The End of the Road... Trips

As I've planned more road trips this year, I've increased the mileage I needed to cover in a day each time to the point that I barely see the places I stop or write anything down about it; I'm just too exhausted. This was never more true than this last big drive across 5 states, particularly since it happened only 5 days after I came back from abroad (3 days of which found me in bed sick). I've been home from the last big road trip since Wednesday afternoon, and am only now starting to get my energy back.

So where did I leave you? Ah, yes, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I had planned to spend my Labour Day driving around the bottom of Lake Michigan, from Ann Arbor to Madison, Wisconsin, with a stop at Notre Dame. But I've never had any particular feelings toward the University of Notre Dame, except occasionally being annoyed with their football team's ubiquity and liking the movie Rudy; it was just an arbitrary place to stop in Indiana. So I woke up Monday morning with a strong desire to skip the detour and stay on I-94 westbound instead.

In preparation for my day, I stopped at the famous Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor and picked up a corned beef/pastrami combination sandwich, because OBVIOUSLY. I got it packed to go so that I could find a nice park for a picnic lunch as an alternate stop in Indiana. From there, I drove off across Michigan, entertaining myself with various quotes from Freaks and Geeks when I saw signs for exits to [Some Number] Mile Road or Benton Harbor. I approach the world through popular culture; this is just how my brain works. Just after I crossed into Indiana, I hit stop and go (mostly stop) holiday traffic bottlenecked by the reduced lanes due to highway construction. Crossing Indiana at that point is about a 50 mile drive, but it took me nearly 2 hours to do so, never leaving the highway (since most of the exits were closed anyway). By the time I reached Illinois and exited to avoid the tollways, I couldn't have been happier to spend my time on wide open, lower speed limit back roads, surrounded by cornfields. At one point, I missed a turn and stayed off the Interstate for tens of extra miles, but I still ultimately got to the same place, and really didn't mind at all.

I had originally planned to visit Milwaukee as my city in Wisconsin, but when I re-planned my trip* I chose Madison instead. Way back when I was looking into graduate schools, the University of Wisconsin - Madison had one of my top two programs. I desperately wanted to go there, but then I allowed myself to be manipulated into staying close to Washington state instead. It all worked out, because I still got a fantastic education and it gave me the chance to live in Canada, but I still wanted to see what I missed by becoming a Highlander instead of a Badger. By the time I reached my hotel for the night, however, I'd been driving for over 9 hours with only stops to fill the car's tank or empty my own, so I ate my slightly worse for wear Zingerman's sandwich and went to bed.

On Tuesday, I had a much more reasonable distance to go to Chicago, so had a leisurely morning and then stopped in downtown Madison and parked to take a walk around. It seemed like a cool town, but it was raining pretty heavily, while still remaining disgustingly hot and humid out, so I lost the desire to be outside the car after about 10 minutes and hit the road.

In my effort to avoid paying tolls, I doubled the length of my journey and spent much of the drive on country roads surrounded by more cornfields (does anyone grow anything other than corn there?!), and then joined the heavy highway traffic into one of my favourite cities. The rain kept going, however, and my rental car had an annoying habit of fogging up the outside of all the side windows and mirrors in the rain. So I had no way to clear them, and no way to see anything when trying to change lanes in bumper to bumper traffic unless I drove around with all the windows rolled down. In the rain. Needless to say, by the time I finally reached my hotel in the Gold Coast neighbourhood, I had become more than a little cranky.

Let me take a moment here to say that I know Chicago well (once spent quite a bit of energy trying to move there, but they didn't seem to want me) and would not normally have chosen a hotel in its ritziest area. But when I went looking for a place to stay where I could park without paying a giant surcharge, this little boutique hotel was running a parking included special, making it the only place I could find in the Chicago part of Chicagoland with free parking. So I took it. Unfortunately, no matter how expensive my tastes become or how much money I make, I am working class at heart, and completely resent people wanting me to pay them for things I am perfectly capable of doing myself. Hence, my three first thoughts upon arriving at my hotel in Chicago:

1. The only parking is valet. I'm getting it free, but the ticket says it normally costs $56 a night. Why in the fuck would anyone pay you more than many people make in an entire day to drive a car in and out of parking space?
2. Stop insisting that you'll help me with my bags. You will not. I have schlepped this luggage around the world with absolutely no assistance and will not be giving you the hefty tip you expect to roll it into an elevator.
3. No coffee making facilities in the room. I shall require caffeine in the morning. Hm, here's a breakfast delivery menu: $9 for a small pot, $12 for a large. Uh, no. The tap water in the bathroom gets pretty hot, that will have to do. 

So it was in this mindset that I took a walk out for my night in Chicago and found nothing to do. Yes, it had stopped raining, and the view on nearby Lakeshore Drive was great, even on a cloudy day, but there wasn't much in the immediate vicinity. After walking several blocks, I came to an area with a few shops and bars, but at this point I was too exhausted and grouchy from all the mileage to see the good in anything, even a city I love. I spent a quiet night in my quirky but posh hotel room, and happily flew back to Seattle on Wednesday.

As soon as I got a good night's sleep in my own bed and my mood improved, though, I was sad that I missed out on my last night. The reason I added that night in Chicago is because I really dig that town and don't know if/when I'll have a reason be back; I hated having wasted my last time there.

As Neal reminded me, though, Chicago is always its own reason to visit. So maybe it wasn't my last time after all... as long as next time I'm in a better mood.


*It's not  that interesting, but here's the story. I had a flight booked to Louisville (6 hours of travel with a 1 hour layover) and one back from Milwaukee, but then the airline decided to bump my Louisville flight and instead stick me on one that would take 12 hours, with a 6 hour layover. When they wouldn't switch it back, I cancelled and chose a different airline, which let me add an extra night in Chicago and no longer tied me to Milwaukee.