Illinois

Wednesday 29 August 2001 - Thursday 30 August 2001

Arrived at Empress Casino RV Park in Joliet, the nearest campsite to Chicago although it's around 40 miles away. This is Joliet as in Joliet Jake Blues of the Blues Brothers; it's a large industrial town full of and surrounded by factories, although the casino is in nice surroundings next to the Illinois Waterway. It's there because the casino is actually a huge riverboat, presumably because of some bizarre Illinois law which makes it legal to gamble on water but not on land. The casino is decorated in mock Egyptian style, similar to the Luxor in Las Vegas but somewhat more down-market.

Next day we got the truck serviced, did emails and postcards, had a huge crab and sirloin buffet meal at the casino, and spoke to our friend Dianne in Chicago whom we'd met on the Rocky Mountaineer last year; she kindly invited us to visit and stay overnight on Friday, which we happily accepted. Incidentally, while we were online we got an instant message from our friends in York who happened to be online at the same time. We'd never had one of these before - it's jolly clever, and we chatted away for about 20 minutes courtesy of our free local phone call.

Friday 31 August 2001 - Sunday 2 September 2001

Drove into central Chicago, parked next to Lincoln Park Zoo, and walked along next to Lake Michigan, passing a couple of beaches created with a great deal of imported sand, and through some very nice residential streets into the downtown area. First stop: the observation area at the top of the Hancock Building for a scenic view of the city including the lakeside area ...

... and the skyline which rivals Manhattan's ...

Ate in the Italian deli at the bottom of the Hancock, did a bit of window shopping in Bloomingdale's, then went to pick up Dianne from work. The rest of the evening was a whirl of activity: real Chicago pizza with seriously thick cheese, a bus to her friend Maria's to meet Maria, Mark and Rick and drink large, pink, very alcoholic cocktails, a walk to Grant Park to see a sound and light show projected onto the backdrop of the Field Museum, a further walk to see the illuminated Buckingham fountain, walked a bit more to the JazzFest which just came to an end as we arrived, caught a taxi back to the truck just before it got locked up for the night, moved it to a new free parking space, walked over to Dianne's lovely apartment which overlooks Lincoln Park and met her two enormous cats, chatted until 1.00am and collapsed into bed.

Saturday was almost equally frantic. Bus to the local farmers market for fresh fruit, veg and flowers, bus into town for lunch, bus to Museum of Science and Industry featuring the 'have yourself photographed as Neil Armstrong' exhibit which I couldn't resist ...

... the world's largest motorcycle, Roadog, built from airframe tubing and a dismantled Chevrolet ...

... an Omnimax cinema and a mining exhibition which takes you underground and for a little ride on an ore-hauling train. All very educational. Picked up by Dianne's friend Mark and taken for a ride around the University and some interesting parts of the city, on to Mark and Rick's home for a superb homemade meal of ribs and Brandy Alexanders, drove down to Navy Pier for the twice-weekly firework and music show, back to Dianne's at around midnight and fell into bed.

Sunday morning, went for a walk in the zoo just over the road - America's only free zoo, apparently - to see the swimming polar bear ...

... and the penguins ...

Also saw one of the better examples of the decorated cows which are littered round the city, the aftermath of a competition a year or so ago in which you could apply for a $500 grant to design and display your own cow ...

Walked to the Historical Society for brunch, entertainment provided by a wonderful lady in her 80s who has a superb inlaid grand piano, one of only two ever made (the other is owned by Elton John), looked round the Society's exhibition about Chicago's great fire of 1871 started (so legend has it) by Mrs. O'Leary's cow knocking over a lamp, open topped bus tour of the city slightly spoilt by the failure of the PA system halfway through (highlights: first ever MacDonalds, Oprah Winfrey's apartment, overhanging trees which threatened to decapitate the bus passengers), queued for famous caramel and cheese popcorn but gave up after 20 minutes during which the queue moved three feet, back to Dianne's for pasta with home-made pesto sauce and peach cobbler, drinks, chat and bed.

Monday is Labour Day, but Dianne went into work to give herself a day's credit for attending a friend's wedding in a week's time. Said our goodbyes, drove back to Joliet, packed up the trailer, had a final enormous casino buffet, and set off eastward once more through Indiana into Michigan.