That Toddling Town

Spent two days in Chicago but i'm just going to sum it up in one post since i didn't take any pictures coming in. First of all the traffic coming in was horrible. Well, i guess it wasn't that bad but i was pretty tired and the "stop 'n go" junx just isn't my thing especially when i'm tired.

While coming in on 'Route 66' we were going about 65 mph and accelerating. All of sudden traffic just stops and of course i wasn't paying attention and had to jump on the brakes as hard as i could and as a result my tires started screeching and almost lost control of my bike. i tried letting go of the rear brake to straighten out but i must have been too tired to lift my foot off since my bike practically going sideways down the road....but i lived and no damage was done. i was sure awake after that.

i tried meeting up with my friend jenn since she is in chi-town but she was busy with class so there was a chance we would miss each other. For dinner we went to a couples house north of chicago. They use to be our neighbors in PA and when they heard we were coming into town they wanted us over for dinner.

It was kind of awkward since the husband has a french/arabic accent (don't ask) and his wife has a pretty strong vietnamese accent....this combined with the fact that my dad is hard of hearing is just a equation for awkward. They would ask my dad a question and he would just knod and pretend he heard them.

i needed out so i bounced on the next train back downtown hoping i'd find something to do. i texted jenn but she had already gone back home and i was left wandering the streets of chi-town by myself. i was so bummed out...i traveled to 17 states trying to contact everyone i could, tyler in utah, john in san fran, sagar and mike in los angeles, billy in springfield...pretty sure none of them wanted to see me.

Right on the verge of severe depression things turned around when i got a text from Ashley! Holla! Finally someone wanted to see me! i checked out her crib and town and it was pretty much the best time of the trip. Too bad it didn't last longer than it did.

It was also great to see the cat, Cloe! Apparently she likes me because she kept laying on my lap. Sometimes i wish i was a cat...>'.'< Then next day was all about seeing the town. We walked to the end of jackson (which is apparently route 66) just so we could say we reached the end. We walked since its pretty much impossible to park anything down there to walk around and take pictures.

After a few pictures, our next stop was the bean. Apparently its called the 'cloud' or something but if you ask me its definitely a bean...and massive shiny relective bean.
Good thing i was with my dad and uncle when visiting the bean...i probably would have never left if i was by myself. i could look at it forever..

After the bean we checked out the crazy water towers. These things are were pretty sweet...they're like screens with water coming down them. The first images were of waterfalls...and the next images...were people's faces! And they move! Then after awhile they spit water out of their mouths! That's not all, you can get your face up there if you go to the art center or whatever...and they tape your face and put it up! Personally i wouldn't want to do that since i'm kind of fugly...but if you're remotely ridicilously good looking you should totally do it.
Our next stop was Lou Mitchell's. A diner that is extremely old and apparently a hot spot during the days of route 66. Snapped a picture of the river while walking there..
This was a real diner...tiny and cramped. When you walk in the guys get free donut holes! Women kind of get shafted with the milk duds...

Jenn also had lunch with us. Apparently she doesn't go west of the river...and doesn't know where anything is in her own town which is kind of ridiculous if you ask me. But it was nice seeing her. Too bad she had to sit through the ramblings of my dad and uncle.

For lunch i ordered the reuben. This reuben was awesome...i was expecting a real sandwich but they gave me this open faced sandwich junx...but it was still very good.
After lunch my dad and i hit up the sears tower. There was a movie we had to watch before going to the top. It was so painful...i couldn't even stay awake through it. Pretty good view at the top of the tower...but we didn't have a lot of time to spend up there since our time was running out at the parking garage.

Around 2pm we had jumped on our bikes and headed back to Indiana to my uncle's place. It was probably the most painful ride ever. I was so tired running on like one hour of sleep. i was drifting all over the place and the slow traffice wasn't helping. After about 30 minutes of that i finally said i had to pull off and take at least a 5 minute nap.
After about 10 minutes of rest, chugging an espresso energy drink, and splashing water on my face i was ready for the remaining 2 hours left of riding. Oh man can't wait to go back home to my own bed...