quite a few Presidential limousines. 
But they do have other things too, like this HUGE Allegheny Locomotive that weighs 600 tons and is their most-photographed object. Greg and I wondered how on earth they got that thing into the building. Catherine said there were tracks built into the floor so it could just roll in.
And here are Catherine and me in front of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. Catherine has a really cool job and it was so fun to see her! She was one of my best friends in the Historical Administration program at EIU. After visiting Catherine, Greg and I drove through the ghetto of Detroit (scary!!!) to go pick up a body at a funeral home there. The funeral home was really nice, but the surrounding area, not so much. We put the casket into the back of the van and headed for home.
As we neared Lincoln, Illinois on Tuesday afternoon, the skies started to get dark, and we started hearing severe thunderstorm warnings on the radio. I whipped out my trusty weather radio (which goes everywhere with me once tornado season hits), and we started hearing about ping pong ball sized hail near Elkhart, Illinois. We were headed right for Elkhart! Thankfully we avoided the hail, but boy was it raining! There was so much water--it was hard to see anything except for the crazy lightning all around us. It's a good thing that Greg was driving because I would have had a nervous breakdown if I had been at the wheel. We finally got to our exit at Williamsville, and right after we got off of the Interstate, it looked like someone took a knife and cut a slit in the clouds--you can kind of see it in this picture. The sun started to poke through right in front of us, but on either side of us, the sky was GREEN, and there were crazy storms raging to the north and the south of us. It was kind of spooky to be driving right between two storm cells. We got the body safely to the funeral home and then we made it safely home. Later that evening there were tornado warnings down in Carbondale where Sarah and Joel live, but thankfully they were safe!
As Greg and I were driving through the rain earlier in the evening, we kept hearing about tornado warnings near Girard, Illinois (about 20 miles south of Springfield). I forgot that my friend Chet and his family live in Girard! He is the site manager of the Dana-Thomas House, and Linda and I have been working with him a lot over the past few weeks. Here is a picture of his house which was hammered by the tornado. Luckily he and his wife were safe, but they were afraid that their puppy Patches had been killed in the storm. They looked for him all night after the tornado and couldn't find him, but then the next morning he showed up at home! Even though Chet's house was basically destroyed, he was just happy that he and his family (and Patches!) had made it through the storm. What a scary thing though! We are supposed to have more bad weather tomorrow :-(
After our Detroit and storm adventures, Greg and I went up to Chicago yesterday with his boss, Rich, to a Chicago Cubs baseball game at historic Wrigley Field! Greg and I have been wanting to go to a game in Chicago, just for the experience, and Rich is a big Cubs fan, so we had a good time going together. Unfortunately it was FREEZING, but we were bundled up. Wrigley Field is the second-oldest Major League ballpark still in use, and it was a lot of fun to see a game there.
Before the game, I kind of snuck down to the field by where the visiting San Diego Padres were warming up, and I got an autograph from Luke Gregerson, a pitcher who used to play for the St. Louis Cardinals! He was really nice, and we even got to see him play later in the game. The game went to extra innings (usually a good thing, but we were SO COLD), and it ended up being Luke Gregerson who pitched the ball that one of the Cubs players hit into the stands to win the game! We felt bad for Luke, but we were happy that the Cubs won--and also happy to be able leave and get into the warm car :-) It was a fun adventure to attend a Cubs game, but Greg and I think that one Cubs game is probably good for us. We like the Cubs, but not the Cubs fans (except for Rich). There were a lot of really obnoxious people there, and at one point someone on the upper deck spit over the railing--and it landed on my coat (which has since been washed)! But other than the annoying fans, it was a lot of fun. It made us appreciate St. Louis Cardinals fans! :-)Today I had a job interview over the phone with BYU. Please keep your fingers crossed for me--it is a really great job!!!!
