Long Day in the Windy City

If you missed the blog yesterday it's because we didn't get back into camp until after 10:00 p.m. last night and we were too tired to try and think creatively, especially after doing battle with Chicago's maze of freeways and torn-up city streets for four hours, two going and two coming back. We were staying in the tiny hamlet of Union which is located, according to MapQuest, about seventy miles to the northwest of Chicago along route I90.

The first part of the day started out very pleasantly as the Illinois State Railway Museum is just three miles down the road from our camp. When I say that this place is a museum you should immediately banish the notion that this thing is in any way museum-like. It's more like an operating railroad yard full of trains that just happens to be owned by a non-profit organization. There are trains EVERYWHERE!

In addition to perhaps more than a half dozen giant warehouses full of the best equipment, they have dozens of cars and engines stored outside around their close to fifty acres of property. The only disappointing part of our visit was that most of the warehouses were locked and we were only able to tour one. But what we saw in that one warehouse, as well as around the rest of the grounds, was very impressive not to mention photogenic.

At IRM they have everything from steam engines to old-time trolley cars, from immaculate passenger cars from the 1940s to freight cars from the turn of the last century. They even have old Chicago "L" cars parked next to a subway platform, just ready for boarding. We would definitely like to come back someday when the museum is in full operation and take in more of the sights

After an hour or so of touring the Rail museum, we loaded up and headed for the "Windy City." Both of us had been dreading the thought of taking our thirty-foot home on wheels into the heart of Chicago all the way to the lake shore. We knew that it was not going to be a particularly pleasant experience. Actually, it didn't turn out to be too bad. The GPS more or less led us right to the spot we needed to park. Only once did it send us on a wild goose chase and we nipped that side trip in the bud, reprogrammed, and began again.

One thing you have to realize about Chicago is that they absolutely love to tear up their streets and, knowing that those already overloaded streets are vital to the sane flow of traffic during peak hours, will leave them torn up for literally years at a time. When I lived on the north side of Chicago back in the early 1970s I more than once watched the highway guys tear up a block-long stretch of road near the air base where I was stationed and milk that project for the next year. They proceeded at such a snail's pace that you just permanently rerouted around that stretch knowing that in your lifetime you might not see it finished.

As you might guess, our trip to Chicago was undertaken along with what appeared to be several million others all headed downtown. As I said, I lived in Chicago before, for some three years, so I knew pretty much what to expect. I knew that the freeways would be packed, the city streets narrow, and there would be lots and lots of construction with which to contend. It turned out that I was right about all three. At places we would be funneled from two lanes down to one, forming a bottleneck, which, when you're trying to merge a thirty-foot vehicle, is sort of like trying to commute in a moving van. Amazingly, in under two hours we actually made it to the shore of Lake Michigan. I did have to stop at one point and ask for directions of a security officer, but by then we were so close the officer told us to just turn left where we had lately turned right, go two or three stop signs, and we'd see the parking lot.

The parking lot was so spacious and so empty we could have been leading a whole convoy of motor homes and they all would have found parking. A little pricey at $32.00 but we were only a ten minute walk from the Field Museum, the Shed Aquarium, and the Planetarium. It couldn't have been more perfect. The other thing that was perfect was the crystal-clear day that Chicago had conjured up, I'm sure, just for us.

I actually had trouble walking the short distance to the museum because I couldn't stop taking photos of all the brilliantly-lit buildings, the harbor full of creamy white boats, or the skyline of the city which lay a short distance to the north of where we were walking.

You may remember that our quarry in Chicago, at least for this trip, was the Field Museum where I wanted Concetta to see what is truly an outstanding collection of Egyptian mummies and other artifacts. Back in 1969, when I first found myself in Chicago for what appeared to be a long-term stay, I sought refuge from the demands of Navy life in the Field Museum. Back then, before Dr. Zahi Hawass had worked so hard to generate interest in Egyptian archeology, I usually had the Egyptian section to myself. I'd spend hours there studying the artifacts and enjoying the artistry of ancient Egypt. Even though my interest in Egyptology has cooled somewhat over the intervening years, Concetta is an avid fan of ancient archaeological subjects. I just knew she'd love the Field Museum.

Some of you are probably aware that the museum experience, probably all over the world, has become very interactive. Where in the past I would enter a room full of parallel rows of glass cases with the artifacts displayed in ordinary light, now the whole Egyptology experience goes on in an environment that closely approximates, I would suppose, the actual mood and lighting of a tomb. No longer a big open room, now you wend your way through tomb-like spaces surrounded with limestone blocks actually purchased from Egypt. The mummies and other artifacts are all hermetically sealed and kept in low light to preserve them from harmful heat and light. It's all pretty mysterious and solemn. The only problem we discovered is that the light in some displays is so low you can't read the cue cards, which somewhat detracts from the experience.

The other display area that we had time for was the one dealing with the habitation of the Americas by native peoples. Once again, the Field outdid themselves with their largely interactive displays. In one that I especially liked, you could touch pieces of broken pottery that had been fastened to a display board beneath a computer screen. The instructions were to touch the pieces in the correct order to put the broken pot back together bottom to top. Now if that doesn't capture the imagination of some budding grade school archaeologist, I don't know what would.

One of the collateral activities that we planned for Chicago was to meet our friends, Katherine and Bobby Royce, for dinner while we were in the city. We first met Katherine and Bobby while on our cruise last fall to Turkey and the Greek Islands. The four of us got along famously from the beginning and we took many meals together on the fantail of the cruise ship as it plied the ancient waters of the Mediterranean. When we parted we promised to look them up if ever we made it to Chicago. So it was that we set up a date and they picked us up near where we had parked the motor home and we celebrated the one year anniversary of our friendship by finding the nearest Greek restaurant and having a party, avowing once again that good wine, good food, and good friends are the best things in life.

Once the Royces had dropped us back in the parking lot on the Chicago lake shore we realized that time had really gotten away from us. Since we had purchased two days at the campground in Union we had to now wend our way back out of the city and back north 70 miles before we could sleep for the night. As it turned out, the trip out was more hairy than the trip in, mostly because when the sun goes down the street maintenance folks double their activities and we spent much time creeping along a few feet at a time before we were able to reach the interstate and really get rolling. When we finally arrived at some God forsaken hour, we just pulled into the space and collapsed into bed, too tired to set up any plumbing or electrical.

This morning, with gray skies above us, we once more set off toward Chicago, but this time we used secondary roads and skirted the main part of the city. I didn't do any photos today as the light was just too flat and boring. We were able to find some parts of the old Lincoln Highway -- America's first interstate, now mostly highway 30 in this area -- and cruise through countless tiny towns in Illinois and Indiana. Tomorrow we're hoping to make the final leap to Akron, Ohio, where we will be staying for a couple of days visiting Connie's sisters and other relatives.

As Concetta pointed out to me this evening, my penchant for merely wandering throughout the country, stopping at whatever towns and hamlets that look interesting, and having no actual plan, has caused us to be much later reaching Ohio than we originally planned. Hard to believe that we've been since August 28th on the road and at this rate we won't be home until Christmas. I think her point is that we will probably have to turn around now and head back. We very much want to visit Gettysburg and a few other historic sites, but it doesn't look like we're going to be seeing the east coast on this trip. Sigh!

Anyway, that's the story. I'd sure like it if these dreary skies would clear up and look like Nevada tomorrow, but we'll have to see. Until then, I bid you adieu and, whenever possible, good wine, good food, and good friends.

Ciao.