Chicago, Day Two

50 or so miles from Manhattan. Raining in Pennsylvania, need to cross through Jersey and the Holland Tunnel. After sleeping til 2PM following the antics of day one in Chicago, we headed out to Millenium Park. We checked out the art pieces like the Crown Fountain and the Bean. We walked over to Pritzker Pavillion, where a symphony was practicing to a mostly empty audience. We even ran into our friend Tito on the way out, although there were no man-sips taken. We went and had lunch at the outdoor cafe with an absolutely fabulous staff. JC had the duck tacos and a Goose Island Summertime Ale for an all water-fowl meal. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to relax. Later that afternoon, we headed out on the red line towards Wrigleyville to catch the Cubs and Phillies at Wrigley Field. We didn't have tickets, so we had to scalp some from some particularly shady gentlemen sitting outside the subway station. We ended up with bleacher tickets that at least appeared to be authentic and waited outside for Bill to meet us. The bleachers at Wrigley are notorious for the most hard-core fans in baseball. And although we didn't get thrown out, I'd like to think we at least helped maintain the tradition. The game was awesome, going back and forth while the capacity crowd cheered. We left when the Cubs were down by one in eighth to go to Murphey's Bleachers where they were still serving beer. The Cubs tied it, and we ended up hanging out and watching the game with some employees of the Chicago Board of Trade. They even drunkenly offered me a job as a programmer, which I politely refused. JC and I were planning on heading back to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock tower for a martini and then back for an early bedtime so we would be ready to roll the next morning. However, our good friend Bill had other plans and convinced us to go back to his place and hang out for one drink. We got there, and his place was awesome, with a full bar, guitars, and a sweet balcony. Needless to say, one drink turned into several as more and more folks joined us until we had quite a crew. My cousin Anthony, who just started at Loyola, even was able to stop by. Eventually, we headed down to Bill's neighborhood open-til-5AM bar and had a couple beverages. We listened to some nice nostalgic tunes on the juke box, and Anthony demonstrated the proper way to chug a beer. We even ran into Jose, who coincidentally grew up in Fullerton and graduated from Sunny Hills the same year I graduated from Troy. JC had Jose's girlfriend walk up to him and say "Go Warriors" but then had to buy him a shot because Jose was big. Around 3AM we took a cab back to the hotel and learned an ancient Indian technique for curing the hiccups. We went back to the room and called it a night. Chicago, you showed us one heck of a good time. Bill, thanks for showing us the real Chicago and keeping our spirits high. Gotta go - about to get on the New Jersey turn pike. NYC baby!

jcandalexsroadtrip

Pennsylvania

jcandalexsroadtrip

Chicago, Day One

Currently we're rolling through Pennsylvania on our way to New York. This is the home stretch - feeling good after so many miles. We left Minneapolis after some quick breakfast and headed out east towards Chicago. We didn't want to take our moving truck into the city, so after rolling through Wisconsin we parked at O'Hare and took the red line to Monroe. We had a reservation at the Palmer House Hilton, the longest continually operating hotel in North America. We checked into our huge room and chilled out for a while. During the train ride from the airport, JC hit up his friend he had met in Venice, Bill Ladone, who now lived in Chicago. Bill was stoked to meet up with us and invited us to a roof top party in the city. After we ate some world famous Chicago Pizza topped with some tasty cardboard (they offered to comp it, but JC refused) we met up with Bill and some friends at Mother Hubbards and had a beer. Next, we found ourselves walking into an apartment with a sweet view of the city and a variety of classical music gear including a harp and a cello. We met up with some great folks including Julia, a harp player in the symphony, David, a cello player, and Patrick who played guitar. We cracked open our case of Old Style and headed up to the roof, where we interrupted the quiet atmosphere with a rousing shotgun session. From the roof, we could see the Sears tower and had a beautiful view of Chicago's downtown. We spent the evening drinking and partying with the eclecitc crowd of Chicago socialites. I spent a lot of time talking with Tito (renamed by JC T-Dog) who is the conductor for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. We rocked the party and had a great time, including introducing everyone to man-sips, especially Tito. We eventually headed back around 5 AM, enjoying our walk downtown by taking photographs with statues and giving bums high-fives. We hit the Palmer and crashed out into a sleep deeper than a Chicago deep dish. What a night - but it was just the beginning.

