Chicago, IL - Night One

I write tonight from Days Inn Lincoln Park in a beautiful section of Chicago, Illinois, a beautiful city situated on Lake Michigan, the first of the Great Lakes I have ever seen. Tonight we are going to go out on the town to celebrate Jeff's birthday, so I promise some more exciting and rowdy stories tomorrow. I am currently drinking a lovely "urban wheat beer," a very unassuming wheat beer brewed by Goose Island here in Chicago.

Today in Columbus, we explored Ohio State University, a big beautiful campus, and the town that surrounds it. The highlight of Columbus, however, was our visit to the White Castle corporate offices, where I talked to Sandina, who was in charge of the Cravers Hall of Fame. She gave me some advice for getting inducted into this prestigious group. We saw many items at this Hall of Fame and Museum, including an actual burger that Queen Elizabeth gave to the Hall of Fame to be preserved. Of course, after our trip here, we got the crave and had a few burgers of our own. Then we set off to beautiful Chicago.

The way here, however, wasn't as lovely or beautiful. US-33 W in Ohio is incredibly boring country. There was lots of grass, lots of farmland, barely any water. There were no hills or mountains, and every driver was a slow-driver who crawled along the highway. Western Ohio is the "flatlands of the east." We passed through the town of Lakeview, where we could barely see the lake. A water tower and lots of RVs/mobile homes greeted us in Lakeview instead. There were incredibly long country roads bisecting the US highway we were on--a highway with stoplights!

We came to a crossroads at a couple of points. Here is what I noticed on the corners: Dad's Drive-In (a sign read "God Bless America"); Pam's Pantry (sign: "Burger's & Brew's"); An old-style working phone booth across from "Coffee & Carry".

Matt, Jeff, and I discussed the quote "To travel is better than to arrive," which we disagreed with so far. As we got closer to Chicago, traveling along I-90 along the Lake, we were greatly anticipating our arrival, our destination in Chicago, that made the traveling through Ohio and Indiana look miserable.

The sky between Ohio & Indiana today was ominous and foreboding. Everywhere you looked around you was a surrounding gray with streaks of lightning fluttering in the distance. I was intrigued before we were submerged full-force into the deluge. The heavens poured down on us all the way over the Ohio/Indiana border on US-30. Indiana was drenched, soaked farmland from north to south, and east to west all the way to I-469.

Arcola Rest Area in Indiana was the sorriest rest area ever, with one man sitting in a closet-shaped office, watching truckers and a few travelers come in and out of the restroom, the only one for miles, with nothing else notable around. It pretty much summed up our travels through the state.

More from Chicago tomorrow...