Day 6: Chicago And The Next Leg

Today started out in the outskirts of Chicago and ended up in a suburb of Indianapolis.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hook up with my good friend Seed, from over at the Mint400.net due to a scheduling conflict. Also, the sage tourist advice given to us by Lexington Green was wasted due to poor follow-up and research, which left us lost no matter where we went in the Chicago area. However, we still managed to have a lovely time in Chi-Town.

From our suburban start we made our way to the city center:



Next, after making our way through many interesting parts of Chicago’s South Side, we made our way to the heart of this blogs namesake, the U of Chicago in Hyde Park. There was much beauty there, of which I shall only share one picture for now:

Next, we moved downtown along Lake Shore drive, which, on a day like today, is exceptionally pleasant:

Getting lost downtown, and forgetting Lex’s guidance, we ended up at one of the few Chicago landmarks Cornflake could recognize:

Here, at Pizzeria Uno, we enjoyed some delicious deep-dish pizza, some refreshing beers served by our new friend Juan (taking the following picture), and engaged in some brief conversation with Ivan, who was visiting our country from the great nation of Australia. We wish him luck on his American adventure:

After pizza, we caroused downtown Chicago, and snuck into the Hard Rock Café to answer nature’s call. Normally, I find this chain reprehensible, but I could not resist capturing the following moment:

This is definitely my kind of town. Chicago features some lovely architecture, which, to conserve time and bandwidth, I shall show only a few examples:

After having had our fun in the windy city, we moved on. However, I shall bitch one more time about toll-ways on eastern interstates. Entering the Chicago Skyway (I-90 east) we were forced to pay a $2.00 toll, a price which doesn’t bother me in particular, but then we were presented with an interstate in the following condition on a Sunday afternoon:

Your tax dollars (and tolls) at work…

Rural Indiana isn’t worth mentioning, considering earlier posts. However, the skyline of Indianapolis seems quite nice:

Hoping to avoid traffic in the morning, we proceeded to the outskirts of Indianapolis before stopping. In Greenfield IN, aside from finding a very nice Comfort Inn to stay, we found a wonderful drinking establishment to whet our whistle at. I forget what it was called, but a number of very nice Midwestern folks (is there another kind?) made us feel right at home.

In the following picture, we see our new friend Laurie, who, along with her husband, made us want to follow NASCAR much closer. Laurie, who had a bit to drink, cleaned our chronometers in a game a darts and then bought us shots of Triple-Sec. A simply charming couple. Here we are in a group picture:

The general good cheer of the bar was, for a brief time, nearly turned to disaster by a dispute between Laurie’s husband and the local barkeep. Threats of police calls were mentioned, but fortunately all was settled through a friendly handshake. Eric (the bartender) was a thoroughly decent fellow.

Tomorrow, we plan to cover most of Ohio and enter West Virginia. More soon.

11 thoughts on “Day 6: Chicago And The Next Leg”

  1. Beautiful city. My one time in Chicago, we were sequestered at Andersen’s vaunted (or rather overhyped imo) center for professional education at St. Charles. Interestingly enough, they became an independent conference center after the fall of AA. In keeping with Andersen’s tradition of trying to make arcane professional services sound cool, they’ve changed the name of the center to Q-Center. I guess they’re trying to emphasize the Q in quality. It’s kinda like Accenture putting an accent on the future.

  2. Sorry, hit the post button too fast. Forgot to say that St. Charles is far from Chicago proper, so we didn’t really see the city except for a night out on the town. Even then it was dark and winter, so all we really saw was the interior of a bar and night club. Whoopee eh?

    Anyways, here’s the link to “Q-Center” and a link to their name change press release.

  3. You’re in town just in time to meet John Edwards for lunch at Manny’s Deli on Roosevelt Road! He wants to grab a sandwich with all those commonfolk he represents.

  4. No pictures of michigan mile or the handcock tower? I was in chicago in march, windy and cold, but the lake did look very pretty. It’s usually very bright and sunny in that city.

  5. Manny’s Deli! Best 6000 calories I ever ate. I would advise young Edwards to choose something light, perhaps the double corned beef on rye with a side of meatloaf and spaghetti. A delightfully crisp, airy, delicately flavored luncheon selection. With an RC to cleanse the palate afterwards, of course.

  6. YEAH!!!! And then when he barely survives a massive coronary on the campaign trail next week, he can SUE MANNY’S ASS!!!!!!!!

  7. Nah, he’ll be fine. RC cola protects by flushing out the arteries, and is only a touch more toxic than ethylene glycol. So no worries!

    Balance is the key to healthful eating.

  8. Manny’s roast beef sandwich. Yes. And a bowl of the chicken broth with noodles, matzoh balls AND kreplach. Yeah, baby.

  9. I wish I would have found this site sooner. I could’ve hooked you up with all sortsa things to do in the Windy City (The Ferris Wheel on Navy Pier is awesome)

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