The last couple days of this Illinois project were a whirlwind of zipping all over the northern third of the state.  From the most rural strips of pavement to crawling down the Dan Ryan in Chicago a day later is probably one of the more marked contrasts one can experience.  We ended our time in the state doing equipment validations near the capital of Springfield.

It was an interesting experience and I think I’m comfortable doing this stuff for a while.  One day you’re collecting data on the Kennedy Expressway and two days before, you collected data on this:

That’s a neglected little piece of old US 66 somewhere near Pontiac.  That concrete is older than anyone reading this and looks every bit of it.

I’ve got some off time now and it happily coincides with an annual gathering of family colorfully called “Camp Zagar”.  So I’ll be seeing some of y’all in person in the next couple days.  It’s always a fun event and I enjoy seeing everyone.

At this point, it seems I might be heading to New Mexico for my next project.  Nothing is certain, but it’s leaning that way.  I wouldn’t mind picking up some swag from the Albuquerque Isotopes, the world’s greatest reference to The Simpsons.