It's been a long long time since I have been out of Maine. It's been a long, long time since I have taken a couple of days off from work. I'm off to South Dakota on Thursday, to witness our older son, Craig's graduation from the University of South Dakota Law School on Saturday!

My wife Bonnie flew into Chicago on Wednesday, as Craig has spent his last year as a exchange student at John Marshall Law School. He loves Chicago and plans to take the bar in Illinois and work in Chicago.

They are flying into Sioux City Iowa on Thursday, then driving to Vermillion, South Dakota for the rehearsal Thursday night. There's the Law School hooding on Friday, graduation on Saturday and then we fly back to Chicago on Sunday. We will be in Chicago for about 8 hours before flying back to Bangor Sunday night.

Meanwhile Collin, our younger son, is in charge of Wilma and Henley here in Bangor!

Look for lots of photos as I'll be chronicling the journey here. I mean I have to bring my laptop so I can keep writing stories

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