It’s time for blog post #2, brought to you this time from my hometown of Chicago.  Chicago?  Wait a second…since when is Chicago a stop on the Tour?  Well, folks, technically it’s not.  But we knew that going into the American Liberty Tour that there were gonna be some things we would learn as we went along, and one of those very valuable lessons was that it’s really tough to run logistics for a web-centric organization when you can’t get on the internet.  Go figure!

So what does that mean?  Well, it means a couple of things.  For one, I won’t get to have my Memphis barbecue after all.  Not gonna lie, guys.  I’m disappointed about that.  Amy and I got back to Chicago the other night and didn’t have time to do any grocery shopping, which meant that dinner was apples, pretzels, and trail mix.  I would’ve loved to have some nice ribs or burnt ends…but my hope is that there’ll be plenty of time for that.  I will get to it eventually.  No way am I just gonna cross the ‘cue off my bucket list.  It’s just not happening.

It also means that we’ve got a lot of work to do.  There’s stuff to catch up on, of course, since it was difficult for us to work while traveling in the RVs and internet access in some spots proved to be less than optimal.  But we also need to do what we can to keep things running as smoothly as possible for the remainder of the Tour.  Just think of our office in Chicago as Mission Control, only with fewer buttons.  Coordination and communication are key to the Tour’s success, and for the next few weeks, we’ll be working on touching base with organizers at the various tour stops and getting the word out about what the American Liberty Tour seeks to accomplish.

On the flight home from Nashville, the pilot said that Monday (yesterday) would technically be the first day of fall.  I thought, what kind of business is that?  Didn’t summer practically just get started?  But it also dawned on me just how crucial our mission is at this point in time.  2010 will be here before we know it, and what happens next November is going to shape the course of this country in the years to come.  Now’s the time to really pull together; our liberty depends on it.