Dual Departure: Vanderbilt Followed by Chicago

While it’s not all that uncommon to have two cohorts depart at the same time (as Cornell and Brown did two weeks back), today’s departure of Chicago and Vanderbilt were different in that Vanderbilt had to be in front of El Cerrito HS at 2:45 AM while Chicago had a chance to sleep in and gather in the bright of the day at 9:45 AM.

Not so bad for them but for the person who had to see them off (me), it made for a long day.

This was one of those days when the sun never really came out.  It was overcast and foggy.  Even the temperature was quirky.  The temp for Vanderbilt was a mild 54º and Chicago had risen to 59º.  Between the moisture in the fog and the wind, though, it felt much colder.  I had to dig through some piles to find some long pants and even wore a jacket.  I was almost unrecognizable to the ILCers who mostly see me in aloha shirts, shorts and sandals.

With both groups they went through the normal routine of weigh ins, pep talks, blogging instructions and the loading up of snacks so they don;t starve to death before they get to their first stop destinations (Atlanta for the Vanderbilt cohort and St. Louis for the Chicago group).

And, of course, the requisite group photos for the archives:

Vanderbilt

UChicago