Chicago, Illinois

When we said we were on our way to Chicago, we were really spurred on by the many encouraging comments we got, like "Do you have a gun yet?" and "Let me know if you need any cash when your wallet gets stolen".

Well, we survived to tell the tale and our experience made it easily our favourite city of the whole trip so far!

Located on the far south side of Lake Michigan, Chicago was the last stop on our tour of the Great Lakes as we headed west.  It's made the most of its magnificent lakeshore, with miles of beaches and stunning parks with distinct personalities.

On the approach via the I-90, the skyline rose triumphantly into view and the huge thunderstorm we drove into only made it more dramatic.

In fact, it seems impossible to find a less than perfect view of this skyline.  Plenty of opportunity to endanger the general public as you walk, ride or drive around open-mouthed, focusing on taking photos.

Chicago's not particularly RV-friendly and from what I hear, you wouldn't really want to park and and sleep at the mall here anyway, unless you consider crime-fighting to be a fun nocturnal sport.  Unfortunately I'd forgotten to pack my Batman costume, so we had to think laterally.

We ended up at a truck marshalling centre, which is basically where all the trucks park and unload while a major event is going on nearby.  It was fenced off, had 24 hour security, was 2 minutes from the city's waterfront trail and not too far from downtown, so we couldn't really ask for more.

Our view from our "campsite" as the storm raged on:

The next day the storm, which shook us so hard that we thought we would be overturned, had given way to brilliant sunshine, so we got on our bikes and headed for the waterfront trail.  This led us a couple of miles up the lakeshore towards the city.

The sky was blue, the waters were shimmering in the sunlight, the waterfront sculptures were majestic, the boats were expensive, and the tramp who fell out of a hedge wearing what looked like a skirt, raincoat and flip flops was drunk.  But he added a touch of character anyway.

We followed the trail as far as Millennium Park, one of Chicago's cultural centrepieces.  It was intended to celebrate the millennium but wasn't completed until 2004.  Ah well, better late than never, it's an impressive mixture of fountains, gardens and sculptures.

One of the most well known exhibits in the park is Cloud Gate (more informally known as "The Bean").  It's a huge steel sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor that's designed to reflect everything around it:

You can walk underneath it and get some interesting images:

Here I am with the bean doing a hilarious pose that I'm sure no-one's thought of before:

As usual, food was a focal point of our visit, so after the park we made our way to our pre-planned lunch venue, Gino's East (as seen on Man Vs Food), for some authentic Chicago deep pan pizza.

The interior of the restaurant had years worth of graffiti all over it, making it look fairly grimy, but I guess this is an iconic place and the graffiti, along with the celebrity photos on the walls, is how they display their history.  We came for the food anyway!

Frankly I'd be embarrassed if any of my friends reading this needed educating about pizza but for anyone else's benefit, the unique thing about a Chicago deep pan pizza is that they fill the pan with dough, then add the cheese, then the topping, then the tomato sauce.  Kind of the reverse of a normal pizza and it's filled to the extent that it resembles an actual pie.

We went for a large half and half "Meaty Legend" and "Gino's East Supreme" pizza, which the waiter told us was about 7 pounds.  He wasn't helping us out with a british currency conversion; the pizza weighed 7lbs.

I ate my 4 slices.  Sharon let the side down by only managing one and a half, but somehow by the time we left, with 3.5lbs of pizza rapidly expanding inside me and the thought of a 5 mile cycle ride home, I didn't feel like much of a winner!

The rest of that day was basically a write-off thanks to that particular food coma.  The next day we checked out the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), for some spectacular panoramic views of the city.  At $16, this was about half the cost of the CN Tower in Toronto and in my opinion the views were far superior:

Glass floors seem to be quite an obsession with whichever sadists design these kinds of places.  The Willis Tower boasts an entire glass ledge that you can walk out on.  Determined to redeem myself after the CN Tower, I made it out there long enough for this photo to be taken:

What was underneath me?  No idea, I wasn't stupid enough to look!  Maybe Sharon can tell you:

We wanted to check out the nightlife that night.  Two things stand out to me about Chicago's musical heritage: House and Blues.  With neither of us knowing anything about Blues music, in the interest of experiencing something different we headed out to one of Chicago's most well known Blues venues, Kingston Mines.

