I pulled out of Chicago after saying good-bye to my Newberry Library compatriots early on Saturday morning for my exciting day of back-road exploring and tri-pointing. As you can imagine, I had bittersweet feelings as I drove down the Dan Ryan Expressway for the last time that summer (not that I held any particular feelings for the Dan Ryan, though the last time I was on the Dan Ryan I was returning from a minor league game with my pal Hugo, and that was a nice memory). Reports came in not long after I'd cleared the outskirts of the city that an oil truck had overturned on the Dan Ryan about ten minutes behind me, and that traffic was impossible. I slipped past just in time.

I headed south along the Indiana line, aiming for the little town of New Haven, the closest sign of civilization to the mouth of the Wabash at the Ohio River: the tri-point of Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. Beautiful country in eastern Illinois - lots of corn. Lots of cows. Lots of peace and quiet.