1999 marked a major change for the Gray family. J. R. finished up his second stint at Georgia Tech, earning a degree in Computer Science, and in February 1999 was offered a position with Motorola in Arlington Heights, Illinois. This meant the family would be packing up our bags and leaving Atlanta and moving to Chicago.
Visiting Park Vista Lane
On our first visit to the city, we surprised ourselves by finding a four-bedroom house in the Chicago suburb of Aurora and we purchased it as our first home. In June, we drove ourselves and the kids to Chicago where Janie accepted a transfer to continue working her same job.
Driving to Chicago
Since Motorola was paying for the move and they gave us two nights hotel stay along the way, we took advantage of that and made a long road trip out of our drive North. We stopped first in Chattanooga where we visited the Tennessee Aquarium and then drove north to Nashville and Indianapolis. Along the way we stopped off at the Opryland Hotel to visit the indoor gardens, Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, Churchill Downs and the downtown canal walk area in Indy.
Moving In
We arrived in Chicago a day before our belongings came up on a truck from Atlanta. After dealing with the bungled move of our computer armoire and the need to replace it, we began unpacking all of the boxes in our first real 'home'.
