Ahhhh - back home at long last! Set off from Cousins house yesterday at 4pm GMT and got back into Manchester at 12 noon today. Long trek but only because we had a long(ish) wait in Chicago and an hours delay at Dublin. Trouble is when we got off the plane from St Louis in Chicago our luggage carried on to Baltimore and Virginia. Southwest Airlines. Cheap but the customer relations clerks at Chicago leave a lot to be desired:-( I told the young woman there exactly what had happened but she would not believe me and insisted that we wait for the next flight from St.L to see if our luggage was on that! Anyhow it has made it's way back to Chicago now and is is fedexing it's way here as we speak:-)

Highlights? Well, most of it realy. Mountain View was good, but Folk Music capitol of the world? I don't think so... Eureka Springs was cool. More live music around Southern Illinois than I remember from 5 years ago - Seems to be in all the bars at some time and saw a good trio at the Farmers market in Edwardsville on Saturday.

Micro Brewerys have certainly improved the beer quality a lot but some bars need telling that not all beer should be sold so cold! Especialy the dark ones. Schlafly and Boulevard are the ones I tried most varieties of and they were all good. There was a Chicago brew I tried in the basement of Marshall Fields department store that was excellent. Can't remember what it was called but a department store that has a Sports bar with real ale in 24oz glasses while the ladies go shopping! Sheer bliss:-) Except when I get the Visa bill I guess...

Anyhow. Good all round trip. I will tell anyone who will listen that the American 'heartland' is a good place to visit for both the music and beer. Except in those danged dry counties of course. But there are ways around them:-)

Cheers and thanks for the offers again. Sorry I couldn't take any up. Two or three years time is the next visit. Theory so far? Land in Vegas to have all our money taken and then go to California for therapy...

Cheers

DtG