I elected to stay with my brother last night instead of continuing with the Blagojevich bus tour. Three days in Vegas? Time to go. Three days in New Orleans? Time to go. Three days on a bus with Gov. Blagojevich? Gotta run.

They’re somewhere around Danville right now, I’m heading home soon.

Perspective is all-important with any sort of analysis, so learning some of the governor’s private perspective on people, events, etc. will only be helpful in the days, months and years to come as I write about the Statehouse scene. I’ve spent a lot of private time with other leaders - legislative and otherwise - but governors usually build a wall around themselves. I gotta hand it to the guv for taking the chance of allowing me into that circle.

A couple of funny stories…

* After the raucus event in Quincy, I decided I needed some alone time, so I went to the hotel desk and asked directions to a tavern that, legend has it, was an Al Capone hangout during Prohibition (the locals say Capone had a house in Quincy back when it was a wide-open town).

While the clerk was helping me out, a guy came up and said he had seen the tour bus outside and wondered whether the governor was staying at the hotel. Because of the earlier trouble at the event, the clerk only hesitantly admitted that the guv was, indeed, at the hotel.

“Can you get a letter to him for me?” the man asked.

The clerk said she’d try, but couldn’t guarantee anything. So I told the man I’d deliver it for him.

The man looked me up and down and asked, “Are you the bus driver?”

I really need a haircut.

* Last night, the governor’s staff knew that my brother was meeting us at 17th Street BBQ for dinner. After we arrived at the famous restaurant, I was sitting at the bar with my brother and a couple of staff members. I introduced my brother to some, but not all, of the staffers.

In walked a rather strange-looking man carrying a stuffed skunk. He proceeded to introduce himself to the governor and I turned back to my beer.

A bit later, the governor said, “Hey, Rich, come here. This guy supports the GRT!”

As we left the bar to go order dinner, one of the staff members who had been sitting with us asked, “Rich, was that guy with the skunk your brother?”

I should probably get my beard trimmed as well.