Welcome, John Carter (of Mars?)
I suggest all you Chicago Travellers swap e-mail addresses.
We have played for years now with one guy dialing in remotely. We've also played with him on Instant-Message + voice over IP. A true phone connection was better than IP back-in-the-day, but modern technology might've caught up by now.
Anyway, all that to say that it worked great, with the proviso that the guy dialing in is a good friend with several years of previous face-to-face gaming in our group. But for what it's worth, it works well enough, and is worth a try, as it is super-easy to have a "meeting" that way.
Some day, the Central US Maglev system will connect up to the 'L' -- about the same time Nortel stock hits $80/share -- and I'll be there.