Avast shipmates, I'm here, in Rensselaer, Indiana, and it's as hot as hell, and all the better for that. Damn, but I like it hot.

Thanks Hollowfox, it is Indiana. Irishajo, I haven't done down yet, as we're marooned in a Holiday Inn without a bar, in the middle of a flat place. Cags, we're using a roadmap with West Virginia on it, but it takes three hours to move a centimetre, so next trip, babe? Mick, I'll mail you when I've had a buthchers at the itinerary, but I think its tomorrow, Tuesday night, that I'm in Lafayette.

Shoite, but I'm having fun. The flight over was about 9 hours into Chicago, featuring a trip over Skarpi's head, and frightening a few polar bears in Greenland. We hit Gibson's in Chicago for some grub, but it was bedlam, so settled for a slab of halibut in Dublins, over the road. Taught some lovely girls how to cuss in Cornish, and discovered self abuse is known as whacking off here.

There was an awful episode at the hotel, when an 18 year old guy drowned in the hotel pool, having suffered an epileptic fit whilst noone else was around. Understandably, the place had a sombre mood. We did the Sears Skydeck, which, Poms, is the biggest building in the world, helped along by a couple of mega aerials they bunged on when the Malaysians started skywards.

We wandered around the Lake shore, and enjoyed the benefits of warm weather on beautiful women. Then a couple of us cut loose with a fiddle and a C harp for the Abbey Pub, on West Grace and Elston. We got there at about 5, and chilled outside waiting for the promised musos to turn up. It was a long wait, but boy was it worth it? About 12 musicians, 5 fiddles, two guitars, two banjos, Irish pipes and a flute/whistle. There was a bird called Bernie, from Bedford, who played a very accomplished banjo, and a toppest flight fiddler by the name of John Daly. Sadly, as Bernie explained, there only seems to be that one session in the Chicago area, and the tune sets are peculiarly local, as I didn't recognise many at all. However, Tobin's came up, and I had rosin dust choking me by the third trip through that!

We caught the Blue train home about midnight. Today was the real purpose of the trip, to visit the Chicago Board of Trade. The combination of a very hot, dry weekend, and a firm Malaysian palm oil market meant that when the beel went at 9.30am, these guys were going to go apeshit. They did, and the first five minutes was a bloodbath, with seas of traders barging, shouting, and doing that impenetrable tiktak that means how many million dollars is being chucked about. I have worked in commodities for 21 years, and this was the first time I had witnessed the hub of the world. We were on the trading floor a few seconds before the bell went, and the tension was palpable. The markets opened well up, and the action was frenetic.

After that, we piled back out to O'Hare airport and picked up two cars, and poled up in Rensselaer to visit a corn seed plant, which again, was fascinating. Now we're being junketed by the Indiana Corn Growers Association, so I will bring up the issue of corn relish, Spaw!

Anyroadup, that's it for the moment, other than to say that this is my kind of country.

Greg