Empty Nest

Nancy and I took a big step towards empty nesterdom this week when we deposited Stephen and many of his wordly possessions at North Park University in Chicago where he is beginning his freshman year. Tuesday we traveled in two vehicles with the family of best friend and roommate John Robert Madsen to Woodale, Illinois outside Chicago where we had reservations. Wednesday was spent on campus participating in a variety of orientation activities for students and/or parents. The high point of the day for me was unloading the vans and bringing the boy's belongings to their third floor room. This was accomplished with the able of assistance of returning student/staff who did all of the carrying up the stairs. At 4:00 Stevie and I walked Nancy to the elevated train station near the campus. She took that train to the Amtrak station and proceeded to Galesburg to visit her parents down on the farm for a week. After one more parent session I said good bye and left for home at 5:30. In Chicago rush hour traffic it took me one hour to travel the first 25 miles. I arrived at home at 1:00 A.M. Study hard and have a great year Stevie and John.