Chicago

We left Indianapolis today after a brief but wonderful stay with Liza and Bob.  Patrick seems to be doing well.  He got his schedule set up, and starts classes tomorrow.  I guess that makes it official.  Let the adventure begin...

Driving to Chicago was quite an adventure.  After leaving Liza's house, we decided to find a Starbucks for some additional fortification.  According to our GPS, there was one in a place that turned to be a rental car parking lot.  The next one, after getting rerouted several times due to road construction, has been closed for some time.  So we gave up and started North, or West, or... somewhere pointed at Chicago.  Once we cleared Indy, they (Starbucks) began popping up all over the place.  Amazing.

Now the traffic started out a little thicker than I expected, and proceeded to get "fatter" and "fatter" the closer we got to Chicago.  Most of the vehicles on the road were big trucks.  Lots of them.  The nice thing about them is that they know how to drive.  The bad thing about them is not being able to see around them.  So I had develop a sense of trust that they could see ahead as I tucked in behind them.  That worked until we began to hit toll roads.  They all have passes that let them go right through.  I didn't.  And once in a while I found myself caught out in a lane that I shouldn't have been in.  I had to make a scary multi-lane change to get to the money lane in time.  Fortunately, this seems to be a regular occurrence since there were at least 4 or 5 cars doing the same thing.  We don't have toll roads in Oregon, so this took some getting used to.

Originally, we intended to go into Chicago proper.  As the trucks and cars got thicker and scarier, we decided to just head north toward Arlington Heights.  The other discovery we made at this point is that the nearest RV campground is at least an hour or two away - an hour or two of heavy traffic.  So we opted to stay in a hotel instead.  Nice place, but technical issues with the internet have made this an adventure as well.  I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with tech support before they decided that is was a major equipment issue.  So I'm on a wireless hookup with spotty strength.  All in all, it has been an interesting day.

Tomorrow, we are going to meet my Flickr friend Felicia.  She is an amazing person, and I am very excited about meeting her.  Check out her website: http://www.feliciareneephotography.com/  It's well worth the visit.  And we're meeting at a Starbucks.  I hope it's a real one this time.