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Travelogue:
Chicago (mainly),
July 2011
By Roger
W. Reini
By date:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
| 5 | 6 | 7
| 8 | 9
Prologue
This is the story of a trip that started out as
one thing and ended up being something completely
different. It started as an attempt to visit South
Dakota, the only state of the lower 48 that I have not
yet visited. Given my short time off of work (one
week), I would not have been able to visit the sites in
the southwestern part of the state, the sites I would
really want to see: Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills,
Deadwood, Wall Drug, etc. Those were too far to
reach by driving in a week; most of my time would have
been on the road. I would only have been able to visit
Sioux Falls. Then I decided that I didn’t really
want to go to Sioux Falls, and so the trip became one to
Minneapolis. I’d made reservations on the SS
Badger, the car ferry from Michigan to Wisconsin, and
had made hotel reservations for various points in
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. But then I
decided I didn’t want to put that much mileage on my
vehicle, given my previous trip to Texas in March and a
forthcoming trip later in the year, and so I cancelled
the trip.
Part of me still wanted to ride across Lake Michigan in
a ferry, though. Then it hit me: why not try the
other ferry, the Lake Express, from Muskegon to
Milwaukee? And then after that, go down to
Chicago, spend a few days there, then return to Michigan
for a baseball game in Lansing (mini-season ticket plan)
before heading home? That seemed more enjoyable to
me. Also, I knew my aunt would be taking the Lake
Express to Milwaukee to visit her brother, my uncle,
after his upcoming surgery; I could scout out the Lake
Express and tell her what to expect. And so, I cancelled
the original plans and made new ones.
Thursday, June 30
During the day, I worked. In the evening, I
mounted my bike rack to my Mariner and put some bike
supplies (pump, helmet, water bottle, bike bag) in the
rear seat area. I packed a suitcase and put a few
items into a carry-on bag. I made sure to retrieve
the ticket for the Lansing Lugnuts game next Friday (one
of a 6-game season ticket package), for I did not
anticipate returning home before then.
Top
Friday
July 1
As I got ready for work, I made sure to put my medicine
containers in my toiletries bag. I didn’t want to
forget those! I remembered the difficulties I had
last year when I forgot one medicine in Key West.
The bags remained inside, for I still had to go to work
today, and I would be returning home prior to taking off
for Grand Rapids.
Yes, my destination this evening would be Grand Rapids,
some 45 miles from Muskegon and the ferry.
Muskegon could be reached from Detroit in about three
hours, but I would have had to get up very early in the
morning to do so with a cushion of time in case I
encountered any delays on the way up. It seemed
less risky to go up after work. Now I suppose I
could have gone all the way to Muskegon, for there was
plenty of time to do so. However, the hotel rates
were much higher there. It turned out that I was
able to use Priority Club points for a free night at a
Holiday Inn near the Grand Rapids airport; I suspect I
would have needed many more points to do so for the
Holiday Inn in Muskegon, if I could have done so at
all. Another benefit to Grand Rapids: I could see
the West Michigan Whitecaps play minor league
baseball. They would be at home Friday
night. But would I arrive in time for the first
pitch? And would I feel like going to a game?
The manager of my department at work regularly allows
his engineers to leave early the day before a big
holiday, once their work for the day is done (and for
that, I thank him). That was the case today, and
once I finished my last meeting for the day at 2 and
backed up my PC’s files, I was out of the office around
2:20. The parking lot was already looking much
emptier than it would at 2:20 on a typical
workday. I headed home via one of my normal routes
(Michigan Avenue to Venoy to Ford Road), listening to
that day’s Harry Nile episode on SiriusXM’s Book Radio
(the successor to XM’s Sonic Theater). I made it
home around 3, retrieved my mail, and started to load
the car.
There wasn’t much to load, really: one suitcase, one
carry-on, one backpack (for carrying onto the ferry),
one computer bag, the atlas, some cookies for the week,
some peanuts to snack on, and the bike. I saved
the bike for last, and that was when I got a rude
surprise: a spoke on the rear wheel had broken. I
didn’t have a spare, and I didn’t know how long a repair
would take on the road. I pondered my options for
a few minutes, and then I decided I would not take the
BikeE, the one with the broken spoke. No, I would take
my Sun recumbent trike instead. I had to change
racks on the car, which wasn’t hard to do. But I
became concerned that the ferry operators might not
allow me to board the ferry with the trike, which
protruded some three feet from the back of the
Mariner. I wouldn’t know until I tried.
And so, at 3:30, I set off for Grand Rapids. The
construction on the overpass on Ford Road had ended, so
there was no backup there. I couldn’t say the same
for northbound I-275. Traffic was heavy near the
intersection with I-96 and M-14, and it got heavy again
north of 8 Mile and into the intersection with
I-696. It took a half-hour to get up to
Novi. Things eased up once past Novi. I
bounced around the radio dial, listening to various
things. At 5 o’clock, I turned on CBC Radio 1 on
Sirius and listened to a special edition of The World At
Six (it was 6 PM Atlantic time), special because it was
Canada Day today. I missed out on a few minutes of
the program (or should that be programme?) while I got
gas at the Speedway at I-96 and M-99 in southwest
Lansing. M-99 was Martin Luther King Blvd., but
when I went to MSU, it was Logan Street, and that’s how
I still think of it. The CBC program was an
interesting one, providing that different perspective on
how and why Canadians were proud to be Canadians,
including some refugees from the Congo who eventually
became Canadian citizens. At 5:30, I flipped over
to Fox News to see what was airing in place of the
just-ended Glenn Beck show. It was a special
featuring John Stossel and Dinesh D’Souza on what’s
right about America, interesting in its own right.
As I drove westward, the skies got cloudier, and there
were occasional rain showers. That meant my trike
seat was getting soaked. Soon, I saw the exit for
28th Street, the exit I needed to take for the
hotel. As I turned onto the roadway, I kept an eye
out for possible locations for supper. Macaroni
Grill? Brann’s? Longhorn Steakhouse? I
wasn’t going to do anything until I pulled into the
hotel. Now I couldn’t remember exactly where it
was, but I knew that it was near 29th Street. I
turned onto the road that would take me to 29th Street,
and I kept on the lookout for the hotel. It wasn’t
too long before I found it and checked in.
My room was #368, on the third floor (naturally), about
as far away as you can get from the lobby. I
hooked up my MacBook Pro; there was no wireless
connection, so I had to use the wired connection.
My view from the window was of the parking lot; I could
see my vehicle and trike with no difficulty. I
sent a note to my sister, aunt and uncle letting them
know I’d arrived. Then came my decision: what to
do about dinner? I thought about going to a nearby
mall. I had already decided that I didn’t feel
like going to the ballgame. When I got downstairs,
I saw that it was raining. I didn’t have an umbrella
with me; it was back in the room. The hotel had a
restaurant, though, so that’s where I decided to
eat. It wasn’t crowded at all; I was the only one
eating, as it turned out. Others were coming in
for drinks; I think they were attending events in the
hotel, either a family reunion or a wedding rehearsal
dinner. The dinner was good; I had a steak, baked
potato, mixed vegetables and a garden salad, along with
some water.
Back to the room I went, for I was feeling somewhat
tired. It had been a long day. I turned on
the baseball game (Tigers vs. Giants) and worked on the
travelogue. When I had to use the bathroom, I
discovered something unusual: one door served two
functions in the bathroom. In one position, it
closed off the toilet room, leaving the sink accessible,
and in the other, it closed off the whole bathroom. It
wasn’t that useful for me, but I saw how it could be
useful when two or more were in the room.
Eventually, I lay down to do some reading, while keeping
the ballgame on. Soon, though, I started to fall
asleep. In fact, I did fall asleep, for when I
woke up, some skateboarding program was on. I
turned off the TV and the lights and went to bed for
good.
Top
Saturday
July 2
My sleep during the night wasn’t the best; I recalled
waking up a number of times. Once, I thought I
could hear a lot of people outside. I didn’t get
up to look. I did get up for good around 5:30,
checking the e-mail and other things. My ferry
ride was not until 10:15, with check-in by 9:30. I
had some time this morning before I had to leave.
