Tuesday July 4th and Wednesday July 5th 2023 - July 4 Road trip to Chicago Part 2 - Not really any huge walks

I had some early morning work to do on the 4th of July.  Even better, since we were in Central time the work was an hour earlier than it otherwise would have been.  So I got up at 5 am and headed down to the hotel bar to shut down some servers in Rochester remotely.  After I finished that work I took a little walk alone around the area of the hotel to give Brian a little more time to sleep.  I also got a jug of water and some cash from the bank.  

When Brian was up we headed out to visit my friend Pat in the far suburbs of Chicago.  We had a really great bagel at Big Apple Bagels in Aurora Illinois.  For a franchise place, the food was really satisfying and the owners clearly have a lot of regulars and it was surprisingly satisfying watching the interactions.  I brought some bagels for Pat and we visited for about 90 minutes.

After Pat's we drive North along the Fox River on IL-25 and IL-31.  I always found the Fox scenic and relaxing.  We had an early dinner in West Dundee, just across the river from my old home in West Dundee.  While I don't really miss much about living in Illinois, I do enjoy seeing the old favorites once in a while.  It was VERY hot all that day so we didn't spend much time outdoors.  We drove back on IL-72 and a bunch of surface streets in Chicago.  It took a long time but there wasn't any particularly heavy traffic, it's just slow going.

After watching a movie, The Meddler, in our room, we walked around the Gold Coast are the hotel was in.  There were a lot of different kinds of architecture and the Lake was right there.  It wasn't a very long walk but it was a nice quiet cap on our visit to Chicago.  If there were any fireworks or anything the night of the 4th we were totally unaware.  Since I got up at 5 am I certainly was tired and ready for bed early and we knew Wednesday was going to be a long day driving all the way home.


 

We got up at 5 am Wednesday and were on the road before 6.  The drive through Chicago and Indiana were good.  The Ohio Turnpike was very very good.  I had originally planned a stop at Skyline Chili near Cleveland but by the time we got near Cleveland I realized it was probably 10 miles south from where we were and even 20 minutes added to our already long drive seemed like a poor use of time.  So we ate at Firehouse subs instead which we actually really like anyway.  I was also able to get my hair cut at Great Clips right next door with no waiting.

From that lunch stop near Cleveland to Buffalo we opted to use US-20 and NY/PA-5 to avoid hectic I-90. Google Maps showed I-90 as having a 20 minute delay from traffic between Cleveland OH and Erie PA.  Driving through NE Ohio was tedious and slow going, especially since it was late afternoon.  Brian drove about 4 hours.  By the time we got to the edge of Buffalo it was about 6 pm. We had a light dinner and some frozen custard and then I pounded out the last 80 miles on I-90 which was very fast flowing and quiet.

The trip was certainly a success.  We did all the big things we planned for the trip. The hotel was very well run, great service and a spacious place to relax.  The trip to Milwaukee provided a few activities and a lot of exercise plus a little 'train time'.  We didn't really have any mind blowing culinary experiences on our trip and the weather was a little challenging especially on our 2nd day.  I feel like the trip was long enough overall but the drive home in 1 shot was, as expected, very tiring.

Hard to say when we'll be back to Chicago but it was good to be there now.

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