Open virtually every night until 4/5am, Kingston Mines has been playing Blues non-stop across 2 stages to locals, tourists, blues legends and celebrities since 1968.  The night we were there, a guy called Sugar Blue was on in one room.  I never thought I'd be talking about the way someone played the harmonica, but then I never realised it was possible to play one like this.  Honestly the guy was pretty incredible, as was his whole band:

In the first room, there are TV screens positioned around the perimeter which show what's going on in the second room, obviously without any sound.  I'd been glancing at these from time to time and was intrigued to hear what this lady, Joanna Connor, was playing:

So when Sugar Blue took a break, we made our way over to the other room, which was standing room only by this point.  I was surprised and enthralled in equal measure to hear her absolutely shredding it on the guitar.  It was relentless:  There were crowd-pleasers and recognisable tracks, punctuated by epic and effortless freestyle sessions.  It was probably a good half hour before she opened her mouth to sing (presumably to give her fingers a rest) and, of course, it turns out she has a powerful and soulful blues voice as well.

Honestly, the fact that you can go to a local club and hear this kind of talent makes it all the more depressing to have Will.I.Am's latest audio abortion bashed against your ear drums 50 times a day on major radio stations.

Nice of her to treat us to her "pleasure" face as well:

On that note, that about wraps it up for an amazing few days in Chicago.  Except for this, which I cannot explain but will just leave here anyway:

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"How Many Candles You Burnin' ?"

By the time we left the I-80 just short of the Illinois state line after making the long journey from Buffalo to the opposite end of Lake Erie, I wasn't entirely sure the back end of the RV was even still attached.  It was one of the most poorly maintained roads I've ever driven on and to make matters worse, it's a toll road, so I paid for the privilege of getting thrown around the cab like a crash test dummy.

I'm fairly susceptible to a healthy bit of road rage at the best of times but it's rare for it to be literally directed at the road itself.  It was compounded by the fact that the toll booth was automated, so all the clever (obnoxious) and witty (sarcastic) things I had prepared to say to the booth attendant (because obviously they have full control of what the toll money is spent on) had to go unsaid.

It was already fairly late by the time we got off the main interstate, so we pulled in at a truck stop and after confirming that I thankfully wouldn't need to file a claim for damage with the State of Illinois, we decided to stay the night and plan our approach to Chicago.

At some point during the evening I managed to knock over a glass of Sangria, turning a pile of clothes a nice shade of pink.  1st world problems!  Anyway, luckily these truck stops have lounges, showers and, most importantly for me at the time, launderettes.  So I strolled across the fuel station forecourt at 1am with what probably looked like a bloodstained body bag and dragged it past a diverse clientele of truckers sitting on the plush leather seats in the lounge just inside the main building.

They were all sitting there happily watching Judge Judy on the big screen.  I don't know whether they were all too polite to change the station, or if she has some kind of cult following among burly haulage workers.

I got talking to a few characters while putting the washing machines through their paces.  One guy was with the carnival and had travelled all over the world, although it seemed to have done nothing for his geography skills because when I told him I was from the UK he said "I know a guy from the UK called Andrew Prescott, do you know him?".  I told him I'd probably met him several times but that I'm terrible with names.  Nice guy though and gave me some pointers about things to see and do in Chicago, which was much appreciated.

How America sees Europe

How Europe sees America

When we reached a lull in the conversation, another guy called me out into the corridor, said "Come here, let me show you something!" and started lifting up his shirt.  Now, I'm not saying I jumped to conclusions, but when you're standing near the shower cubicles in a random truckstop in the middle of nowhere and a guy whose body hair could probably clothe a small village starts getting naked, it's hard to imagine things are going to end well.

Turns out he wanted to show me his tattoo, which he said was in honour of Princess Diana's funeral.  It was a tattoo of an English rose and he said something about being a pallbearer at her funeral, and that the secondary stem and flower on his tattoo indicated his position when carrying the coffin.  Yep.  Maybe I didn't hear the story right but I always thought she was carried by the Welsh Guard!  Ah well, good story nonetheless.

So there you go, just a little slice of life on the road.  Next stop Chicago!

P.S. if you don't know the reference in the post title, it's from Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington discussing truckers' conversations on CB radio back in the day.  Give yourself a laugh:  http://youtu.be/lEzkUqguL_U

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I Can't Get No Sleep!

Since Adam has been doing such a grand job of describing in such witty detail our triumphs and hiccups thus far, I have taken a complete back seat from the blog and given myself the title of chief photographer and Facebook uploader... which I can just about manage!  Although my "back seat" assistance does also extend to the driving, much to Adam's annoyance!

However, recently there have been a few requests for a blog update from me so I thought it was about time I gave it a go, even though I have I have no idea how to upload it to the blog. Luckily it should be no problem for the resident web editor here :)

So, it's been nearly 14 weeks since I quit my job and left behind the normality of everyday life in the UK; my car, our house, our friends, family and colleagues and our lovely king sized bed in suburban MK!  Although, our replacement isn't so bad:

Of course we miss the important people in our lives and Adam misses reliable interweb connection (and of course bacon and brown sauce sarnies!).  Apart from that, the only time I miss home is when we unfortunately, on occasion, end up sleeping - or should I say parking - our new home, affectionately named Winnie, in the vicinity of often unexpected noise.