The forecast for today looked good -- warm/hot but free
of precipitation. I didn’t fancy learning how the
ferry did during storms. As I checked, though, I
could hear some noises from my MacBook’s hard drive,
noises I hadn’t noticed before. Were these normal
noises that I just hadn’t noticed, or were they the
sounds of something about to go wrong with the
drive? I couldn’t know. I knew that my
backup at home was current through Wednesday. It
was something I would watch. Critical files would
get backed up elsewhere. [UPDATE: I didn’t hear the
noises the rest of the trip, so I’m presuming they were
normal drive noises that I was able to hear]
By 7:30, I had checked out of the hotel. I had
prepared a backpack with three items: my camera, my
iPad, and my Kindle reader. This bag would
accompany me on the ferry. I set out on the road,
stopping at a McDonald’s on 28th Street near I-96 for a
sausage burrito meal. With stomach full, I drove
northwestward on I-96 towards Muskegon. Bouncing
around the radio dial, I found the broadcast of Sweden
versus North Korea in Women’s World Cup action, and so I
tuned that in. I stopped at a rest area to use the
restroom, and then it was on to Muskegon. And by
arriving in Muskegon, I could say that I had driven the
entire length of I-96, from the Ambassador Bridge in
Detroit to its end in Muskegon. I didn’t do it all
at once, of course, but I almost did.
It wasn’t too difficult to find the Lake Express
terminal in Muskegon. There was a security
screening outside the main gate, where I had to open the
hood of my Mariner, and where the guard swept underneath
the SUV with a mirror on a rod. Finding nothing
suspicious, he told me to proceed. No mention was
made of the trike on the rack. At the ticket
booth, no mention was made of it, either. It
looked like I’d be getting to ride after all! I
was directed to pull up into a staging lane, making sure
to pull real close to the car ahead of me. That
was it, and I could go inside and wait for the
ferry. I sat for a bit and walked around for a
bit, taking a few pictures. It was a somewhat hazy
day, not the best for taking pictures.
Around 9:45, I saw the ferry arriving from
Milwaukee. I got quite a few pictures of it as it
pulled into the dock and disgorged its passengers and
vehicles. Soon, we received word to get into our
vehicles for driving onto the ferry. I was in the
fourth row to board, and when I pulled onto the vessel,
I ended up in the middle of the vehicle area. I
set my parking brake, “rolled” up the windows (these
were power windows, so no real rolling was required),
took my backpack, and headed for the passenger
deck. Many of the seats were already taken by
those who had boarded without vehicles, but I found a
seat.
At 10:15, we got under way. I made my way to the
sundeck, where I and a lot of other passengers could see
what we could of our departure from Muskegon. I
was quite busy with my camera, but that stopped when I
saw the low battery light flashing. My spare
battery was in the car, inaccessible until
Milwaukee. I’d have to be very judicious in taking
pictures from here on out. We passed by several
campsites and the location of the USS Silversides
submarine. By the time the boat cleared the
Muskegon channel and picked up its speed, I was back
inside the cabin. Most of the time, I read from
the Kindle, although I did get up a few times to take
some pictures from the rear deck. There was a
constant line at the galley for food and drink, although
I didn’t have anything. I got rather chilly at
times, for I was underneath an air conditioning
vent. I made a note to myself to tell my aunt to
bring a sweater or windbreaker. There was a bit of
a roll to the boat for the first half of the trip; the
captain said there were 1 to 3 foot waves. It took
a while to develop my sea legs (or should that have been
lake legs?).
Most of the time, it was foggy outside, and you couldn’t
see much. Not that there would have been much to
see in the middle of the lake, and anything you could
see would probably be something you didn’t want to see,
such as another vessel in your path. Then the clouds and
fog started to lift, and the sun started to
appear. By this time, we were nearing Milwaukee,
and this made for a great picture-taking
opportunity. Even with my battery running low, I
took a number of pictures. They may not have been
the best, thanks to the high wind, the long zoom, and
the movement of the boat on the water. When I
checked later on, though, some of them turned out pretty
well. And 2 1/2 hours after leaving Muskegon, we
were in Milwaukee.
It turned out that I was one of the first ones off of
the boat. I made my way out of the Milwaukee
terminal, which looked to be much nicer than the one in
Muskegon, and I followed the road signs to I-43 and
I-94. I listened to the US versus Colombia in
soccer, a game the US would win 3-0. Now my
ultimate destination for today was Chicago; Skokie, to
be precise. For Chicago, I’d turn south at the
freeway. But I didn’t want to go to Chicago
immediately; I had another destination in mind. So
I turned north onto I-43 and headed through downtown
Milwaukee and north toward Green Bay. Along the
way, I saw a shopping center that featured a number of
good restaurants, including BD’s Mongolian
Barbecue. I was very familiar with that
Detroit-based chain, and I made a note to myself to come
back here when I had finished my business at the other
destination.
And what was that other destination? Amateur Electronic
Supply, or AES, on Good Hope Road. This was a
major dealer in amateur radio equipment. I’d
visited their stores in Cleveland and Orlando
before. I didn’t have anything in particular on
the shopping list, but I figured I’d look to see what
they had. Out front, they had some real elaborate
antenna setups, including one that had to have been for
EME, or Earth-Moon-Earth, communications. Yes,
it’s possible to talk to someone on Earth by bouncing
signals off of the Moon! Maybe it was for regular
satellite communication. Anyway, I went inside and
walked up and down the aisles, seeing if anything struck
me as urgent enough to buy. First pass,
nothing. I made my way to the restroom, but then I
saw the Wouxun transceivers. I visited those after
my trip to the restroom and talked with one of the
clerks. Their main selling point was their very
low price, compared to most of the HT’s on the
market. They had been very hot sellers at Dayton
Hamvention the last two years. Now I had misplaced
my spare HT at home, and I thought I should get another
one. At $113 or so, that was a compelling price
for a spare. And so I bought one for myself, one
good for 2 meters and 220 MHz.
I made my way back to the Bayshore Center, which is
where the BD’s was located. I parked in one of the
parking garages and made my way to the restaurant,
taking my iPad with me. This BD’s was like the
other BD’s I’d been to, so I knew what to expect.
For starters, I had a salad and some clam chowder.
For my meal, I used fajita-marinated chicken, three
pieces of sausage and three pieces of shrimp, along with
a number of vegetables (onions, green onions, bean
sprouts, pea pods, mushrooms, pineapple - not a
vegetable, I know, but I did have some) and
spices. The fajita-marinated chicken must have
really made a difference, for the meal was
excellent. I topped it off with a mini-dessert of
cookies ‘n’ cream. Yum!
Now it was time to walk off the meal and check out some
of the other stores. Barnes & Noble?
Nothing there, not today. Orvis? Erewhon
Outfitters? Nope. Even the Apple Store?
Plenty of things I would have liked, but I didn’t have
the money for them or was holding out for future
updates. And so, I went back to the car and hit
the road for Skokie.
As I drove back through downtown and down I-94, I
listened to the 60’s on 6 and their countdown of the top
40 songs of the ‘60s from the July 4 period. The
top song? “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis. By
this time, I was in Illinois, driving down US 41 to
avoid the Tri-State Tollway. It became a freeway
again, and I found myself on the Edens Expressway.
Now during the drive, I was inspired to visit the Bahá’í
House of Worship, which I hadn’t visited for several
years. Indeed, I didn’t think I’d been since
before going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land some 3 1/2
years ago. I was overdue. And so, I exited
the freeway and made my way over to the House of
Worship. I hadn’t forgotten the way, but with all
the renovations taking place, would I be able to find a
place to park? Yes, I would and did. The
standard parking lot was reduced in size, for there was
construction nearby. It was a tight squeeze,
finding a place to park in there, but I managed.
Had I not been able to, I could have gone to the
overflow lot across Sheridan Road. But now I could
see many of the renovations for myself: the removal of
the buildings on the southwest corner of the grounds; a
new stone entrance plaza for the House; new railings and
walkways; upgraded fountains; and more. I walked
around the House, first using the outer walkway until
that was blocked by construction, and then on the upper
walkway. I walked up the 18 steps to the entrance
(18 in honor of the 18 Letters of the Living, the first
18 to believe in the Báb) and entered.
I found a seat, took out my prayer book, and offered
several prayers, including at least one for the
progression of the souls of my late mother and
father. The atmosphere was still conducive to
worship, with no change from previous visits.
