Day 78 Oacoma to Albert Lea 01.07.12
Can’t believe it’s July already! When we set off it seemed
ages away & here it is.
We’ve got a 310 mile journey today & it’s very hot &
sweaty so we’ll be having the air con on – do you hear that Roy? We drove for a
while then stopped for a break & a drink then carried on to America’s Best
Value Inn. Also the clocks went back an hour so we’re only 6 hours different to
the UK. The room is nice & it doesn’t take long to settle in as we’ve done
it so many times.
We decided on a pizza from a place a block away so walked
there, ordered & had a beer while we waited. What was I saying about not
being able to be understood? It came to about $5 more than we thought but we
didn’t say anything as I was sure we would just get some potatoes or fries to
go with the pizza & onion rings we’d ordered. When we picked it up we had a
pizza box & 3 other large polystyrene containers. What was in them?
Goodness only knows!
When we got back to the room we quickly had a look, as well
as the thin crust chicken pizza & box of onion rings we also had 2 boxes
with a piece of fish between 2 slices of French bread & wedges, the girl
had also put so many condiments in the bag it was unbelievable! Mustard, salad
dressing, ketchup, toothpicks, serviettes & about half a pound of mints. We
tried our best but had to throw quite a bit of it away.
Roy tried to find the football final on the tv but it wasn’t
being replayed so we read for the rest of the evening.
Day 79 Albert Lea to Madison, Wisconsin 02.07.12
Slept well as the room seemed ‘homely’ & I could relax.
Funny how I get a feeling about some places & not others.
We went to the restaurant joined on to the hotel as we don’t
get a complimentary breakfast but do get 30% off the bill. Had one of the best
breakfasts yet, 2 eggs over easy, bacon, sausage, potato rosti, toast & a
whole pot of coffee to myself all for just over $15, great value.
It’s very hot & muggy again, sorry if you think I’m
moaning, it would be different if we were at the beach or by a pool but
travelling & sight seeing in this heat is quite uncomfortable.
When we arrived at the Days Inn, Madison the receptionist
was very abrupt & quite scary but the room was excellent & even had a
rocking, recliner chair. Just relaxed & ate in the room.
Day 80 Madison to Chicago 03.07.12
Got ready & set off for Chicago about 150 miles away. On
the way we stopped at an Oasis, which is a bit like our motorway services only
with more food outlets & less retail. We had a drink & a muffin then
continued on our way.
All I can say is, ‘thank goodness for Roy’s written
instructions!’ The roads are all at least 5 lanes each way & with very fast
moving traffic, so if we didn’t know where we were heading for we’d have no
chance. On the way we had to pay about 5 tolls but they only added up to $8 so
not too bad apart from some where you have to have the right change, often
something like 90cents & they won’t accept a $1 note.
Our hotel is the Carlton Inn Midway, which is a suburb of
Chicago & we were greeted by the most informed staff ever. They gave us
several maps & even printed one out for Western Springs when we said we
wanted to go there. Nothing seems any trouble to them. As far as the room, by
Chicago standards it’s pretty good & has the best tv so far with free movie
channels so we might even find something to watch later. I'd already found old episodes
of Rawhide & Gunsmoke, brill!
Forgot to say that the temperature hit the 100 degree mark
on the way here & seems set to continue like this or get even hotter.
Anyway, after unpacking we set off to find Western Springs
which is twinned with Rugeley & found it quite easily with our maps from
the hotel. We got to Rugeley Road & prepared to get out of the car only to
find that, for the first time in 80 days we’d forgotten to bring the
cameras!!!!
As we had driven over we decided to still see if Ray &
Jeannine were home. These special people were involved in setting up a trip for
a young lads football team to spend about 10 days in Western Springs staying with local
families 35 years ago. My brother in law, Steve, was the one who stayed at
their home & we’d promised to look them up. Unfortunately when we got there
& rang the door bell there was no answer so Roy took a photo of me by the
house with his phone & we thought we’d give it another try in the morning as we had to
come back to take more pictures. Before we returned to the hotel we drove past
the shops, park & railway station. Western Springs is a lovely, residential
area with beautiful houses & a very nice feel to it.
