What Have I Done?

I realized that as a Green Bay Packers fan I was treading on some dangerous ground moving to Decatur, Illinois. But I had no idea what exactly I was walking into until seeing the sign welcoming me to my new home. 

Before the Chicago Bears were called the "Chicago Bears" they were founded as the Decatur Staleys in 1919. An odd name for a team, to be sure, they were named after the parent company that started the team, A.E. Staley, which was a corn processor. The company still exists today as a part of the larger collection of companies known as Sysco.

The Decatur Staleys were run by George Halas and played one season in Decatur as a part of what was called the American Professional Football Association [APFA]. They would move to Chicago and become the Chicago Staleys in 1921 and became the Bears when the APFA became the National Football League in 1922.

So that's more Bears knowledge than I thought I would ever know or am comfortable with...other than that Jay Cutler is 2-11 lifetime against the Packers.  

What A Long Trip It's Been

What started out as a "for the summer" relocation to Washington DC, turned out to be a summer filled with adventures all across the East Coast and our new home in Decatur, Illinois.

Many posts will follow about our adventures but a brief rundown of the highlights we saw along the way including:

The Appalachian Mountains in rural Pennsylvania
State Capitols of Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire
The Baseball Hall of Fame
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Downtown Manhattan
Laura's hometown in New Jersey
My brother-in-law's wedding near Burlington, Vermont
The Atlantic Ocean coast in Portland, Maine
Lake Ontario and Toronto, Canada

And we finally arrived in Decatur, Illinois, which was the location of Abraham Lincoln's first home in Illinois after moving here with his family from southern Indiana when he was 21. It is said he gave his first political speech here which attracted the attention of Illinois political leaders.