Well, I hadn’t noticed the orange tree growing inside
before, one grown with seeds from trees at the House of
the Báb. I’d seen its cousins on pilgrimage in
Haifa. The oranges were very small, very green, and very
unripe and immature. Eventually, though, those
oranges would become beautiful and tasty. Later,
after my prayers, I made my way down to the visitor
center, which seemed little changed from prior
visits. One major change I noticed was the
abolition of the old Cornerstone Room; the room was now
part of the main room in the center. I went inside
Foundation Hall briefly, saw the exhibit of Bahá’ís
martyred for their faith in Iran in the last 30 years,
and was saddened once again by man’s inhumanity to his
fellow man because of differences in belief. I
visited the bookstore and picked up a few new
items. I went back to the car, dropped off the
books and got out my camera, then went back to document
some of the changes. I took a picture of the new
sign out front, made of stone. I took a picture of
one of the improved gardens. As I walked around, a
red-winged blackbird made a menacing pass; I told it to
shoo. I then thought of the incident in the Garden
of Ridvan where Abu-Qassim, the garden, pleaded to
Bahá’u’lláh to send away the locusts who were eating the
leaves from the trees. I wished that I had the
power to send those blackbirds to places where they
could nest and not feel threatened by anyone, even if
they weren’t looking to harm the nests.
Then it was time to head for the hotel and check
in. I knew the way, although I had to make a few
detours due to construction and some No Left
Turns. But soon enough, I had reached Gross Point
Road and Skokie Blvd. But where was the
hotel? It wasn’t where I thought it was; the hotel
there was a Comfort Inn (and 17 years earlier, it had
been a Howard Johnson’s, and I’d stayed there during a
special visit program to the House of Worship).
No, it was up Skokie Blvd. a little ways, on the grounds
of the North Shore Theater. It was also a busy
hotel this evening, for two major events were taking
place here: a wedding reception and a 20-year high
school reunion. Everyone I saw was really dressed
up, probably for the reception, which kicked off before
the reunion. I checked in, got my room (404) and
unloaded the car.
I didn’t know what to do for supper. To be honest,
lunch was so filling that I really didn’t feel like
supper. What’s more, the parking lot was so full,
I feared not having a place to park if I drove
anywhere. I walked across to the Panera Bread, but
I wasn’t hungry enough for a chicken Cobb salad. I
ended up getting a bottle of pop and a bag of potato
chips from the hotel convenience store. I could
have gotten these from a grocery store at a lower price,
but there again, I’d have lost my parking spot had I
done so. The bottle of pop was good. Later
on, I felt hungrier. Guess my lunch had finally
been digested. I still wasn’t going to go
anywhere, but I didn’t have to; the hotel had room
service. So I ordered a hamburger for delivery to
the room, and there I was, at 9 PM (10 by my watch)
having a burger and watching the start of the
Kitschko-Haye title fight. The burger was quite
good; so was the fight, with Klitschko winning by
unanimous decision. Then it was time for a bit of
reading of what I’d bought and/or brought, and after
that came bed.
Top
Sunday
July 3
I was still operating on Eastern time, for I found
myself awake at 5:30 or thereabouts. But it was
really 4:30 here. The sky was starting to get
light at that time, too, which didn’t help. I
didn’t fight it all that hard; in fact, I wanted to be
up somewhat early to get a jump on today’s ride. I
didn’t go out immediately; no, I checked e-mail and
websites and did a bit more reading.
For a while, I had considered going down to the Chicago
Lakeshore Trail and doing some riding there. But I
put that off until later in favor of riding the Green
Bay Trail. Now given where the hotel was located,
I wasn’t certain that riding all the way from the hotel
to the start of the trail was wise. In retrospect,
I probably could have done it, especially on a Sunday
morning. As it was, though, driving there put me
in good position to go to the store afterwards,
something that would have been difficult were I on the
trike. And so I drove the three or four miles from
the hotel to the start of the trail in downtown
Wilmette. Based on a writeup in the Rail-Trails
Midwest book, I expected to see a parking lot near the
trailhead (not counting the parking for the commuter
rail station nearby). I did not see one, and so I
used one of the metered parking places near the
station. Fortunately, the meters were not in
operation on the weekend. I parked, unloaded the
trike, put on sunscreen, then figured out how to mount
my trike’s bag without any bungee cords. I used a
Velcro strap that was on the back of the bag; it worked,
but the bag hung upside down the whole way. But
I’d zipped it up, so nothing would be coming out.
Around 8:30 by my reckoning, I set out for the
trail. I rode down to Central Avenue, then turned
around and picked up the start of the trail for
real. The first part was asphalt, somewhat narrow,
in places completely covered by tree growth overhead
(nice for keeping cool). The trail broke, but I
found the detour on city streets. However, the
detour had its own detour that I didn’t know how to use,
not being familiar with the area. But I found a
way to get back on the trail. Then came a long
stretch of paralleling the Metra line and passing
several train stations. Around 40% of the way
through, the trail went from being paved with asphalt to
being covered with gravel. Road bikes might have
had some difficulty here, but the trike didn’t. At
times, I was wondering if I had lost the trail whenever
it transitioned onto sidewalks or through train station
parking lots, but I found my way back to it.
When I saw the intersection with Lake Cook Road, I knew
that I had pedaled up to the Lake County line.
Beyond lay Ravinia, perhaps to classical music in
Chicago what Pine Knob is to rock music in
Detroit. I pedaled past the entrance to the
festival grounds; they were closed at this time of the
morning. As I pedaled northward, I began to look
more and more urgently for a park with a restroom.
The temptation of pulling off into the bushes grew, but
I resisted. Finally came the Highland Park Metra
station, with two porta-potties in the parking
lot! Salvation for my bladder. Then I rested
for a bit, noticing several packs of bikes riding past
on the roadway. There were signs for a bike trail
continuing onward, but I thought I was near the northern
end of the trail, anyway, and so I turned around and
repeated the trip in the other direction. This
time, the wind, such as it was, was behind me, and I
think the trail was going downhill, for the most
part. Not by much, but a little bit.
About an hour later, I was back in Wilmette. I
stopped at my car to eat some peanuts. I had just
shy of 19 miles on the odometer for the day, and so I
decided to add to my total by riding to the House of
Worship. It wasn’t too difficult to do so on a
Sunday morning, and soon I found myself at the corner of
Sheridan and Linden, gazing at the white domed
building. I didn’t venture on the grounds; I felt
I was inappropriately dressed for a place of
worship. If I had had a lightweight robe, I could
have worn that, but I didn’t. So I recited some
prayers in sight of the House, and then I pedaled
back. As I went back, I passed a restaurant called
J. P. McCarthy’s Pizza and Grill, advertised as “Now
Open.” I had to laugh when I saw the name, for my
immediate first impression was of J. P. McCarthy, the
late Detroit radio personality, operating the
place. No, I was sure he hadn’t returned from the
grave to operate a restaurant.
When I returned to my car, I had 22.1 miles for the
day. That was a good ride, I thought. It was
after 11 (10), still early. After loading the
trike back onto the car, I drove off in search of a gas
station. It didn’t take long to find one, although
the prices were some 30 cents a gallon higher than in
Michigan. Here, they were still over $4 a
gallon. I listened to the last hour of Breakfast
with the Beatles as I drove to the Jewel store just
south of the hotel and bought some caffeine free diet
cola and some strawberry carbonated water, along with
some snack items. I went back to my room to load
the refrigerator, which I did, and to pick up gift cards
that I had brought with me. I didn’t stay long,
for the room had not yet been cleaned; my room service
tray from last night was still there.
Then I set off for an REI store I had found was
nearby. It was a few miles north and west of my
location, and so I drove up to Lake Avenue and turned
left. The Borders in the shopping center on the
northwest corner was one that had closed; I couldn’t
tell when I’d passed by there yesterday. As I
drove west, I noticed an area where I could turn off and
park for the North Shore Trail; perhaps I’d visit there
soon. But I continued onward until I found the
turnoff for Waukegan Road. There was a Boston
Market on that corner I remembered visiting many years
ago, before they’d become very widespread. I
turned north on Waukegan and started looking for the
REI. At Willow Road, I found it, and I made my way
there. Was I looking for anything in particular?
Well, bungee cords and spokes, neither of which I
found. But I did find a good bike lock and a book
on Illinois rail trails, which had more information than
the book I had brought with me. Thanks to one of
my birthday presents, a $25 REI gift card, the cost of
the book was covered, and the price of the lock was
substantially reduced.
Next stop, lunch. There was a Roti Mediterranean
Grill close by. I looked at the menu, though, and
wasn’t impressed. Down a ways, I thought I saw
something saying “Zapata”. It was in fact a
Mexican restaurant called Zapatista. That seemed
more appealing, and so I went there, where I had
enchiladas with beans and rice, along with an orange
flan for dessert. The fare was lighter than
another recent Mexican place I had been to (not one of
my regular haunts).
