This is the first time since leaving home that I've had a chance to do anything at all online, as I've been completely busy with other things. (Right now I only have about a half an hour using someone else's computer, running Windows Vista, which I'm not sure I like).

This trip to the Midwest began with a hectic twelve hour delay in the flight from Philadelphia to Chicago, which shortened the Milwaukee visit. From Milwaukee to Chicago for a day, then to Rockford, home to M. Simon!

We met for a beer (or two or three) at a wonderful place Simon suggested called the Irish Rose. (Damn! This sucky-ass Windows Vista doesn't even allow me to insert links!)

I managed to get a photo from the evening into this computer, and I shrank it so I could upload it to the blog.

High time for an official Classical Values party, no?

(The problem is that I've spent so much time getting the hang of Vista that I'm quickly running out of time to finish this post!)

Fast forward to yesterday, when I drove from Freeport, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa, pausing to stop in Galena where I visited the home of Ulysses S. Grant.

The house has not changed at all since the Grants lived there. Even the furniture is the same. This contemporaneous photo shows Grant and his son Jesse standing on the porch:

Galena is an utterly charming town of 3500, just a short drive to the Mississippi River and Dubuque, Iowa.

I can't think of anywhere more beautiful in the Spring, but I'm out of time, and sneaking this post in was all I could do.