waitingman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waitingman) wrote2021-09-30 09:00 pm
waitingman) wrote2021-09-30 09:00 pm
Entry tags:
It's 75 Miles To Chicago...
No photos, just driving today...
Sept 30. Sunday – Milwaukee to Chicago
Not the best Motel 6 we’ve ever been in... the shower was a bit mouldy& I'm pretty sure it wasn't us! So we were not sorry to check out reasonably early & head south to Chicago. First though, a breakfast at IHOP – the International House of Pancakes... a USA-only chain that shares a predilection for overstatement with the baseball ‘World Series’ which features only USA teams. We’re slowly getting the hang of ordering smaller meals, though once again, it was enough to keep me going for hours at the wheel. An attempt to find roads we could drive down along the Lake Michigan shoreline en route to Chicago was a bit of a failure – we saw more houses & industrial sites than lake shore... but the short glimpse we had of the Lake was enough to find out that you can’t see the other side...
We picked up the I94 Interstate again & had Jeeves guide us to a Super 8 Motel in Chicago. This turned out to be in a less-than-desirable neighbourhood, as did the next two options, so we decided to try a Holiday Inn in the middle of town. More expensive, but certainly a better option for getting around the city later, not to mention the probability of still having a car to get around in. Parking for the Hotel was about a block away, which was weird, but only annoying when we struggled to get the suitcases from the sidewalk, up the stairs & into the lobby, while the staff watched on... Our room turned out to be a rather compact size & a bit on the narrow side for ease of walking around without bumping into the bed or each other
By the time we’d finished driving around this town of twelve million people & their cars, buses, trucks & roadworks, found parking, checked in, got settled, showered & shaved (in my case anyway) & into evening clothes, it was time to think about dinner & a show for the night. We were a block away from Pizzeria Uno, which, according to the USA Guide to Lonely Planets, was a recommended place for deep-dish pizzas, which we just had to try.... A forty five minute wait with drinks later we had a table near the door, a serve of hot wings & a pepperoni pizza pie on the way. Must say that it wasn’t all we expected – the crust was dry & bland, the pepperoni was more roni than pepper, which probably explains the range of sauces in a basket on the table... that’s how you inject flavour into your pizza. Oh well, at least we can tick off the ‘signature dish’ of Chicago
So into our first USA cab for a trip downtown to Buddy Guy’s Blues Legends Club. Our driver was an African-American whose music of choice was country heartbreak songs... he seemed to know most of the words & some of the tunes as he sang along. He didn’t like the faster songs – skipped past a couple of those. Strange – a bit like an Eskimo listening to Irish jigs... but he did take us down the street under the railway lines that the Blues Brothers were chased by most of the Chicago Police, so I had no problem with him listening to “both kinds of music... country AND western”. Into Buddy’s for dessert, a few more drinks & a set from Studebaker John & the Hawks, whose songs strung together all the requisite blues clichés (seventh sons, bayous, mojos & at least one “woke up this morning”), but a limited range of tones & variations – just guitar bass & drums & occasional harmonica, with none of them being particularly outstanding, so we left after the first set & headed back to the Inn. Our cab driver this time was a Mexican who was listening to high-church organ recitals on the radio. Strange – a bit like... well, you get the idea. I wonder if this is a common thing among cab drivers, or were we just lucky?
On the way back to the hotel, we drove past the Chicago Theatre, where the audience was just emerging from a concert... Ben Folds Five, with Kate Miller-Heidke supporting. Damn!!! If we’d known about that gig, the night would have turned out quite differently. Oh well, here’s hoping they both come to Australia soon... but not before we get back
Sept 30. Sunday – Milwaukee to Chicago
Not the best Motel 6 we’ve ever been in... the shower was a bit mouldy& I'm pretty sure it wasn't us! So we were not sorry to check out reasonably early & head south to Chicago. First though, a breakfast at IHOP – the International House of Pancakes... a USA-only chain that shares a predilection for overstatement with the baseball ‘World Series’ which features only USA teams. We’re slowly getting the hang of ordering smaller meals, though once again, it was enough to keep me going for hours at the wheel. An attempt to find roads we could drive down along the Lake Michigan shoreline en route to Chicago was a bit of a failure – we saw more houses & industrial sites than lake shore... but the short glimpse we had of the Lake was enough to find out that you can’t see the other side...
We picked up the I94 Interstate again & had Jeeves guide us to a Super 8 Motel in Chicago. This turned out to be in a less-than-desirable neighbourhood, as did the next two options, so we decided to try a Holiday Inn in the middle of town. More expensive, but certainly a better option for getting around the city later, not to mention the probability of still having a car to get around in. Parking for the Hotel was about a block away, which was weird, but only annoying when we struggled to get the suitcases from the sidewalk, up the stairs & into the lobby, while the staff watched on... Our room turned out to be a rather compact size & a bit on the narrow side for ease of walking around without bumping into the bed or each other
By the time we’d finished driving around this town of twelve million people & their cars, buses, trucks & roadworks, found parking, checked in, got settled, showered & shaved (in my case anyway) & into evening clothes, it was time to think about dinner & a show for the night. We were a block away from Pizzeria Uno, which, according to the USA Guide to Lonely Planets, was a recommended place for deep-dish pizzas, which we just had to try.... A forty five minute wait with drinks later we had a table near the door, a serve of hot wings & a pepperoni pizza pie on the way. Must say that it wasn’t all we expected – the crust was dry & bland, the pepperoni was more roni than pepper, which probably explains the range of sauces in a basket on the table... that’s how you inject flavour into your pizza. Oh well, at least we can tick off the ‘signature dish’ of Chicago
So into our first USA cab for a trip downtown to Buddy Guy’s Blues Legends Club. Our driver was an African-American whose music of choice was country heartbreak songs... he seemed to know most of the words & some of the tunes as he sang along. He didn’t like the faster songs – skipped past a couple of those. Strange – a bit like an Eskimo listening to Irish jigs... but he did take us down the street under the railway lines that the Blues Brothers were chased by most of the Chicago Police, so I had no problem with him listening to “both kinds of music... country AND western”. Into Buddy’s for dessert, a few more drinks & a set from Studebaker John & the Hawks, whose songs strung together all the requisite blues clichés (seventh sons, bayous, mojos & at least one “woke up this morning”), but a limited range of tones & variations – just guitar bass & drums & occasional harmonica, with none of them being particularly outstanding, so we left after the first set & headed back to the Inn. Our cab driver this time was a Mexican who was listening to high-church organ recitals on the radio. Strange – a bit like... well, you get the idea. I wonder if this is a common thing among cab drivers, or were we just lucky?
On the way back to the hotel, we drove past the Chicago Theatre, where the audience was just emerging from a concert... Ben Folds Five, with Kate Miller-Heidke supporting. Damn!!! If we’d known about that gig, the night would have turned out quite differently. Oh well, here’s hoping they both come to Australia soon... but not before we get back