Yes, we know Chicago is not the capital of Illinois, but we had family to visit there before heading east with the goal of one more National Park and a few capitals, and getting out of the Northeast before the snow flies.
We left Madison on an absolutely dismal rainy morning, and were in rain all the way to Chicago. Despite the bad weather, the drive went smoothly, and we pulled into Tom’s aunt’s community on the north side of Chicago in the early afternoon. We got permission to “camp” in the parking lot for a few days, before heading to Tom’s cousins’ house, where we had the difficult decision of choosing which good restaurant’s take out would be the evening meal. This was the first of a number of delicious meals with great company that we would have with family over the next few days. We also discovered a park that runs along miles of the North Shore Channel, so we were able to take the dogs for a variety of very nice walks while we were there.
We left Madison on an absolutely dismal rainy morning, and were in rain all the way to Chicago. Despite the bad weather, the drive went smoothly, and we pulled into Tom’s aunt’s community on the north side of Chicago in the early afternoon. We got permission to “camp” in the parking lot for a few days, before heading to Tom’s cousins’ house, where we had the difficult decision of choosing which good restaurant’s take out would be the evening meal. This was the first of a number of delicious meals with great company that we would have with family over the next few days. We also discovered a park that runs along miles of the North Shore Channel, so we were able to take the dogs for a variety of very nice walks while we were there.
Our camping spot, next to the residence van.
The entire park path is lined with sculptures. These horses were among the less abstract.
Ty decided Patricia was worthy.
Tom and Patricia took advantage of the community billiard room to showcase their skills.
We had a last minute photo op with Dick and Eileen, where I was able to show Dick how to use the Apple Watch as a remote for the iPhone camera. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
The highlight of the Chicago stop for Tom was finding a machine shop on our park walk which was willing to make the holes in the new sway bar bigger. (Only kidding, that wasn’t really the highlight. I don’t think it was, anyway.)
Tom called them immediately after our walk, and they had him drop the sway bar off with the promise to have it done the next day, which they did. They also had a flor de izote and a banana tree in their waiting room, so Tom was able to give them obscure information about tropical plants. The shop owner called early the following morning to say the job was done, so Tom picked it up and installed it. The only problem was that we didn’t leave for another two days, so Tom had to wait to test it.
Tom called them immediately after our walk, and they had him drop the sway bar off with the promise to have it done the next day, which they did. They also had a flor de izote and a banana tree in their waiting room, so Tom was able to give them obscure information about tropical plants. The shop owner called early the following morning to say the job was done, so Tom picked it up and installed it. The only problem was that we didn’t leave for another two days, so Tom had to wait to test it.
The new sway bar, installed!
We had arrived Sunday afternoon, and left late Thursday morning, heading for Indianapolis. The sway bar worked wonders, and they drive was much less stressful than previous drives, even though we were on the interstate with big trucks most of the way. We got to Indianapolis just in time for rush hour, so the downtown streets were very busy and we ended up doing another drive by with a few photos to prove we were there.
We headed out of Indianapolis. Because it was late afternoon, we found another Cabela’s near Indianapolis and stopped for the night. We bought a few collapsible water jugs, and expected another quiet night like we’d had at the Madison Cabela’s, but no such luck. A semi pulling party boats was parked next to us, and he ran his generator all night long. The generator itself wouldn’t have been so bad if it had just kept running, but it would run for a while, then shut off, then start up again, and the start up always had a loud rev at the beginning. We were up fairly early and took the dogs on one of our less spectacular walks through the acres and acres of shopping plazas before heading for Ohio.