After lunch, I visited the Best Buy but didn’t find
anything there. I visited the Lowe’s across the
way and, after walking up and down a lot of aisles,
found bungee cords. Now I could fasten the bag to
the trike with confidence. And at that point, I
decided to return to the hotel by way of Old
Orchard. As I left, I saw a Sheraton hotel.
That got me thinking about the old Sheraton Houston
hotel in downtown Houston (no, this hotel looked nothing
like it), how I remembered its having changed its name
to Sheraton Houston from Sheraton something else.
I learned a few years ago that it used to be the
Sheraton Lincoln, but I kinda remembered it as the
“Sheraton Hilton” (no, that combination could never
happen). I must have conflated “Sheraton Lincoln”
and “Shamrock Hilton”. But I’m off track here...
some 15 to 20 minutes later, I was at the Old Orchard
shopping center, getting ticked off because I couldn’t
find a parking space close to the LL Bean store. I
had to park much farther down, on the upper level of one
of the parking garages, and walk back up to LL
Bean. Once inside, I looked around, saw a few
things of interest, and realized that REI had a lot of
what LL Bean had, other than the name “LL Bean”. I
didn’t find anything there, and so I returned to the
hotel to work on the travelogue, to read my trail book
I’d bought today, and to rest. I was tired!
Now for supper. I had mentioned in an e-mail that
I was considering going to Portillo’s Hotdogs for
supper. But remember that I had considered Middle
Eastern food for lunch. When I looked up Middle
Eastern restaurants in Skokie, I found three. One
specialized in Israeli food; not very surprising in a
town with a high Jewish population like Skokie.
The menu looked appealing; it was also rather expensive,
more than I was willing to spend. The other two
restaurants were Lebanese; I chose one called Basha on
Dempster. It was a small storefront restaurant
where you ordered right when you came in. I
ordered a small plate of hummus, a small tabouli, and a
beef & chicken shwarma plate. This turned out
to be a very good meal. The hummus and tabouli
were decent-sized proportions, not ridicuously
outsized. It looked like a lot, but I must have
been hungry, for I ate the vast majority of my meal,
what I cared to eat. It was good enough to
consider paying a return visit, not this trip but on a
future trip. Then it was back to the hotel to rest
up and figure out what I wanted to do tomorrow.
During the evening, I heard a lot of kids screaming and
being rambunctious down the hall. I hoped they
would calm down before bedtime. The hotel’s
Internet connection was being flaky again; it got to the
point where I used my Mi-Fi to provide my own connection
for a while. I certainly used the Mi-Fi when I
decided to listen to SiriusXM’s streaming service; I
listened to the start of the ‘60s Satellite Survey that
had aired yesterday, the one featuring the top songs
from the 4th of July period. The service worked
well enough, but I missed a lot of the songs because I
was falling asleep. Yes, I was worn out. I
shut down the broadcast, turned off the Mi-Fi and went
to bed.
Top
Monday
July 4
I woke up in the middle of the night to find that the
light was still on by the bed; I turned it off. I
could also hear more noises from down the hall. If
those kept up, I was tempted to go out and bug them to
shut up. Either they stopped the noise or I fell
back asleep quickly, for I wasn’t bothered by them
again. I got up for good around 5:30 (6:30), went
to the bathroom, and pondered what to do today.
The weather looked good outside: sunny, a few
clouds. This might be a good day to ride the
Lakefront Trail in Chicago. I nibbled on some things I
had in the room, and then I got ready for the day.
Yes, I would ride the Lakefront Trail. I collected
my camera, my iPad and a trail book, and then I set
off. It was simple to reach the parking lot for
the trail; all I had to do was stay on South US
41. Now that highway changed streets three times:
first it was Skokie Blvd., then it became Lincoln Ave.,
and then lastly it became Foster Street. I passed
by another shuttered Borders on Lincoln Ave. in the town
of Lincolnwood.
At last I reached Lake Shore Drive. US 41 turned
to get onto the Drive, but I continued straight for the
parking lot. And at 7:45 in the morning, the
parking lot was well over half-full. Many families
had come out early for their July 4 picnicking
plans. Now even though this was a holiday, you had
to pay to park there. There were automated pay
stations around the edge of the lot. I had to wait
several minutes for my turn, as there were several
people ahead of me. I paid for 7 hours worth of
parking, or until 3 PM (4 PM by my watch). That
way, I could take my time, if necessary. It took
me a while to unload the bike from the car and prepare
it for riding, as other people were parking next to me
and getting in and out of their cars. But I was
soon ready to go. I unzipped my pants legs and
went with shorts again. I applied sunscreen and
put on my helmet. I wore my camera bag around my
chest so I could readily access it on the road.
Finally, I was ready -- but not quite. I felt I
needed to use the restroom before heading out.
Fortunately, there were toilets at the bath house for
the Foster Street Beach. I pedaled over there,
locked the trike, did my business, unlocked the trike,
and set off.
Shortly after getting under way, I saw a sign: 1.0
miles. The other side said 17.0 miles, so the
trail was 18 miles long altogether. I hadn’t
started at the absolute beginning of the trail, so I
would need to pick that up on my return. I
continued south, adjusting my camera bag to a
comfortable position that didn’t impede my
pedaling. Unfortunately, it did impede my view of
the shift lever. I wasn’t always sure what gear
I’d be in. It was a cool morning by the lakeshore,
and it was going to be a sunny day. That meant the
trail would be crowded, too, and it was. It got
busier the closer and closer I got to downtown.
Many of the sights were familiar from Bike the Drive,
although the perspective was a bit different seeing them
from the trail as opposed to the roadway. I
stopped to take pictures along the way a number of
times.
When I passed Fullerton, I was on a section of the trail
I had ridden before. Back in 2009, when my uncle
and I biked the Drive, we turned off the northbound ride
at Fullerton to take the trail back to downtown.
It was a busy section, and it was busy today. A
long stretch of trail going northwest-southeast was on a
slant, making it tricky to ride, but I managed.
Soon, I neared Navy Pier. It wasn’t completely
clear which way the trail went at that point; there was
an unofficial bypass to get to the bridge over the
Chicago River, and I had taken that before, but today I
wanted to ride the official trail. I did, stopping
for a restroom break along the way. The trail made
several turns to get past Navy Pier and onto the bridge,
and then on the bridge you had to be very careful not to
run into anyone (more so than in other places).
The trail continued southward past the Loop, past the
Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum, past Soldier Field,
past McCormick Place and a park dedicated to fallen
firefighters and paramedics. Past there, the trail
took a detour to avoid construction on Burnham Harbor,
then continued southward. The trail wasn’t as
crowded down here as in the northern section, but there
were definitely other trail users today, as well as
those who were picnicking and partying in the
park. I stopped at 47th Street for a breather,
then continued on down, past the turnoff for the Museum
of Science and Industry. Now I was going past
where Bike the Drive ended. I even went past where
Lake Shore Drive ended. Now I was getting hungry
and fatigued, so I pulled over in a shaded area near La
Rapida Children’s Hospital to eat a protein bar I had in
my bag. It had been in the bag for quite a while,
but it was still edible, and it was still good. I
continued onward, all the way down to 71st Street and
Mile Marker 18, the southern end of the trail. I
took pictures to document my accomplishment. Now
it was time to turn around and head back.
I took some more pictures on the way back and stopped a
few more times to rest. The seat was beginning to
get a bit sore. When I passed the Shedd Aquarium
again, I caught sight of a hot dog vendor. It was
lunchtime, and I was hungry. Time for a left turn,
and time for my first Chicago-style hot dog.
Yummy! I doubt it will be my last Chicago-style
hot dog. I sat on my trike and ate my meal; it was
a nice place to eat, although I had no shade. I
pedaled onward, back over the river, past Navy Pier, and
up the slanted section of the trail. This time,
though, my left pedal made contact on every round with
the steering rod. I wonder if something on the rod
needed to be tightened up? Once the slant ended,
so did the contact. This stretch of trail was much
busier in the afternoon, and it was hard to keep up a
good speed. That didn’t keep some riders from
really pedaling all out.
