Day 13: Still catching up

On Sunday I had a nice lie in (much needed I'm sure). I rolled out around 10, and immediately into the Starbucks down the street to get my daily fix of internet news and nonsense. Vowing again to stay away from the toll road, I headed east towards the lake and took a nice local highway along the shore.

Graham says "Jesus would approve"

This eventually met up with the interstate (post toll section thankfully), which meant traffic. Sunday afternoon traffic going south into Chicago. My regiment of drinking as much water as I could was starting to catch up to me, as well as a slight irritation with the crowds of cars, so I took an exit looking for a bathroom. From here I decided to move towards the shore line again as I had heard the shore line road was interesting and goes right through downtown. This part of Chicago was pretty interesting, reminding me of a blend between northwest and southeast Portland.

Traffic began increasing as I approached the shore, which I realized was due to the giant public park the road I was on led to. A combination of traffic, stress of driving in an unknown city, and a renewed desire to use the restroom caused me to turn on what I thought was the correct road, but turned out to be one that ran parallel, with no way of connecting.

This began an adventure in navigating downtown Chicago trying to get on the right highway. Taking a wrong turn I eventually joined up with the correct route, however in the wrong direction. There must be some psychological effect that a full bladder has on the brain, because I was making some pretty poor judgment calls about turns and such. By this point, I was at the stage where had I been able to discover the proper logistics I would have used one of the empty bottles I had rattling around.

Once I was finally able to get on the shore line drive in the right direction, I decided to sacrifice my comfort in favor of not getting lost again. The road was nice, good speed and right on the lake; I was able to take in much of downtown Chicago at 60 mph.

Eventually, though, I was led into south Chicago. This is where my trip took a turn for the culturally interesting. I had this conversation with Graham, who helped me really flesh this out as he had the same general observations. Being from Portland, I hope to be a liberal and open person, and for the most part believe myself to be. However, with that in mind, the other element of being from Oregon is a lack of extreme economic diversity; for the most part, the state (at least the Portland metro area) has a range of middle class with few outliers on either side. Driving into south Chicago, I was abruptly thrown into a poor, predominantly African American community. In and of itself, not necessarily a threatening environment, but I was already lost (sort of) and quite out of my element. Against my intellectual self, I admit that I felt uncomfortable. I am unsure whether it was from expectaions and biases from what I've seen in popular media, a lack of personal experience in this kind of situation, or most likely a combination of the two. But the worst part was that I was frustrated in myself for succumbing to a fear that I know to be illogical. I know that the chances of anything adverse happening to me are low, and probably mostly equal no matter where I am, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy.

How do you combat those kinds of personal biases, when you know intellectually that they have no base? Putting yourself out there, out of your comfort zone, forcing yourself to confront your unease perhaps? I don't know the answer.

Needless to say, I found my way out of Chicago and into Indiana. This is where I had my first taste of the delicious institution known as White Castle. If what you want are tasty little burgers and fries, White Castle delivers. No frills or extras.

You provide compelling arguments.

I got out to Graham's around 9 (being in the Eastern time zone now). We went out to what is referred to as the "Oregon District" of Dayton, a street of shops and pubs that don't serve any Oregon beer. So why the name? Graham's housemates Bree and Ben postulated that it has something to do with the Oregon trail, and this district perhaps being a staging area. Probably the best explanation I heard. Despite not being from Oregon, the beer wasn't half bad for sure.

Monday we spent tromping around Dayton, visiting the Air Force Museum (very interesting), then heading out to Yellowsprings (the town Graham originally lived in when he first came to Ohio). The town is quite nice, but probably more suited for young families just settling down. We took a nice long "hike" through a nature preserve and rewarded ourselves with some beer (Stone Ruination IPA on tap!) and spinach dip.

On Tuesday, we began our journey north towards Cleveland...

Trip eh? Canadian
Kilometers eh? 6646
Music eh?
The Manchester Orchestra - Like a Virgin Losing a Child
Colour Revolt - EP
Lily Allen - Alright, Still

Day 10: A report on day 8

Fast food test results 1
Hardee's: It may look like Carl's Jr., but that is where the similarities end. Far inferior to it's western cousin.
White Castle: Succeeds in what it purports to do--cheap and fairly tasty no frills burgers and fries. You don't go here for quality, you go for quantity.
Skyline Chili: Not delicious. Apparent claim of popularity among midwesterners under much suspicion.

Since my last posting, I've made quite some progress. Day 8 was pretty uneventful, I stayed mostly to the interstates to save some time and make progress, as I needed to meet up with Graham soon so we could start that leg of the journey. I took a quick jaunt through Madison, Wisconsin and nearly got myself ran over by an ambulance while looking at the capitol building, but really nothing exciting. The town is quite interesting as it is built on a strip of land between two lakes. Driving down the main avenue from the highway, the capitol building stood as a culmination at the end, offering quite a distracting driving experience (also one of the reasons I nearly got myself ran over).

Milwaukee: Town from the highway

From Madison I headed east towards Milwaukee, where I tried unsuccessfully to get myself lost. The city seemed interesting, but I didn't really take the time to explore it much as I intended to reach north Chicago by night.

Around this time I did start to notice a distinct trend in the industrial landscape, favoring more factories but also containing many rundown and abandoned buildings. Much of the land that was once taken up by manufacturing plants has been left largely un-reclaimed. More on this and the atmosphere it seems to create later.

Heading down I-94 towards Chicago, I made the mistake of not taking the last exit in Wisconsin and simply finding a motel among the plethora available. Little did I know that I-94 becomes a lovely toll road right across the border. Luckily I had the $1.50 in cash and didn't need to find out if they would take my debit card (somehow I doubt it). Also, once in Illinois the abundant rate of interstate-side motels dropped off exponentially to basically zero. After about 20 minutes of this freeway (and needing to use the restroom badly) I decided to exit and try my luck blindly driving down local highways.

Lesson about toll highways: not only does it cost money to enter, it costs to exit too.

At this point I was in the north western area of Chicago, or what I know like to call land of endless suburbs. Each "town" flowed seamlessly into the next, with gated communities and tree lined winding streets around every turn. Where I had failed in Milwaukee, I overwhelmingly succeeded here to get myself completely lost.

After an hour or two, I had yet to find any motel in the area (although plenty of suite offering luxury hotels). My best bet, I realized, would be to return to Wisconsin and stay near the border at the exit I missed. However, I desperately wanted to avoid paying the toll to use I-94, so I stubbornly would my way on backroads and highways back to the state line. By the time I reached my destination it was past dark. I rolled into the local Super 8 Motel, crossing my fingers and wishing I had something to sacrifice to better my odds.

No dice.

Big surprise, though; it was Friday night (something I tend to lose track of). The desk clerk suggested I head west down the road to "one of the cheaper motels, they should have rooms". When Super 8 tells you to go to a cheaper motel, that should worry you.

I finally found what I was looking for at the Value Inn: a smoking room with a king sized bed priced at more than I really wanted to pay. Okay, perhaps not ideal, but it was the last room available probably in the state of Wisconsin, so I couldn't be terribly picky.

I know I'm about 2 days behind now in the blogs, but I'm tired so day 9 will have to wait until tomorrow. Tune in for adventures in confusing highways, bladder control, and race relations.

Current trippy status: quite trippy, but its good to be in Dayton and hang out with Graham.
Current trippy miles: >3000 (the couch is too comfy to get off to check)
Current trippy music: Nothing really today, but recently...
The White Stripes: Elephant and Icky Thump (the latter being amazing, truly the best that they have done so far)