Friday, June 29,2007 Chicago, IL

I was trying to get to Chicago early afternoon before the traffic got bad – what was I thinking? Traffic is always bad in Chicago!! So I was awake at 4:30 and thinking to myself - WHY????!!! I lounged around a while and turned on the TV and watched the AG REPORT. Talk about exciting!! I did the free breakfast thing, and was ready to climb on board before 7:00, but to my disgust, it turned out my bike had turned into a “padiddle”. You know – when your vehicle only has one headlight working. I think it’s a Michigan thing. No problem – I have a spare bulb. So 45 minutes and 2 bloody knuckles later, I still have a padiddle. I think I got another bad bulb. That’s 2 in the last 2 months! I’ll worry about it when I get home. It also means I got a later start than I wanted and all I can think of is that ^#&*%#@ Chicago traffic. No warming up to the 5mph over the limit today – set the cruise at 75 and go.
A beautiful day for a ride. Mid 60’s and sunny. As I was cruising down the road in early AM, there was about 30 miles of riding where you could see the clouds forming a half moon shape in varying degrees of darkness and the sun was shining through the cracks to make it look like rain showers ahead. You could see the rays of sun shining down at angles to left and the right, and directly in front, they were coming straight down as if to be searching for you. These are the kind of ordinary things you don’t realize are happening at the time if you’re just out in the car and going someplace. On a trip like this, you look for common place things to make you realize how lucky you are to be able to do this sort of thing. You don’t get the scope of that magnitude in the confines of a car. (I know – I’m rambling, sorry ‘bout that)
I found some more of those snow gates in Minnesota along I-90. And miles and miles of corn. I read today that there are more acres of corn planted this year that any time since 1944. The landscape is starting to look more like home, with rolling hills and the greenery of trees and grass, but it’s pretty desolate out here in the middle of farm land. Would you believe that there is no turnout for pictures at the Mississippi? Our most storied river, and no place to pull off to the side to snap a shot!! Oh well – like I said before, they all start to look alike.
And then there was Chicago traffic. This was worse than L.A.!! At least there – it was moving. I talked to Jen a couple times before I got close and she says NOT to take I-90. She says take I-290, then turn left here, go past this street, turn right there and here we are. OK!! Everything is fine except take the I-290 part. She says the traffic is REALLY bad on I-90. I don’t know how ANYTHING can be worse than where I was. I’ve been used to going about 500 miles a day in about 8 hours, including gas and pit stops. The last 25 miles or so took about an hour and 15 minutes and over four dollars in tolls. Talk about hiway robbery – motorcycles should NOT have to pay the same as cars! Oh well – I’m here. Jen & Greg helped carry my gear upstairs, and a cold beer was waiting. After an hour or so, we took the bike to a friend’s house for safe keeping and away from prying eyes and then came back for a home cooked meal!!! OUTSTANDING! More beer, look at pictures, get tired, go to bed. Another day is done! Looks like just one more day away from home.