I passed by lots and lots of picnickers and beachgoers
as I pedaled northward. Soon, I was back at Foster
Avenue, but I had 3/4 of a mile to go to reach the
northern end of the trail. When I did, I took a
picture of that sign and made my way back to my
car. Only then could I say that I had ridden the
entire trail in both directions. I still had an
hour and 15 minutes available on my parking pass, but I
was tired. I didn’t feel like doing anything
else. I loaded up the trike and set off for the
hotel. Boy, that air conditioning felt
great! The episode of Jack Benny that was on the
Old Time Radio channel sounded great, too. I made
it to the hotel just as that show ended.
It turned out that I hadn’t applied the sunscreen as
well as I should have today; that, or it had worn out in
some places. My face was a bit red, while the tops
of my knees were quite red; so was my nose. My
right leg was rather sore. Yes, I’d done a great
ride today, but I wasn’t going to ride any more today,
nor was I certain about tomorrow. I was certain
that I was going to rest in my room. No, I didn’t
nap. But I did take a shower later on; that proved
to be uncomfortable in certain places, such as my
freshly sunburned knees.
Later on, I decided to eat in the hotel for dinner,
going down to the hotel restaurant and enjoying some
good French onion soup and another good hamburger.
On the TV’s in the bar area, I could see the White Sox
game; they were losing for most of the game, but just as
I left, a 2-run homer put them ahead in the 8th
inning. Then it was back to the room to work on
the travelogue, to digest the food, and to contemplate
what I would do tomorrow, especially if I would not be
riding the bike. I looked back over the travelogue
and read of the hard drive noises. I hadn’t heard
any of those noises since checking into the
DoubleTree. Of course, the room was much noisier,
because the fan on the air conditioner blew
constantly. The noises I’d heard were probably
regular noises that I didn’t normally hear at home due
to background noise.
Top
Tuesday
July 5
Today, I woke up around 5:30 Eastern or so, but I didn’t
get up right away. No, I stayed in bed until 7 (6
local), and then I got up. I think I went back to
sleep once or twice. I did my normal e-mail and
web checks and pondered what I would do today.
When I checked Facebook, I received a chat message from
one of my Bahá’í friends. We didn’t chat very
long, though, before the hotel Internet connection went
flaky again and cut us off.
The weather outside was sunny, with not a cloud in the
sky. That looked like good riding weather.
And with my legs not being sore any more from
yesterday’s rides, I felt I could do some riding
today. And so I decided to ride the North Branch
Trail, named because it runs closely by the North Branch
of the Chicago River. There were several places I
could park and pick it up; I chose the Linne Woods
Forest Preserve off of Dempster.
I didn’t have much trouble finding the place, although
the entrance seemed to sneak up on me, appearing out of
nowhere in a busy suburban setting. The park was
empty, with few vehicles present. I got out
(interrupting a Shadow episode on the Old Time Radio
channel), got the trike off the rack, applied sunscreen
liberally, and set off on my ride. I chose to
start with the southbound part of the trail first, then
head north as conditions permitted. The trail took
a sidewalk along Dempster passed the Metra tracks, then
turned to cross the street. I went across into a
shaded area, but I noticed I couldn’t see my
mirror. When I went up to feel for my mirror, I
discovered something else: I’d forgotten my
helmet. It was back in my car. Although
riding with a helmet was not legally required except for
children, it has become my custom to do so, and so I
turned around and went back to the car. I noticed
that the helmet helped to block some of the sun from my
eyes, as it turned out. And so, with helmet on top
of head, I set back out on the trail.
The trail reminded me of trails at the Metroparks in
Detroit, as well as the Busse Woods Trail in the
northwest suburbs. There was a bit of a climb up
an overpass over Oakton and Caldwell Streets, but thanks
to the gearing on the trike, I didn’t have too much
trouble making it. I continued southward, at times
passing through shaded areas, at others passing through
open and sunny areas. I crossed Howard Street,
pedaling quickly to avoid the semi that was coming down
the street. He wasn’t too close, unless I were to
suffer a breakdown in the roadway. Fortunately, I
didn’t. The next intersection was Touhy, which
involved a kink in the trail. Then there came an
intersection -- which way to go? I went right.
This took me to Caldwell Woods in the city of Chicago,
at Devon and Milwaukee. I took a few pictures at
that intersection, including the figures of hot dogs
atop the Superdawg hot dog restaurant on
Milwaukee. Now that Caldwell Woods spur involved a
short, steep climb at the end. I’d downshifted in
preparation for it, but I could not get up it. I
had to push the trike up it, which wasn’t easy.
How do you hold onto the handlebars of an underseat
steering bike or trike? You can’t, not really. And
speaking of underseat steering, I saw an underseat
steered two-wheeler on the trail, along with two or
three other recumbents (no other trikes, though).
After I connected up with the main trail again, I took
that to its end, also at Devon Avenue. As I
approached, I heard a tornado siren go off, very
loudly. That’s because it was right across the
street. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and this
wasn’t when I would have expected to hear a siren test,
and so I wondered briefly if there was some other
emergency situation. I looked at my watch: the top
of the hour. That suggested that it was most
likely a test. Not being a Chicago resident, I’m
not familiar with its testing schedule, which wouldn’t
have to be the same as Westland’s testing
schedule. Later, when I checked the web, I found
that it indeed was the regularly scheduled testing time.
I headed back north on the trail, stopping for a
bathroom break at one point and rest breaks at a couple
of others. With all the riding I had done over the
last few days, I might have been on the verge of
overdoing it. I didn’t want to do that.
Later, as I pedaled, I saw a deer getting ready to cross
the trail in front of me. I started to reach for
my camera, but the deer had already crossed and gone
back into the woods. It was just as well, for just
then, a bike came hurtling around the curve at high
speed. A few seconds earlier and poor reaction on
the part of either cyclist or deer, and there could have
been a collision.
A few minutes later, and I was back across Dempster and
near my vehicle. I checked the map next to the
trail; it suggested that the cutoff between the north
and south portions of the trail was Golf Road, the next
major intersection to the north. I was getting
weary and more than a bit hungry, and so I figured I
might go up to Lake Avenue and then turn around.
And so I pressed onward. This stretch of the trail
was rather shady and comfortable. At times I
thought I heard the sound of a marching band
playing. Shortly thereafter, I rode past what
appeared to be a school, so I might have heard summer
band practice. Not too long after that, I saw a
horse on the trail. Actually, it was on a parallel
trail. The horse was well ahead of me, so I was
never in danger of spooking it. I continued onward
and up to Golf Road, and then I crossed. The next
stretch of trail was out in the open, and that sun was
getting warm. I continued northward, past a picnic
area and then up to the Old Orchard Road
intersection. Here, I decided to turn around, for
I was running out of steam. Some 15 minutes later,
I was back at my car, loading the trike back on the
rack. 18.29 miles for the day, not too bad, I
thought. And I was looking forward to eating at
that McDonald’s across the street.
Unfortunately, the parking lot at that McDonald’s was
full, so I couldn’t eat there. I went eastward on
Dempster, hoping to encounter another McDonald’s --
which I did, at the intersection with Niles Center
Road. Here, I had some Chicken Selects, a Sprite
(followed by a glass of water) and an Oreo
McFlurry. I wouldn’t normally have such sugary
things, but after the ride, I felt I needed an energy
boost. That food was good! Now with lunch
out of the way, I drove up to the Old Orchard to walk
around a bit. I spent some time at the Apple Store
before visiting the Barnes and Noble.
Interestingly enough, they had another new book on bike
riding in and around Chicago, different from the one I’d
bought at REI Sunday (that one was for all of Illinois,
by the way). I picked up a copy, then walked
around the rest of the store, seeing if there was
anything else of interest. There wasn’t, so I went
to check out. Now I didn’t see the price anywhere
on the book, so I asked the clerk for a check.
$24.95, it was, and with my B&N membership, it would
have been less. And so, I used the $25 gift card
I’d received for my birthday and bought the book, and
got a little bit of change back in the process.
I’d have to read it this afternoon in the hotel room.
It turned out that my hotel room hadn’t been cleaned
today, even though it was nearing 2 local time. I
wasn’t too thrilled by that, but neither did I want to
stay in the lobby while it was being cleaned. And
so I hung out the Do Not Disturb sign and rested.
I drank some diet colas, quite a few in fact. I
might have to go and get some more. I read the
bike book; I checked e-mail; I worked on the
travelogue. At temperatures in the high 80’s with
few clouds in the sky, I felt like staying in.
