Dubuque and Chicago July 22-31

I had traveled to the USA to come to Dubuque, Iowa for my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary.

My bus from Chicago arrived in Dubuque at 11:00 on Monday July 22 and I went to the Luther Manor retirement home, where my parents live and where I could stay in a guest room. My brother John let me have use of his car for the week.

Over the next days, I had a dental appointment and a physical exam and did some shopping; I frittered away a lot of time watching YouTube videos, but on two days I did get to the Wartburg Seminary library.

On Thursday July 25 I had lunch with Jeff Walser, a friend from high school days and a fellow University of Chicago alumnus.

 

Jeff Walser and me

On Sunday July 28 I took Mom and Dad to St Peters for church for the first time in a while;

they rarely go anywhere anymore that requires riding in a car.

Later that afternoon, I went to John and Renee’s place, and met there Linda, Dennis and his mom, who had come up from Coralville. I saw for the first time some of the wild turkeys that live in the woods behind their house. Deer also show up on occasion.

The wild turkeys in the backyard

We then all gathered for dinner at a restaurant downtown in celebration of my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary.

The group at the restaurant (from left: Dad, Mom, Dennis’ mom, Linda, Dennis, me John and Renee

The Schick family (from left: Linda, Mom, Dad, John and me)

The next afternoon on Monday July 29 I took the bus into Chicago and stayed for the night in Hyde Park with Fred Donner, my University of Chicago PhD dissertation advisor. The next day, Tuesday July 30 I spent on the University of Chicago campus, including some time at the Oriental Institute library.

In a statement about God versus Mammon, the conversion of the old Chicago Theological Seminary across the street from the Oriental Institute into the new Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics is in full swing. The Coop Bookstore in the seminary basement has moved to a new location a block away; I could not resist getting a few books there.

 

The conversion underway

 

The new Coop Bookstore

That evening I took a 10:15 pm flight from O’Hare to Frankfurt, arriving at 1:30 pm and then after a seven-hour layover I flew on to Amman, arriving at 1:30 am on Thursday August 1, travel that spanned three calendar days.