The 25 Hour Day

I realize there has been a bit of a blog blackout. Our hotel in Chicago promised free wireless internet, that was a lie. There was internet if you stood in the lobby with the every other hotel guest and held your internet device in the air while spinning around until you found a connection. It just wasn't worth it. So we have three days worth of blog entries that must be posted in order to get back on schedule. We're in Minneapolis right now at a hotel with a fantastic internet connection. I'll post the first one now then maybe write up the second two tonight and post them tonight or tomorrow morning. So keep checking back, there's a motherload coming.

Day 2

Another smooth day down. We woke up in scenic Oberlin, OH after a comfortable night on Aba’s futon. With our next destination, Chicago, only 5 hours away we were able to sleep in a little and explore downtown Oberlin.

After searching for hotels in Chicago and witnessing Aba’s roommate do an interpretive dance to Shakira’s “Shewolf” (whether she knew we were watching or not…it was interesting to say the least) we followed Aba downtown where she directed us to a breakfast joint. We were given specific orders to order the vegan pancakes rather than the regular ones, so we did just that. Did I blow my cover by ordering mine with butter and coffee with cream? Yes. I also threw in some bananas.

Our breakfast came and it was amazing. The pancakes were each the size of a dinner plate, thick and fluffy. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. A mug of coffee the size of a small barrel finished off a fantastic meal.

Ch’nel and I took some time to explore the town of Oberlin and deemed it fantastic. As a small college town filled with hippies, Oberlin offers organic cafes, used bookstores and everyone on bicycles. On a cool late summer day with bright blue skies it was absolutely Norman Rockwell-esque. If it wasn’t for the damn hippies…I definitely could have seen myself there.

I had to leave, however, before the urge to stop shaving my legs and start wearing oversized striped shirts over spandex hit me. Ch’nel offered to drive and I had no problem agreeing. We had a long drive across Ohio and Indiana ahead of us…very boring territory. We made it through Ohio surprisingly fast. In no time we crossed he state line into Indiana where we had a couple side trips planned. When we left Oberlin we noticed that we would be going through Gary, IN…birthplace of Michael Jackson. Knowing nothing about Gary, IN (this was our first mistake) we decided that it would definitely be worth a side trip. We punched it into the GPS and were told that it would get us there at 4:15pm. Excellent. As we got going I noticed that we would be passing through South Bend, IN and asked Chiz if we could stop at Notre Dame university so that I could see the stadium and Touchdown Jesus. Punch it into the GPS, arrival time 4:30. Great. Wait…but South Bend is a good 50 miles east of Gary. How are we going to get there after?

Enter time zone change! Immediately after South Bend we would be entering the Central Time Zone, thus gaining an hour. We never would have figured this out if it wasn’t for the GPS as well, as the sign announcing the change was a tiny thing that simply said “Now entering the CST Zone”.

South Bend and Notre Dame itself was fine. Nothing too interesting. We saw the stadium, it was big. We saw Touchdown Jesus, he was hilarious. Otherwise…it was a typical catholic university. Same buildings you see at Nova, G-town, BC. Same names even. We wandered around to stretch our legs but quickly continued on.

As soon as we left ND we threw on the Michael Jackson tunes. Ch’nel has quite a lot. We breezed down the highway through cornfield after cornfield. My mother had warned me that Gary was not a good area, sketchy if you will. Looking at the miles of fields I thought she must be nuts. Suddenly, BAM! Traffic, congestion, city. Gary is the beginning of the Chicago metropolitan area and it came out of no where. We got off the highway near MJs house and were immediately thrown into an area that hasn’t seen prosperity in decades. Crap. I’m going to be completely honest, the fact that I have a degree in “cities” does not mean I’m not scared out of my mind when driving through rows of abandoned houses. It was light out, however, and I assumed that there would be some sort of crowd around MJ’s house given his recent untimely death.

We discovered that by crowd…there was a woman with a stand selling t-shirts. Despite what you saw on TV there was not memorial of flowers and notes. No fans flocking to pay their respects. It was a house. With a woman who had a stand with t-shirts. We took a picture out the window then decided to get the hell out of there as fast as we could.

We bumped down the main drag of Gary which was filled with burnt out and boarded up theaters and stores. We finally reached the enterence to the highway….and discovered it was closed. Ahead of us was a gated off factory of some sort and behind us was Gary. After stressing for a few moments we found a place to turn around and saw a detour sign. With our eyes staring firmly straight ahead we made our way back to the Indiana Toll Road and began our approach to Chicago.

We flew into Chicago with no traffic. Given that it was 5:30 and that Chicago is known for it’s rush hour traffic I was amazed. Well not for long, apparently going INTO Chicago at rush hour is no problem, but coming OUT of Chicago (as we are staying near O’Hare airport) was jam packed. We inched our way through traffic while I talked to my friend Liz from high school to plan out a chance to get together. We agreed that I would call her when I got to the hotel then we could arrange for us to go over to her house for dinner.

That plan went out the window when we got to our hotel and sat down on the bed. While not outrageously comfortable, it was real bed. Something we hadn’t had last night. We rearranged plans to meet tomorrow. That’s a better idea. We ordered a pizza, watched some TV and now we’re heading to bed. It’ll be good to get a good nights sleep.