Stop me! Somebody stop me quick! My girl scouts are dreaming big dreams and I�m going along with it�so far. Please slap me and bring me to my senses. This adventure may get a bit rough.

In the old days, back when they were cute little Brownies, I dreamed the dreams, planned the meetings, and decided just how adventurous our adventures would get. I was not a wimp about it. Taking 20 seven-year-old girls on an overnight, even in a troop house only 45 minutes away, is not for the faint of heart, especially when a few of those girls had never been away from home before. But in those days I had plenty of parent support and those things are possible with enough parental support and good organization.

More recently, they�ve been Juniors. For the most part, the girls dreamed the dreams and planned the meetings but they followed a path I had laid down for them in Brownies. They did more skits and fewer art projects but that was no problem to me. I understood that their interests were evolving. I also understood that skits were less work for me. Even their desire to play more games and do less badgework this year has not bothered me much. I recognize that the academic demands on them are going up. By Friday afternoon after school, they need some down time.

But this time my planning committee is looking out-of-town. Heck, they are looking out of state. They want to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. It�s a perfectly respectable field trip but it�s in Chicago. Being in Chicago is no problem to me. I lived in New York City (first Manhattan, then Brooklyn) for quite a few years and found it exciting if no place I wanted to raise a family. But around here Chicago is THE BIG CITY.

Transportation also is an issue. I thought of chartering a bus. We�ve done that in the past but that was when there were twenty of us. Now, there are fourteen of us, any ten to twelve of which come on field trips, and several of us get bus sick. Yuck! Then one of my girls suggested the train. We could take Amtrak to Chicago. Wouldn�t that be an adventure?

Actually, the Amtrak idea doesn�t sound bad to me. It would be a bit expensive but we have enough money in our budget to make the trip affordable to individual girls. I like trains and the Milwaukee to Chicago route rarely encounters problems. I also don�t mind taking the bus from Union Station to the aquarium even if we have to switch buses. No, the adventure is not the trip itself although rounding up chaperones for this one may be.

The adventure is going to be convincing the parents to let us go to THE BIG CITY on public transportation, particularly on the city buses. I live in a town where what public transportation exists is considered suspect. They will want vans or a bus.

The really big adventures are rarely about places. The really big adventures are usually about people.

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