On their way from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Omaha, Nebraska, facilitators Jenna Weiss-Berman and Lena Richardson stopped in Chicago to visit friends.

Lena catches up with old friends Bindu and Ravi while eating delicious Vietnamese food in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

Jenna’s friend Sarah tells us to "talk to the hand."

Jenna and Lena hang tough in Chicago.

After lunch in Chicago, Jenna and Lena got to driving. While making their way through Iowa, this sign made the facilitators feel close to home.

While Susan attempted to cure her hiccups by drinking water upside down while plugging her ears on our last day of interviews in Kalamazoo…

Our stickers were under attack!

And some truly adorable StoryCorps fans were enjoying some clips at our listening station:

Thanks to everyone who made our stay in Kalamazoo such a wonderful one (especially our NPR partner station, WMUK). We will certainly miss you!

For our field recording, we conducted interviews at Smartshop Metal Arts Collective , a non-profit metalworking school and gallery here in Kalamazoo.

A view from the outside.

The facilities.

The crew! (from left to right, Mike Rossi, Sam Derouin, Holly Fisher, and Rachel McCartney)

On their day off, facilitators Susan Lee and Jenna Weiss-Berman decided to explore. They hopped in the car and headed due west, where they ended up at what Michiganders call “the beach.” Susan and Jenna, both east coasters, obviously could not conceive of this “beach” in a landlocked state of the Middle West. Therefore, they were beyond pleasantly surprised when they happened upon this:

Susan and Jenna huddle together on the shores of Lake Michigan in Saugatuck, Michigan.

Jenna jumps for joy at the mere fact that there are sand dunes in the midwest!

We leave our mark.

We kick it old school Western Michigan style in Douglas, Michigan.

The animals bid farewell as we drive away, and Susan contemplates a career in nature photography.

Laura Livingstone-McNelis (left) interviews her mother Phyllis Knighton (right) about how Laura’s formerly non-verbal daughter Mary learned to speak after spending one magical summer with her grandmother Phyllis. Phyllis, who was encouraged to go back to school in her 70s for speech therapy, had developed a method–to write down every activity she and Mary had done, reading it aloud together at the end of the day. One day, Laura received a call. The voice on the other end was Mary with the simple message of “I love you” for her mother.

These days, Laura is one of proprietors of the Henderson Castle, where StoryCorps facilitators Jenna and Susan are staying. The facilitators are lucky to be surrounded by such inspirations like Laura and her family. Susan and Jenna plan to be further inspired when they get ice cream with Laura and her kids on Thursday.

Today, Beniam Johnson, a 32 year-old aspiring filmmaker, brought in his neighbor, Eligah Stegall, 88, to talk about his experiences as a black soldier in World War II.

Karrie Cross and Kenneth “Raven” Fraser, who will both be 40 in September, also stopped by the booth. Both were formerly incarcerated, and Karrie says that their similar life experiences are what make them perfect for each other. They recently found an apartment and will be moving in together soon. Kenneth loves to play the guitar, and would like to pursue a career in music.

Speaking of guitars, the Gibson Guitar Corporation was founded in Kalamazoo in 1902 by Orville Gibson (but back then he was only making mandolins, which probably wouldn’t have interested guitar-rocking Kenneth).

At the end of the day, Gordon Evans came from WMUK to pick up copies of some of our favorite interviews of the week in order to produce them for local broadcast. He brought along his 15-month-old twins, Abby and Nate Evans, who remarked “Lovely day we’re having. Not even one cumulus cloud in this recently extraordinarily blizzardous atmosphere of Kalamazoo to complain about.” Actually, Abby and Nate can’t yet talk, but the part about the weather is true.

We have a tasty Easter dinner at the home of Floyd Pientka, WMUK’s station manager. We meet Floyd’s wife Munselle and two other family members, Kokopelli the Cat and Preacher the Parrot.

Our opening day was snowy and cold, yet still managed to enjoy an indoor barbecue held at the Kalamazoo Public Library. We also got to hear some excellent interviews and meet and greet some of our volunteers. Finally, Jenna Weiss-Berman got her mug on the front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette! The article said that she cried during an interview–she swears she didn’t.

Above, Susan affixes the logo of our new corporate sponsor, AT&T, to the booth.

Sydney Martin (right) was interviewed by her granddaughter Carly Shananaquet (left) about Pottawatomi traditions and the history of Native Americans in western Michigan.

Heather Christianson (left) and her daughter Brooke Christianson (right) came in to talk about Heather’s days as a mother of three addicted to crack cocaine. She has been clean for three years since completing a court-ordered drug program and has never felt better.

In Kalamazoo, we get a warm welcome from our NPR-affiliate WMUK and tour their state-of-the-art facilities with Floyd Pientka, the Station Manager, as our guide.

Above, WMUK News Director Andy Robins shows us this beautiful newly-painted periwinkle room.

Station Manager Floyd Pientka shows us the station’s recently renovated live recording studio.

We made our way to Kalamazoo via Missouri, where we stopped to have dinner with facilitator Jenna Weiss-Berman’s brother, Andrei Weiss-Berman, at Washington University. We saw some of the things Missouri is famous for:

The arch.

Washington University in St. Louis

Chicken coops on wheels!