Now what would I do for supper this evening? Sweet
Tomatoes, a salad buffet restaurant, sounded very
appealing. But was there one on this side of town,
or was the one in Schaumburg the closest? Looking
on the Net gave me the answer: there was one in
Glenview, not that far from the REI I visited on
Sunday. And there was a Target close by, as
well. I could visit that after supper for some
goodies. And so I drove out Golf Road, crossing
the path I had pedaled some hours earlier, turned north
on Waukegan, and headed to the restaurant. I knew
what to expect when I got there, and I got it: delicious
salads (the ones you make yourself had better be
delicious!), good bread, good soup, good pasta.
You won’t leave hungry. I sure didn’t.
Afterwards, I went to Target to pick up some more pop
for the refrigerator and some Clif bars for eating while
on the trike. Then it was back to the hotel.
I had to navigate through suitcases in the lobby to
avoid flight crews who had just arrived from
international flights. It struck me as odd why the
flight crews come to a hotel that’s not all that close
to O’Hare. It is a good hotel, but surely there
are closer hotels that are just as good. That got
me to thinking about the hotels that are closest to the
House of Worship. This DoubleTree certainly
qualifies as a candidate, although I suspect that hotels
in Evanston would be closer. I took it easy the
rest of the evening.
Top
Wednesday
July 6
I think I woke up around 5 briefly, then tried going
back to sleep. I’m pretty sure I succeeded, for I
woke up for good around 6:30 to 7. I followed the
same routine as I have been these last few days:
checking the e-mail and the web, nibbling on some
cookies for breakfast, etc. This morning, I put on
the Weather Channel but didn’t see anything out of the
ordinary except for video of a dust storm in
Phoenix. Looked like the ones I’ve seen from
Kuwait (seen by video and picture, that is).
Now yesterday I was wondering if I would be riding at
all today. Would I be too sore or too tired to
ride? It might have seemed like that yesterday,
but today, I felt pretty good. I would indeed go
for another ride. But where to ride? I consulted
the Where To Bike guide for ideas. My inclination
was to go to the west side; that way, I’d be well
positioned to visit Fry’s afterwards. Then I saw a
good ride: the Salt Creek Trail ride through Bemis Woods
Forest Preserve (and a few others), including a possible
visit to the Brookfield Zoo. That was where I’d go
today. And so, I set off. As rush hour was
still on, I didn’t take any freeways or tollways to get
there. I made my way across town through several
major roadways and several suburbs (Skokie to Gross
Point to Howard to Prospect to Touhy to Mannheim to
Ogden). This took me through downtown Park Ridge
(there’s an old theater there) and right past O’Hare
Airport. I didn’t have much trouble finding the
parking for the forest preserve, and after arriving, I
prepared for the ride.
My water bottle was nearly empty, and I was under the
impression that water would be available here at the
preserve. But I didn’t see any right away, so I
set off on the trail, thinking I’d encounter some en
route. When I got to the first crossover, though,
I turned around. I had to go to the bathroom, and
I also felt I really should fill up with water before I
rode. I couldn’t fill the bottle in the bathroom;
the sink wouldn’t let me put the bottle at the right
angle. I pedaled to another area in the preserve;
if I didn’t find any water, I would call off the
ride. Just then, I noticed a hand-pumped well off
to the right. I could continue the ride!
Well, maybe I could; I pumped for a while, but no water
was forthcoming. Soon, though, water began to
flow, and I filled the bottle. It had a funny
taste, which well water often does (I don’t recall the
well at Busse Woods having a funny taste, though), but
it was drinkable. And so, with bladder empty but
bottle full, I set off on the ride.
The trail was part of the Salt Creek Trail, which I want
to call the Saltgrass Trail. The main leg ran some
7 miles, crossed a number of busy highways, and ended
just north of the Brookfield Zoo. The trail was
completely paved and was mostly shaded, though there
were a few open areas. The trail had a few ups and
downs, nothing too major. I did have problems
crossing one highway where the traffic was spaced just
so, making it too difficult for me to cross.
Eventually, I was able to get across. I also took
the trail to the west, where it went underneath the
Tri-State Tollway and onto Canterberry Street, which had
several gated homes. I took the street to its end
then turned around and headed back for my car.
Before the end of my ride, there were two girls pedaling
in the opposite direction who suddenly slowed down and
stopped, pointing to something in the distance. I
slowed down, too, to see what it was. It was two
deer down below, at creek level. One was smaller
than the other; I presume it was a mother deer and her
young fawn, grazing and/or drinking. I didn’t
stop, but I pedaled very quietly. This was a time
when I regretted not bringing my camera with me on the
ride. It was back in the car because I did not
want the bag hanging around my neck for the ride.
When I reached my car, I had 19.97 miles. I knew
that if I reached 22 miles, I would have 400 for the
year, and so I rode for 2 1/2 more miles back on the
trail and around the parking lot to get over 22.
That was a major milestone for me. It turned out
that I had missed out on another milestone, but I didn’t
know that until after updating my ride log. If I
had just gone 0.05 miles more, I would learn later, I
would have reached 100 miles for the week, 100 miles for
the rides I’d made on this trip.
After the ride, I packed up and set out westbound on
Ogden, making my way toward Fry’s. I listened to
an episode of Philo Vance on the Old Time Radio channel
on the way over, a decent episode, in my opinion.
As the episode reached its climax, I had reached
Butterfield Road. Now what to do about
lunch? I remembered a Fuddrucker’s on the way to
Fry’s. Yes, it was still there, and that’s where I
ate. As for Fry’s, well, I saw a number of
things. I always see a number of things when I go
there, but today, there wasn’t anything that I was in
desperate need of. I left without getting anything
except wet. Yes, it was starting to rain as I
left. My bike seat was about to get soaked.
That cancelled any thoughts of driving up to Schaumburg
to ride around Busse Woods today. After a brief
stop at a Best Buy up the street, I made my way back to
the hotel. The route was similar to the outbound
trip, no freeways or tollways. I knew I’d made a
good decision when I saw the backup on the inbound
Eisenhower Expressway as I drove over it.
Back at the hotel, I saw that the room had indeed been
serviced today, a good thing. I spent some time resting,
reading, and working on the travelogue. And this
was when I discovered that I was 0.05 miles short of 100
for the week. How would I make up that
differential? The easy way would have been to ride
around the parking lot, but I wanted to do more than
that. As I rested, the more I figured that I was
up for another ride, but a short ride. And there
was one in the Where to Bike book that fit the bill: a
ride along the shoreline in Evanston, a ride that also
took in the Northwestern University campus.
I figured out how to get to the ride starting point and
set off from the hotel. The streets became
narrower as I made my way into Evanston, and the
neighborhoods flipped from suburban to a small downtown
setting. At one point, I passed a spot where there
was a Jewel supermarket on the west side of the road and
a Whole Foods Market on the east side. A turn to
the left to the end of the street, and there was the
lakeside park. There was parallel parking on the
street; I got my space, unloaded my bike, and put up my
rack to leave more space for those parking behind
me. Bag loaded, helmet on, I started up the trail,
stopping at a water fountain to refill my bottle.
The trail was rather busy, paralleling the beach as it
did. The trail ended right at the Northwestern
campus, at which point Northwestern’s own trails took
over. Part of the campus protruded out into the
lake, and this was covered with trails. This was a
very popular hangout for students and the public, and it
wasn’t hard to see why. At the north end was the
soccer stadium where a game or a practice was in
progress. Off in the distance past the south end,
you could see downtown Chicago. And out in the
lake, you could see all sorts of sailboats. I
think I spent 45 minutes to an hour there riding around
the various combinations of trails, putting 7.57 miles
on the odometer. There, I had my 100 miles and
then some!
When I returned to my vehicle, I found that someone had
parked so close to the back of my car that I could not
lower the rack. Fortunately, the spaces in front
of me were empty, so I parked my bike and moved my car
up a few feet for the loading. Then I did a U-turn
in the street to backtrack my path. That’s when I
saw a One Way sign at the end of the street that I
didn’t see the first time, so I immediately did another
U-turn and continued in the proper direction. Good
thing the cop who was there when I parked wasn’t there
when I left!