jcandalexsroadtrip

Minneapolis

We left South Dakota bright and early and headed east towards Minnesota. We spent most of the day driving in Wisconsin, which was pretty nice. We stopped at Foster Chees Haus, which was a gourmet style deli and wine store with incomparably fresh dairy products. JC got a ham and cheese sandwich and an unhomoginized organic chocolate milk, and I got a four pack of Hog Wild Imperial Pilser. It's fair to say that if we lived in Wisconsin we'd be as obese and serene as the rest of the residents. After 600 miles that included some gnarly stimulus-funded construction traffic, we arrived in Minneapolis. We were staying for the night with my Dad's cousin Rob and his family in Edina. we exited on France Ave and admired the downtown area before arriving at our destination. We met up with Rob and Jaci and they invited us in to ther beautiful home surround by a lake and a baseball field. After a quick limeade, we hopped on some bikes and toured 10 miles around the lakes. We watched the sunset while we cycled around the scenic bike paths that connect the various lakes. It was a fantastic way to strech out our legs after 12 hours in the car. Next, we sat down to dinner with Rob, Jaci, Isaac, and Ansel. To say a home cooked meal was satisfying after days of fast food would be a huge understatement - we enjoyed our scallops, pasta salad and martinis immensely. Jaci was an excellent hostess on all counts - the meal was delicious, the setting was beautiful, and she let Rob off the hook on the dishes so he could hang out and chat with us into the night. We sat and talked at length, and had a lot of laughs. Rob had ridden his bike across the country several years ago, and it was great to compare stories. We ended the night with a little ping pong in the basement and some restful sleep. Thanks Smolund family for the hospitality - we had a blast and hope you did too!

jcandalexsroadtrip

South Dakota

We are zeroing in on Cleveland after driving through Indiana. There's nothing nice to say about Indiana except that it eventually ends. It's crazy to think we'll be in New York tomorrow - our epic trip is coming to a conclusion. When we left off, we had visited Sturgis and were staying in Rapid City. Our original motivation for visiting South Dakota was to see Mt Rushmore - we didn't know about the motorcycle rally. However, after a late night partying with bikers and some epic stretches on the road, we couldn't get an early start to visit the monument and slept in to the afternoon. We woke up and threw some disc at the campgroud lake. It was beautiful and serene, and completely covered in duck shit. Eventually it started to drizzle and we stepped into a campground office for some shelter. The drizzle turned into a mighty downpour - we learned that South Dakota's ten-year drought has been erased by the last year of rainfall. Way to go SD! The helpful camp guides tried to find us some ways to get to Mt Rushmore, since we didn't want to drive our huge moving truck. They also gave us the number for a pizza place that delivered. We ordered some extremely decent 'za, watched the Yankees destroy the Red Sox on TV, and took another power nap. We woke up in the evening and decided that we needed to see Mt Rushmore before we left. The camp hosts advice didn't work out regarding the driver, but we were persistent and eventually found a taxi who would drive us there for 65 bucks, much cheaper than anyone else. Tom, at Affordable Taxi, you are getting shouted out. Tom picked us up at our campground and we came up with a plan - Crazy Horse, then Rushmore for the lighting ceremony. Tom proceeded to guide us into the Black Hills national forest, and dropped some fascinating knowledge along the way. He showed us where Dances With Wolves was filmed; he told stories about seeing Bull Elk; he taught us to stay away from scrappy Sioux women. We learned that the Native American name for the Black Hills was "Haha Sappel" - Jewel of the Universe. If Tom wrote a book about South Dakota, it would never leave the best seller list. We saw Crazy Horse, which is being sculpted by a Crazy Polish family at a very slow rate. The monument itself was lighted in shifting colors and there was lightning in the clouds behind - it was quite a scene. Next, Tom dropped us off at Mt. Rushmore. We walked up to the monument and watched an awesome presentation video describing each of the presidents whose faces are etched on the mountain. After a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, the monument was lit up by spotlights and the crowed cheered. It was an amazing moment. We bought some coozies in the gift shop then met up with Tom, who drove us to Keystone where we all had a buffalo burger at the All-American diner. Then, after we said it was cool, Tom went and picked up some guy from Boston in town for Sturgis and drove him to the next city, charging him a tidy 25 bones. When we got back to Rapid City, Tom subtracted the burger we had bought him plus part of the other guys cabfare. A three-plus hour taxi ride covering 60-plus miles ended up costing us 50 bucks. Tom, you are the best - we wish you well in your endeavors and appreciate the ridiculous tour. Before we called it a night, we visited the Canyon Lake Pub and Casino down the street from our campground. There were only three people in the bar - a piano tuner and his main squeeze drinking beer in the back and their good friend Mary, the bartender. We had 8 beers between us and the bill was $9.75. Mary, thanks for the cheap brews - hopefully the Idaho bikers come back and put you on the back of one of their Harleys and you ride off into the sunset. We came back to the cabin and slept in preparation for our next stop, Minneapolis. South Dakota, you are a rad state. Thanks for the memories and we hope to return soon with some badboy choppers so we can do Sturgid right.