What a day!

One of us is more interested in railways than knitting,and the history of American railroads is a particular speciality. It happens that the largest railroad museum in the country is just outside Chicago and so we planned to spend some time there today. Just before we left, we looked over the route on the map and I noted the place name "Marengo" (one of the handful of useless historical facts I retain is the name of Napoleon's horse) I also remembered that one knitting shop I identified as worth a visit in the Chicago area was in Marengo - poor Mark!

The railroad museum was ho-hum and though the exhibits were stunningly beautiful in a huge-engine kind of way, they were crammed into the tightest of spots, making photographing them difficult. As Mark walked around exploring the place, I sat on a bench and drew a couple as the heat caused the metal to creak and groan - they were almost alive!

We didn't stay long; the fact that some amazing engines were there but we were not able to view them comfortably was frustrating to say the least. It was an interesting morning though and it's always fascinating to drive out of a city and explore the smaller towns out in the countryside.

Sure enough, The Fold was not far away and was a wonderfully welcoming place. Heaps of Blue Moon Fibers which I've only seen online and a completely different selection of yummy yarns I'd not heard of before. I picked up some yarn for my knitting project for next week (wait and see) and a hank of Blue Moon Rio, in Lagoon colourway. I can see that I am going to be tempted by more Blue Moon before long!

Heading back to Chicago later in the afternoon, our hire car, a Jeep of some description, decided to play silly. As Mark was refuelling, I hopped out of the car to speak to him and heard my door click behind me. Yes, the keys were still in the ignition - and the car had locked itself automatically. Oh ********! Fortunately, the chap staffing the petrol station was friendly and after a few false starts we remembered that our UK AA membership means we could use the AAA service. An hour later, rescue appeared in the form of a knight in shining tow truck! The paperwork took longer than the process of unlocking the car, needless to say.

Returning to the hotel to pack for a 5.30am start in the morning, we found the place in darkness. As we walked into the lobby, we were greeted by a young man offering us candles and a lightstick - to enable us to manage their first ever power cut. We were glad the lifts were still working and we didn't need to walk up the stairs to bed - on the 27th floor.

We decided to leave the packing until dawn broke and instead went to bed in darkness, worrying about how we might get our airline tickets, passports, laptop etc out of the safe if the power stayed off.

The lights all came on again just as we fell asleep around an hour later. Phew.