Walmart is a huge US-wide supermarket chain and has been undoubtedly our best ally when it comes to finding somewhere legal and free to park of a night and thankfully they are not hard to come by. Surprisingly (or perhaps not for such a domineering chain and parent company of ASDA) they have expanded across the all the states and into Canada and even as far North as Fairbank in Alaska.

We do often seek to stay at a Walmart especially when we are visiting major cities and towns, and we are exceedingly grateful for their hospitality.  If Walmart did not allow RV'ers, as we are referred to here, to stay overnight for free it would have been virtually impossible to see such vibrant and exciting major cities as Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Vancouver without much further expense. Some RV campsites in prime areas shamelessly charge incredible and unjustified sums of £30-£50 per night for just a parking space! WTF?”

In Chicago, Walmart let us down but we managed to camp in some kind of truck marshalling area (where all the huge trucks park and unload in preparation for big events in the city).  This photo from the Willis Tower makes for a pretty good game of "Where's Winnie":

In the USA and Canada there are thousands and thousands of acres of National Forests, which hold vast and beautiful treasured landscapes. They also often offer free "boondocking" opportunities if you are brave and adventurous (or insane!) enough to try and seek them out.  Free dispersed campsites are often at the end of narrow, steep, winding, unpaved potholed remote roads.  Sounds idyllic huh?  Until you try and navigate a "winnie" which is essentially a super wide and tall 6 ton house under low hanging trees, along bone shaking gravel slopes often with no turnaround points for miles, with stone chips flying and potential and expensive hazards everywhere. It certainly gets your adrenaline rushing!

Of course during these expeditions into National Forest lands, every possible mishap that my inherently pessimistic imagination can muster runs through my mind as I grip the dash with white knuckles! I am co-pilot and my job is to direct and navigate, and this can involve jumping out to check the suitability and status of the roads before we venture too far and get ourselves stuck! The driver is usually admirably calm and composed ....Well, until we hit an invisible trench in the road which causes well packed cupboards to fly open in every direction, scattering tin cans and the contents of the fridge skating down the middle aisle and under our feet.   Or an entire wardrobe empties itself into the corridor, coat hangers and all.  Still sounding idyllic huh?!  At this point in the journey I am usually praying to any god that will listen and crossing my fingers that the destination that we have Googled actually exists and that the GPS co-ordinates are correct.

However upon our arrival, the distress of the journey disperses instantly upon finding that in fact there is a suitable place for us to stop, suitably level and big enough for us to inch our 32 feet into. The beauty and tranquility of the spot humbles us, as we realise our insignificant presence in the big wide world and regard how truly lucky we are to experience it.

With that said, on more than a handful of occasions when we are in a more urban setting at various Walmarts, we are often woken repeatedly by the incessant air horn of a passing train which makes its presence known with no less than 5 hoots of increasing volume, or we may find ourselves by a huddle of idling trucks indulgently running their air-condition units and TVs all night; street cleaning trucks inch as close as they can to us to rid the "lot" of leaves and "trash".  Leaf blowing in the middle of the night?! Either that or simply the traffic noise of the neighbouring highway only metres away.   

 

I suppose that one of the hardest things to get used to when we first bought Winnie was trying to get to sleep in a random car park in a foreign country knowing the locals all carry guns!  Learning to relax and not worry all night that someone was going to bother us in the night certainly did take a few weeks for us to settle into and sleep the night through, though once we did then the sleeping in late began!

Some Walmarts are open 24 hours a day so the traffic eases but never ceases. For years I have used earplugs because like my Mum I am a light sleeper and I often wake up at the slightest noise. I have even accused Adam (who doesn't often snore without a beer inside him) of breathing too loud...which doesn’t usually go down too well!  Earplugs block out the background or white noise, but sadly nothing drowns out the trains! Oh and it seems that Americans love mowing their grass almost daily to perfection early in the morning around 7am,  but what they don't consider is that undisturbed I sleep happily till 9.30am these days.

One of the best things about this trip is, we no longer know or care what day it is! No more Sunday night blues or wishing the week away. Highly recommended! OK enough boasting, I don’t want y'all "hating on me" already!

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Eternal Flame Falls - Buffalo, New York

The day after Niagara we went in search of a much less well known but equally intriguing natural wonder.  On the outskirts of Buffalo, NY in Chestnut Ridge Park is a very unique waterfall.  It's unusual because in a small crevice behind the waterfall, a flame around half a metre high constantly burns bright enough for anyone who makes the hike to the base of the falls to see in day or night.

The flame in Eternal Flame Falls exists because a couple of fissures in the rock persistently leak methane from deep in the ground.  It stays lit because the gas is contained in the small chamber in the rock and isn't converted to carbon dioxide by any soil-based bacteria before escaping above ground.  It is said to have first been lit by Native Americans thousands of years ago.