On the way back we stopped at Arby’s for some food & had
a very interesting chat to 2 young people who worked there. The girl thought we’d
driven from England & asked if we’d spoken to the Queen!
Also when we got back the tv came up trumps & we watched
a film called ‘Salt’ with Angelina Jolie in it, actually it was quite good!
Day 81 Chicago 04.07.12
4th of July, a big public holiday &
celebration in America.
Breakfast was an experience today, breakfast bagels with
sausage, egg & cheese on that you had to warn up in the microwave, horrible! Stuck with yogurt & a donut.
Afterwards we got ready & made sure we’d got both
cameras for our return visit to Western Springs. We decided to see if Ray &
Jeannine were in & had just started to drive away as we thought they were
out when Ray came out the front. Roy stopped the car & I asked if he was
Ray. He invited us in to their lovely home & we spent a wonderful hour
chatting about our trip, the time they had the football boys over & their
family, it was really lovely of them to welcome 2 strangers into their home the
way they did. We took photos to take home for Steve & took our leave of
them to go round the rest of the village. We took video & photos of various
places that we thought Steve & his friends might have been to & also
Rugeley Road to prove it’s there before heading back to the hotel.
Everything happens for a reason & we forgot the cameras
so we could have a lovely visit today.
After a while we walked to the train station down the road
& got on the orange line to the Chicago loop & got off at the stop
nearest to the Willis / Sears Tower. It was $17.50 each to go up the tower & we watched a
short film about the making of the tower then got on the elevator to the top.
The views of the city are amazing & it was a lovely clear day so we could
see far. It’s 103 storeys high & standing on the glass platforms over that
drop was scary so I did it but didn’t look down!
Next we got back on the train to go a couple more stops to
as close to Navy Pier as we could then we walked to it past the Chicago Tribune
offices. Outside the pier there are fountains & jets of water that lots of
children & adults were using to cool down, this looked great fun.
On the pier there were more & more people arriving all
the time & many had already got their places for the fireworks at 9.00pm.
We had a walk around & then got some Chinese food from the food hall &
sat outside to eat it. There’s a stained glass museum inside & it was
lovely & cool to walk around it out of the heat for a while.
As we had about 2 hours to go before the fireworks we walked
down by the water & looked for a good place to watch them. There were lots
of people celebrating 4th July on small boats & yachts moored up
& some were even swimming to cool off. I got us some cold drinks & we
settled down to wait for the display on a jetty near where the Police boats & helicopters are kept.
A lad by us of about 19 / 20 was shining a laser gun on the ducks, buildings
& finally a Police helicopter that was circling around. The helicopter
shone the spotlight on us & told him to stop as it was illegal, we thought
we were going to get an armed response unit coming to sort him out but
thankfully we didn’t. What an idiot, he thought he was being so clever too!
The fireworks started at 9.00pm & lasted about 15
minutes but they were spectacular & the view of the Chicago skyline in the
dark was really something not to be missed. Wonderful! It was still so hot that
I don’t think I stopped mopping my brow all day & even at 10.00pm at night
it was the same.
We walked along to the train station with hundreds of others & the atmosphere was great. When we got back to Midway there were fireworks
going off everywhere & they continued late into the night.
Day 82 Chicago to Ann Arbor, Michigan 05.07.12
Slept better as I had a very cool shower before going to bed
last night. We drove out of Chicago &, finally, the traffic got less &
the width of the roads got back to a more normal 2 lanes each way.
As we were driving the dark clouds got bigger & darker
like something out of ‘War of the Worlds!’ After a while we went through some
really heavy rain but only for a few minutes then we were out of it. The
temperature started out at 100 degrees but has dropped to between 70 & 80
degrees so feels much more comfortable. We had to put our watches forward an
hour agains so we are now 5 hours behind the UK & will stay that way until we
return home.
Checked into the Microtel Inn & suites, Ann Arbor,
Michigan & have a lovely room. We went over to the Holiday Inn & had a
meal in their restaurant, Roy had lasagne & I had stuffed smoked pork with
mash & vegetable then we shared a chocolate brownie with ice cream &
whipped cream before waddling back to the room.
Hope you liked this part of the trip, we did.
Photos separately as usual.
TTFN xxx
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