Day 3: April 15, 2010

Last night we stayed at a Hojo near O'Hare airport and at 6 am this morning we drove back into the city to eat a a highly regarded dinner called Lou Mitchell's. You can read about it here: http://www.loumitchellsrestaurant.com/ Of course I didn't take my camera into the restaurant so I couldn't take any pictures. We parked in a pay lot since neither one of us can parallel park (hear that Delaware? Your Driver's Ed is lacking. Step it up, please.) and a very nice elder Chicagoan helped us find our way and made sure no one parked too close so we'd be able to get out. Once we told him we'd never been to Chi-Town, he couldn't help but share with us how much he loves his city. He had some crazy accent I couldn't place. Maybe Greek? I didn't want to ask him where he was from originally since he so clearly identified Chicago as his home.

So we walk a block to the restaurant and already I'm noticing a difference between this Midwestern city and those of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: the people are more friendly and although they are trying to maintain that disaffected urban persona I can tell deep down they are curious about their fellow citizens. The whole place just felt much more friendly, especially when measured against Philly. All of the above applies to everyone except for the homeless guy who asked us for change and when we told him we didn't have any (for reals, people) he told us it was okay to have a heart and think about the homeless sometimes. Actually, he didn't just tell us, he shouted it at us all. the. way. down. the street.

Katie ordered "Melt Away" pancakes, sausage and milk and I ordered a "mushroom special" omelet, hash brown and Earl Grey tea. The Melt-Away moniker was well deserved, as these pancakes practically dissolved in the mouth. My omelet was served in a skillet and had tomatoes, spinach, swiss cheese, and mushrooms. They were served with hash browns that were cut like scalloped potatoes. I put a little Tabasco on everything and it was heaven. We ate around 7 a.m and didn't stop for lunch until 2:30. We were totally stuffed.

The other element I noticed that was different in Chicago than other places was people are LOUD! We could barely hear each other talk across the table during breakfast. The place was smaller than the Charcoal Pit, but three times as loud. I asked our waitress, Audrey, if it was always this loud and she said it was actually one of the more quiet times of the day.

Maybe Chicagoans just really love their breakfast.


So we hit the bathroom, pay, and leave to find Lake Michigan. This, I'm said to say, is where my navigation skills completely leave me. We drove in the opposite direction for about 20 minutes before we realized there was no lake in sight. Turns out it was right around the corner from where we had breakfast. Duh. We finally find the Great Lake and park illegally at Navy Pier for literally 3 minutes which was long enough to get pictures of the water and the skyline.


Here we are at Lake Michigan. I'm on the top and Katie is on the bottom.

We then spend the next 2 hours driving around Chicago trying to find Route 66. We finally find it. Yay!! Then we lose it. Then we find it again Hooray, we rock! Then we lose it again. We suck. We went through this all through the western Chicago suburbs.

The whole way Katie was driving and making this face. She looks thrilled, no? Once we had cleared Chicago and all it's environs, we were able to follow 66 much better. Thank goodness someone in Illinois thought of marking the historic route, 'cause otherwise we would have taken 900 times longer to get here.

Where is here you ask? Springfield, IL. Land of Lincoln. People, this place is Lincoln crazy. Tomorrow on the way out of town we're going to stop by his grave and pay our respects. He was a pretty awesome president and all. We drove literally all day and only made it less than 300 miles out of Chicago. We did stop and see a couple of the famous Muffler Men which was pretty exciting. We're staying at the Rt 66 Hotel which is, surprisingly, Route 66 themed. This is what it looks like. I'm sorry for the crappy picture. These are all SOC shots (straight out of the camera) and in most cases they're shot from a moving car (except in this case- that would be weird) Anyway, my point is I haven't had time to edit them. Forgive me?


The room is clean, and the bathroom is HUGE which I always appreciate. I think we may be the youngest people staying here. I mentioned something to the young guy at the front desk about the large number of gray hairs milling about and he confirmed my suspicions: The Route 66 Hotel is a popular stop on the Retirement Super Highway. In case you didn't know old people are rowdy when they're on vacation. Just sayin'.

Cool things we saw on the way here:

The Gemini Giant Muffler Man Statue outside the Launching Pad, a burger joint in Joliet, IL. That's me in between his legs. Hee hee.

Another Giant Muffler Man

According to the sign next to him, all these guys were built from the same Paul Bunyan mold. Originally commissioned advertise the Paul Bunyon (sic) cafe in Arizona. I think later more were built and placed in front of service stations and the like and were from then on known as "Muffler Men" to If you look carefully at their hands you can see they are supposed to be holding axes not a rocket ship and a hot dog. They're super duper cool. I want to have one in my front yard.

The Blues Brothers

According to my guide book, Jake got his nickname of Joilet Jake from being in Joilet prison, and the inspiration for Ellwood's name came from the nearby town of Ellwood. We later drove through Bloomington, which was the hometown of Henry Blake from M*A*S*H. I think the author of our guide book may have trouble separation reality from fiction when it comes to the Mother Road.

Marilyn Monroe

James Dean

Betty Boop

All of these statues except the Muffler Men were at the Polka Dot Dinner. It was closed but we weren't looking for food. Only photo ops.

4 clocks at a Burger King near the Ohio-Indiana border. They are labeled from left to right: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois. Someone from the Midwest please tell me why Burger King thinks the motoring public cannot tell time, nor add or subtract.

You may not be able to see them, because they are the same color as the sky and kind of far away but there was an entire field full of wind turbines near Bloomington, IL. A wind farm, if you will. I heard a story on NPR about wind farms messing up the migration patterns of bats. I wonder if that's the case here. I'll have to look it up.








Okay people, I love you and I LOVE blogging, but I have to get to bed. Our goal is to be on the road by 6am tomorrow and I am having a hard time putting the computer down. There is so much more I want to share with you but it will have to wait until tomorrow.


Peace Out

Music: Meatloaf, Beastie Boys, Tracy Chapman, They Might Be Giants, Flo "The Ho" (Katie's GPS), Madonna, Green Day

Peace Out

P.S. Look for the World's Largest Ketchup bottle and World's largest underpants tomorrow. I can't wait!!