Without trying to ruin the magic too much, I have heard that the flame occasionally goes out, but it can be (and usually is) safely re-lit by anyone who passes by with a lighter.

The journey to the waterfall was an interesting experience.  I saw that there were hiking trails through the forest that led to the right area, and wrongly assumed that they would be OK to cycle along.  So off we went on our bikes, riding a whole 500 metres before we had to pick up our bikes and carry them over rocks and branches as we hiked upstream through a river.

Sharon was not amused, and the news that we couldn't chain the bikes up and continue on foot because I'd forgotten the bike lock went down about as well as a fish milkshake.  It's nothing short of a medical miracle that all the ailments she claimed to be suffering from along the way had somehow healed completely by the time we reached the falls, including rashes from poison oak, Lyme disease from ticks and severe lacerations from her bike chain!  I'm still not sure whether her comment that I would get trench-foot from wading up the river was meant as an observation or a curse....

Fortunately the payoff for all that work was being treated to a magnificent view of the flaming falls in all their glory and the stress of the journey was soon forgotten.  We stayed a while and then found an easier way back out of the forest!

After all that work we were starving.  Being in the Buffalo area, we felt compelled to try some authentic Buffalo wings from their birthplace.  Holy crap, this city is competitive about their wings.  There are three or four places that seem to be quoted constantly as having the "best wings in town".  I'll just mention the one that we visited, which was Duff's in Orchard Park.

Duff's is basically a sports bar chain and they have about 4 locations in Buffalo.  Their wings were indeed awesome, but to be honest Buffalo sauce tastes pretty much the same everywhere, so it's not hard to fry up some chicken and drench it in sauce.  I went for their Wings N' Weck combo, the "Weck" being beef and gravy in a salty Kummelweck roll, which was amazing.

We decided to try and stay overnight in the car park on the perimeter of Chestnut Ridge Park where Eternal Flame Falls was located.  We've been getting pretty brave with where we camp lately.  I think our current criteria are simply that there are no signs saying "no overnight parking" and not too many bullet holes in the nearby trees and buildings.  My logic is that even in America, it would probably be too much hassle for the police to arrange a tow truck big enough to remove us.  Besides, I've tuned in to a couple of police scanners since we've been here and they seem to have bigger fish to fry!

That logic was shattered at 2am that night when we awoke to deafening noise and looked out of the window to see a massive tow truck parked right outside, and the local Sheriff looking straight at us.  Everyone knows rational thought is impossible at 2am, whether you've just been woken up or are still up from the night before.  So as far as my sleep-addled brain was concerned, this was not good.

It turns out that we'd parked next to the base the park staff worked out of, and the tow truck had been recovering one of their vehicles that had overturned on the main road, obviously overseen by the sheriff.  Not to do things by halves, several other trucks soon arrived, plus fire trucks and emergency response vehicles.  After half an hour of utter chaos, I think they got everything cleared up OK, no-one said anything to us and everyone disappeared as quickly as they arrived.  Aaaand we're done with sleep for the night!

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Niagara Falls, Ontario

What better way to re-enter the USA than via one of the busiest border crossings around?  Still, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to cram our camera's memory stick full of the many breathtaking views offered by Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls comprises three distinct waterfalls:  Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side and American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls on the US side.  Most people (Canadian and American) will tell you that the most impressive views are on the Canadian side.  They're not wrong; Horseshoe Falls is spectacular.

It's a shame that the clouds were emptying roughly as much water on us as the Falls were on the rocks below us, making for some fairly grey pictures.  Still, you get the idea:

Several organised attractions allow you to get a bit more up close and personal with the Falls.  The "Maid Of The Mist" sails right into the mouth of Horseshoe Falls:

The bad weather seemed to be stopping the boat from venturing as far into the  opening as it probably normally does, so we gave it a miss.  We did however take the "Journey Behind The Falls", which takes you 150 ft down to two viewing platforms right next to the Falls.

And, as the name cleverly suggests, you can also walk behind the waterfall by way of a purpose-built tunnel with a couple of lookout points:

I must admit, it's disappointing at first that the walkway is a nice safe tunnel.  I don't know what I was expecting really; I suppose grappling with some kind of rickety rope bridge like an extra in an Indiana Jones movie while trying to avoid taking 750,000 gallons of water to the face is probably a bit much for the average casual tourist.

Here we are rocking our designer ponchos:

One thing we missed out on was the illuminations in the evening, where the Falls are bathed in colour from spotlights positioned on the cliff edges.  It's supposed to be a great thing to witness, but unfortunately the usual problem of not having a clue where we were sleeping that night forced us to move on.  I have no memory of where we did actually make our home that night!

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