Before leaving Evanston, I drove around for a short
time. Now many years ago, when I took the train to
Chicago for an overnight stop, I had taken the El up to
Evanston to visit the Chicago Main Newsstand, which said
that it featured magazines and out of town
newspapers. Was the business still there
today? It was indeed, with a sign that hadn’t
changed since who knows when. Was it open? The
sign said yes, but I didn’t go in. I was a bit
surprised that it was there, for I question the market
for out of town newspapers in this day and age of the
World Wide Web. I looped around and then headed
back toward Skokie, thinking about what I would do for
supper. Suddenly, inspiration hit me: there was a
Bakers Square north of the Old Orchard mall.
Bakers Square had pulled out of Detroit several years
ago, and this was the first one I’d seen in a long
time. I had to wait to find a parking spot, but I
did get one, and I went inside. The menu hadn’t
changed much, although the prices had gone up, I
thought. I had the chicken tenders meal, a meal
I’d had many times before at the Bakers Square in
Westland (now a Chinese buffet). There was a group
of 6 or 7 high school or young college students at the
next table over, talking about various things.
Then it was back to the hotel to the sounds of the
Underground Garage on SiriusXM (“My Boyfriend’s Back” by
the Raveonettes, and “Tell Me What You See” by the
Beatles).
Top
Thursday
July 7
My sleep tonight wasn’t as sound as on previous nights;
I do recall waking up a couple of times; in neither case
was it for long. I woke up around 6:30/5:30 for
good, as it was starting to get light outside. I
did feel a little bit sore; not too much, but enough to
be noticeable. It may have been more fatigue than
outright soreness. But on this, my last full
vacation day in Chicago this trip, I did not want to
ride the trike this morning. Maybe I would feel
like it later in the day or in the evening.
I decided to drive over to Schaumburg today. Although
the Busse Woods Forest Preserve and bike trail was over
there, I didn’t think I would be inclined to ride it
today. First, though, I went to the Best Buy just
across the street from the hotel. Did they have
anything I wanted? Specifically, did they have a
new version of Microsoft Streets and Trips? No,
they didn’t. They didn’t have the old
version. And so I left without getting
anything. I tried to get onto Golf Road for the
trip across town, but the backup was too long. I
ended up going north a bit and looping around the Old
Orchard mall before getting back to Golf Road.
From here, it wasn’t difficult to get to Schaumburg at
all: just stay on Golf Road. I’d done it many
times without trouble, and today was no different.
My first stop once I reached Schaumburg was the Borders
store just north of Woodfield Mall. It was one
that had not closed, unlike ones closer to Skokie.
I went inside and looked around for a while, paying a
bit more attention to the local interest section, but
all I ended up getting was today’s Chicago
Tribune. The paper looked different than I
remembered; it was now in a tabloid format.
Wikipedia said that back in 2009, newsstand and box
sales changed to the tabloid format, while home delivery
stayed with the traditional broadsheet format. I
did not know that. I briefly visited the Land’s
End Inlet store (what most would call an outlet store)
but didn’t get anything there.
Now what would I do for lunch? There was a Sweet
Tomatoes close by, but having just been to one, I wasn’t
in the mood for it. The siren song of fast food
did not affect me today. But I recalled two
restaurants over at the mall, PF Chang’s and Texas de
Brasil, and both of those would make excellent lunch
choices. My preference was for Texas de Brazil and
its churrascuria, which wasn’t convenient in Detroit
(I’m referring specifically to Texas de Brazil, which
had recently opened in downtown Detroit for dinner only;
the Gaucho Steakhouse in Northville was open for lunch
and dinner); as two PF Chang’s were located close to me
back home, I could go to one anytime I wished. As
I parked the car and made my way through Sears and to
the second level, I decided that I’d go to PF Chang’s
only if Texas de Brazil was not open. But it was
open, and so I had the churrascuria lunch.
Now if you are not a vegetarian and want to eat a very
filling meal, you could and should visit a Brazilian
steakhouse. The meal begins with a salad and
vegetable bar buffet that also offers hot peppers, the
occasional cold cut of meat, various cheeses, and a soup
(today’s was cream of asparagus). You could make a
whole meal out of this section, perhaps even a
vegetarian meal. But the highlights have to be the
various meats that the gauchos come around with to the
tables and serve you right off of the spits. I
don’t remember how many different meats I had yesterday,
perhaps some five or six. There’s also mashed
potatoes and banana to accompany the meal. I had
been to Texas de Brazil a few times in the past,
enjoying it each time, and this time was no
exception. The only thing I didn’t care for was
the bill; this is not an inexpensive meal.
After lunch, I needed to walk around the mall to help
with digestion, to help my stomach settle everything
down. I visited a store new to me called Marbles:
The Brain Store, which focused on toys, puzzles, and
training to help you think, to exercise the brain.
Suddenly, I got an urge to visit the restroom.
Nature was calling, loudly. It’s a horrible
feeling to have, but when one must, one must. All
other thoughts were pushed aside in the hunt for a
restroom. It took me a while, but I found one down
by Nordstrom, and I did what I had to do.
Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident, for I
had to make repeated trips to a restroom over the next
hour or so. I suspected that something I had had
at lunch today was disagreeing with me, and rather
violently at that. What to do? Forget about
visiting the nearby Best Buy and return to the hotel,
that was what to do, and stop at a drugstore along the
way if necessary.
When I got back to the car, I checked the tires on the
trike. The left rear one was rather flat last
night, and so I’d pumped it up. Now, though, it
was completely flat. Something had gone wrong with
it, and it was in need of repair or replacement.
There was nothing I could do there in the parking lot; I
would wait to look at it until returning to the
motel. The drive back to Skokie was uneventful in
terms of driving; in terms of the news, the big story on
the BBC World Service was the announcement that the News
of the World newspaper was going out of business as of
this coming Sunday, the result of an ongoing scandal and
criminal investigation. Fortunately, I did not
feel any additional urges to visit the restroom and thus
saw no need to visit a drugstore.
Back at the hotel, I tried to remove the wheel from the
trike, but I couldn’t figure out how to do so. The
disc brake was the problem, and I didn’t know how to
take that apart. Fortunately, I didn’t need to
take the wheel off in order to take the tire and inner
tube off. But I did have to remove the trike from
the rack and flip it over on the pavement. With
the tire off, I examined it closely. There was
something suspicious in it, like something small and
metallic had poked through. I could see it on both
sides of the tire, so that was something that had to
come out, and it did. There seemed to be a weak
spot in the inner tube corresponding to that damage,
although I couldn’t detect a leak from there when I put
air back into the tire. Still, I thought I should
patch the weak spot, just in case. Then the tire
went back on, I pumped up the tube, and things seemed to
be holding up. I put the trike back on its rack
and went back to the room to clean up and rest up.
Whatever had caused my problems in the afternoon had
gone by the evening. I was in the mood to repeat
the Evanston bike ride of yesterday, but with a camera
this time. Whether I did or not depended on
whether the tire had leaked or not. When I
checked, it seemed it hadn’t leaked, and so the ride was
on. I drove back over to Evanston, to the same
place I’d parked yesterday, and got ready for the
ride. With the camera bag on my chest, I set off
up the trail. I didn’t pedal particularly hard
today, for my interest was in the pictures, not so much
the ride. And the pictures were coming out pretty
well. On the trail, I got a good picture of a
bunny rabbit that was looking around, as well as a good
closeup of the rabbit, thanks to the zoom lens. A
picture of a different rabbit didn’t turn out as well,
but pictures of the campus turned out all right.
Then there were the pictures of downtown Chicago and
sailboats on the lake, which for the most part turned
out just fine. I had problems with the zoom lens
tending to zoom out all the way, and I couldn’t zoom it
back in except if I took my finger off of the shutter
button. After returning home and reading the
instruction manual, I figured out that I was causing the
problem by how I held the camera. The position
that felt natural for me had my thumb on top of a button
that caused precisely the behavior I was seeing.
Either I’d have to change how I held the camera or find
a way to disable that button.
As I returned from the ride, I wasn’t sure what to do
about supper. I figured I’d finally try the
Portillo’s Hot Dogs, but when I got up to the counter, I
couldn’t decide what I wanted. I finally decided I
didn’t want anything there, so I left. In the car,
I searched for a nearby Baja Fresh restaurant;
unfortunately, the closest ones were back in Detroit. I
ate at the hotel restaurant, having another crock of
French onion soup but going with a spinach salad served
with chicken, a good contrast to the lunch today.
Then after retrieving my camera from the car, it was up
to the room for the night for photo downloading,
identifying, mailing, etc.
Top
Friday
July 8
Well, this was it, my last day of vacation, not counting
the upcoming weekend. I got up around 6:20/5:20
and did my usual web checking and e-mail checking.
