The simplest of all the airports you mentioned is Columbus, GA. The town is not large and its easy to drive out of and into this airport. Avoid the time when the Masters Golf tournament is playing. Motels are filled and the airport is busy,and may not have sufficient resources to handle the passenger traffic. On busy weekends and holidays, speed traps are common on connecting roads to the airport and outer loops. In Chicago, Midway is not much of an airport compared to O'Hare and its a traffic mess to try to get out of town from there. Years ago, Midway was popular for folks going to the "Navy Pier" extension of the University of Illinois, or to destinations downtown. O'Hare is very large and busy, but the vehicular traffic is organized. The biggest traffic problem is the on and off ramps to the interatate tollway. Do not rent an underpowerd, wimpy car. You'll apprecaite a boost in the pants when merging with Chicago traffic. However, in my experience, St. Louis drivers are "meaner" than Chicagians. Smoothness of traffic in Chicago depends on the time of day and amount of construction. The best time to drive the tri-state Tollway is at night after 8pm and until 6am. Hint: All of the tri-state tollway (Chicago) is now equipped with electronic, overhead gates, and the manual gates are fewer in number. Most of the electronic gates now have high speed capability; Only a few ask you to slow to 15 mph when passing through. The charge for the electronic toll is 1/2 of the manual gates. This system is known as the "I-Pass". The electronic gates are very different to a manual gate. The sensors are mounted on cross bars high over the driving lanes and there is little to no impedence to traffic flow. To use the system, you purchase a small transponder that attaches to the top of the inside of your windshield. The unit can be "refilled" with money using your credit card and logging into a web site. If you are going to be driving more than a couple of days around Chicago, I recommend that you subscribe to the I-Pass system. This transponder also works on a few other toll roads in other states as well. I found it to be very convenient. US highways in Wisconsin are toll free. The major interstate from Rockford to Chicago is a toll way.

Karen, where did you find Tamora on sale ? Diane. Palatine says that Sunset Dreams is 2 1/2 ft but minr is closer to 4 but it is narrow. This year it is finally getting bigger blooms with better Like I said, I almost dumped it the first year. Im glad someone told me to hang in there.

apparently the dogs have gotten bored of your camera ... seems like long ago.. you couldnt take a pic without them in it..... and now i barely see one ... thx for the update ...ken

I love the pretty yellow margins..2 questions..what's the giant one in pic#5 in front of the trees?..Blue Angel?..and in pic#6 is that Liberty?..it's beautiful..I don't have Liberty so I don't know it very well..