Wheatfield, Ind.

I still haven't had a chance to really write about our trip to Wheatfield yet!

I turned 32 on April 26th. For my birthday, I wanted to take Adro and Evey to my hometown of Wheatfield, Ind., located in northwest Indiana. I haven't ever taken Adro there, so I wanted her to see it.

I was born in Wheatfield, but grew up in Mulvane. I lived in Wheatfield from '77 to '82.

The road trip was great. It's a 10-hour drive to Wheatfield from Lawrence -- longer if you stop at the same McDonald's we did -- but Evey really enjoyed the road trip. We sang songs, counted water towers, played with the toy baby, took a few naps, read books... we brought a portable DVD player with us but didn't even use it on the way there.

Got to Wheatfield at about 9:30 on Friday night (after taking a break in St. Louis at the Children's Palace -- more on that later). We stayed at Mike and Marilyn's house. Mike has been my dad's best friend since they were little boys.

Saturday morning we got up and walked over to Bea and Junior's house. Bea and Junior are Mike's folks, and they've been like family to me for as long as I can remember. Bea refers to me as her nephew, and I think of her as something of a grandma. (My Grandma Iris, my father's mother, died in 1994. Grandma Iris was a wonderful person and I have fond memories of her. I wish she could have met my wife and daughter too.) ((I never met my father's father, Top. He died before I was born.))

Bea made one of her world famous breakfasts for us that morning, and then luck had it that Wheatfield, a tiny town of 1,400, was holding it's little league baseball parade that morning. So Evey got to see a parade.

We then relaxed, walked around the town. I took the girls by Dave and Sue's house, hoping to show her Wheatfield's most haunted house, but they weren;t home. We did get to visit with friends Larry and Mary and see Mike and Marilyn's grandson, Gage. Junior took us to the local golf course where I met the owner and superintendent.

Evey got to run all over the place, Mike and Marilyn's house was very kid friendly. We had a birthday/anniversary dinner at Mike and Marilyn's house Saturday night (they were married April 26th, 1976, my birthday was a year to the day later).

And then the next morning, we got on the road. It was wheels-up at 8:30 a.m. Back home by 6 p.m. On the way home, Evey watched a lot of movies, Adro read a ton of magazine, and I finished a graphic novel I had checked out from the library.

It was a short trip but a fun one. Adrianne is up for returning soon, her and Evey had such a nice time. And that meant a lot to me, because honestly, there's not a lot to do in Wheatfield, but it's where I'm from, and I have a love for that town, the people there and the memories of going back every summer to visit our friends there.

I was watching the Bulls/Celtics game 6, and they showed the Chicago skyline. I saw that beautiful skyline, with Lake Michigan in the foreground, and I told Adrianne, "I'd like to take you girls to Chicago sometime." And she responded, "You can take us anywhere -- we had such a good time in Wheatfield, I really don't mind road-tripping anywhere." And that was a cool moment for me, because that just made me feel like I have a tightly knit family, a family that can go somewhere as desolate as Wheatfield or as busy as Chicago, and it's going to be fun either way, because we're all together.