I wasn’t yet in a hurry. Later on, I took a
shower, and once I had dried off from that, I started to
pack in earnest. I didn’t have that much to pack,
although I would be leaving with more than what I
brought. In terms of things to load in the car,
the food and drink would be the prime difference.
By 9:20 or so, I was all set to leave. I had
packed everything and reviewed the bill that had been
slipped under the door. When I checked out, I
dropped off my key and let the desk clerk know that the
Do Not Disturb sign for my room had disappeared.
By 9:30/8:30 I was on the road. I thought I should
take the Tri-State Tollway around town to hopefully
avoid any traffic tie-ups, so I drove west on Dempster,
stopping to fill up the tank along the way, until I
reached the entrance for the tollway. There, I
headed south. At the first Oasis I came to, I
stopped for breakfast at McDonald’s. When I left,
it was just before 10:30. I flipped over to CNN,
which was covering the final space shuttle launch.
I listened to its coverage the whole time I was on the
tollway and even when I had made it to Indiana. By
that time, the launch time was approaching. But
traffic slowed down when I neared I-65. I started to get
concerned that I might be under an overpass when the
launch took place. That proved not to be the case,
and I heard the shuttle go up. The launch sounded
flawless. That is one thing I have never done,
seen a rocket launch in person, manned or
unmanned. It’s always been via video. Now I
have seen shuttles in person when mounted on their 747
carrier; I can remember one doing a pass when I was in
high school, and I saw the Challenger at Ellington Air
Force Base in 1982 before it went into active service.
The drive through the rest of Indiana was
uneventful. Soon, I was at the Michigan border,
stopping at the rest area and welcome center for a
stretch, a restroom break, and a chance to pick up some
literature. The welcome center had literature for
all parts of Michigan, as well as special racks for
certain activities -- camping, fishing, boating, and
bicycling. On the bike rack (pun not necessarily
intended), I saw flyers for some upcoming rides,
including one in Jackson in August. I took one,
thinking I might want to participate. Then it was
back to I-94.
Now north of Benton Harbor, I had a decision to
make. I wasn’t going directly home; no, I was
going to Lansing to watch the Lugnuts play the West
Michigan Whitecaps in the evening. The shortest route to
Lansing would have me take I-94 to I-69. If I took
I-196, I would add maybe 20 miles to the route, but I
would pass through areas I hadn’t seen before.
Time was definitely not a consideration, and so I chose
I-196. This took me near South Haven, Saugatuck
and Holland, although I didn’t really see any of those
places from the freeway. It did put me into Grand
Rapids from the southwest, though. I had lunch at
the Steak & Shake restaurant on 44th Street, then
continued onward, noting how I could see downtown Grand
Rapids off in the distance.
To kill some time, I stopped at a Schuler’s Books north
of town and at a Best Buy across the street. I had
passed by these places a month earlier on a bus trip to
Sparta to visit a tape supplier’s facility; the Best Buy
had been a restroom stop, and it served as one for me
today. Once again, they did not have the latest
version of Streets and Trips. It looked like I’d
have to order it from somewhere. As for the
bookstore, I picked up the latest two issues of the UK
Doctor Who magazine. Then I applied the second
lock to my trike. I didn’t want anyone to mess
with it while I was at the ballgame.
Now it was getting later, and I started on my way to
Lansing by way of the old road. In the Grand
Rapids area, it was Cascade Road, but once it reached
the Ionia County line, it became Grand River Avenue, the
same Grand River Avenue in East Lansing and
Detroit. The roadway wasn’t very busy at all, as
it would have been had I-96 not existed. I
listened to Old Time Radio and a number of other
stations on the way over to Lansing, stopping for gas at
a Pilot truck stop near Ionia and getting a drink and
two cookies. Once I reached Lansing, I hopped onto
I-69 for the trip over to Eastwood Town Center, where I
knew I could find a Dick’s Sporting Goods. I was
pretty sure they’d have an inner tube for the
trike. When I looked at first, though, the only
tubes they had were too wide. But in another
section, I found a tube that would work with the tires I
had. It also had anti-flat sealant inside.
Afterwards, I went to the Schuler Book’s across the
parking lot, but I didn’t get anything there. Then
it was off to Cooley Law School Stadium to see the
Lugnuts play baseball.
I parked in my usual location at the Lansing Center
across from the ball park, and then I applied sunscreen
because I knew I’d be in the sun this evening. It
was Armed Forces Night at the park, and as I walked in I
was handed a small flag to wave. It was small
enough that I could put the flagstick in my shirt
pocket. I walked around for a bit, and then I
picked up my dinner for the evening: foot-long hot dog,
chips, and a bottle of water. It was warm eating
it in my seat behind home plate, right next to the
tunnel leading underneath the stands.
Tonight’s game wasn’t much different from other games
I’d attended. Sitting in front of me were
employees of one of the two clubs, who were gathering
information on the pitchers, recording the speeds and
positions of the pitches they made and how the batters
responded. A local men’s chorus sang the National
Anthem. During one of the breaks, staff members
tossed T-shirts into the stands. On previous
occasions, this was done by firing them from a gun into
the stands, but I was present when one of those shots
launched a T-shirt all the way up to the roof of the
suites! The next time I was present three weeks
later, the shirt was still there. I couldn’t see
it tonight, though; it had either rolled back from the
edge or been retrieved. Later on came the hot dog
gun and various other activities. And of course,
there was baseball. The game was a tight one the
whole way, with Lansing striking first, only to have
West Michigan tie it an inning and a half later.
The next half-inning, though, Lansing recaptured the
lead, and that was how it ended: Lansing won, 2-1.
Some 10 minutes after the ballgame ended, the fireworks
started.
Once the fireworks had ended, I quickly made my way to
my car and got under way. Cedar Street was still
blocked off to the north, but I was able to exit the lot
and head south towards the freeway. As I drove
homeward, I listened to MLB Network Radio until I got
within range of Detroit, at which time I turned on the
Tiger game. Shortly after 11, I was home.
But I couldn’t just go inside; I had to take the trike
off of the rack, for I was unable to close the garage
door with it still on the car. Then I unpacked the
car of the essentials, leaving the rest for
tomorrow. The house was a very warm 85 degrees, so
on went the air conditioning, and on went the
dehumidifier in the basement after I dumped the tank.
Open went the windows upstairs to help cool off the
place, and on went the fan in my bedroom. I hooked
up the laptop and plugged in my backup drive so that
everything I’d done in the last week would be saved.
Top
Saturday July 9
For some reason, I woke up around 3 AM and
couldn’t get back to sleep, and so I worked on the
travelogue for a while. An hour later, I tried
to go back to sleep again, and I succeeded. I
didn’t get up until 8:30 or so. Today, I would
unpack, take the trike rack off of the car, and
recover from the vacation. I’d also catch up on
TV recordings I had made during the week, such as the
premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day, The Big C, and the
shuttle launch. Sunday, I would do laundry, post some
pictures on Facebook, repair the bike tire.
Epilogue
Now that I think about it, I am sure that I enjoyed
this trip more than I would have the trip to Minnesota
and possibly South Dakota. That might seem
strange, given that I’m rather familiar with certain
aspects of Chicago while I’ve never spent any real
time in the Twin Cities or in South Dakota. But
the schedule I had set up for the original trip would
have involved a lot of time behind the wheel and not a
lot of time at any one destination. I would have
been always on the go, and not in a desirable
way. It’s one thing to be moving under your own
power, such as my bike riding. That’s not the
same as a long drive, sitting behind the wheel for
hours at a stretch. That wasn’t what I needed,
not at this time. I’m glad I had the guts and
foresight to change my plans. As for scouting
out the ferry for my aunt, that turned out to be
unnecessary as my uncle’s surgery was postponed
indefinitely unless or until it became
necessary. Good for him.
Now I would like to ride the SS Badger someday so I
can compare it with the Lake Express. The Badger
is the classic ferry experience, and I want to learn
what I’ve missed out on the last two times I’ve had to
cancel. Perhaps I could repeat this trip next
year using the Badger instead of the Lake Express, or
perhaps working it so that I took the ferry eastbound
to Michigan rather than to Wisconsin. Or maybe I could
make that desired trip to Mount Rushmore and the Black
Hills. But before then, I have other trips to
make.
Top
THE END
Top
Back to Travels page
©2011 R.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Written by Roger
Reini
Revised
July 10, 2011
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