Road Trip: Day 2

The morning came to early on day 2, but my alarm roused me, and after a scrub-a-dub-dub in Jim and Alan's shower, I was dressed and on the road, exactly at 8 AM - which was the exact time I had hoped to depart at.

Thus began the longest day of driving in the trip. Between Albany and Chicago is 817 miles, about 13 hours of driving. So I slammed the radio in high gear, and set on my way, traveling 90, pretty much the entire route.

During the day I passed through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Ohio. Oh, Ohio. Ohio is officially my least favorite state of all time. It is 5 hours of Nothing. There are rarely even trees. Even Cleveland was a disappointment. It was a 5 minute long city, the highlight of which was a building with whales. Maybe it's a better drive in the summer, I don't know. All I can say is that to drive through in January, it is made of suck. Indiana was a little more interesting. It had the Museum of RV's and Mobile Homes.

The list of things I saw that I cannot make up on this trip is unreal. A museum for RV's and motor homes? I mean. Really. Does that need a museum? Apparently.

I cannot describe the length of saturday. Driving that length of time is incredibly draining. A couple of LONG phone calls to the pooch and a few other people helped. But I finally made it.

Somewhere around 7:30 middle america time, I made it to killerjoe and tamingblue's casa. I was the guest of Joe, and it turned out I got to meet some other people I'd interacted with too, like Jason and his boyfriend Chris. I no more than arrived, and threw my bags on the floor, and we turned and drove to chinatown for real chinese food. It was delicious! I rather enjoyed my orange chicken, and I followed it with my first bubble tea. It was tasty, albeit a bit odd. I don't know how to respond to the bubbles. But fun.

We made it home, and after a short bout of video games, crashed for the night. Sleep was a welcome guest. Oh, sleep. Thank you for your wonderfulness.

Road Trip: Day 3

The morning came early, but for the most part with great rest! We were up and at 'em, ready for battle and exploration. Joe, my gracious host, is a UU minister-in-training, and it was time for my first ever UU Service. As Joe was playing a part in the process, we got to service a bit early, and I got to explore the beautiful church. I was particularly taken with a display of paper cranes. And I then shot them for far too long. Now I will bore you with those photos:









I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the service, having been raised upon loads and loads of catholic services, loaded with boredom. I'd label my UU experience a good one. A very friendly, welcoming crew of people. Interesting service too.

From service, we maneuvered towards a loverly lunch with Joes friend and former Housemate. Kyohei was a lovely person to meet, and we had a grand luncheon before Joe was shackled off to work near Hyde Park, leaving me free to explore and examine the area, which was a lot of fun. I wandered across the park area to stare at the frozen lake:


and then made my way around, wandering through the open exhibits at the museum of science and industry, and then just kind've exploring the neighborhoods. I love doing this. I learned that Chicago's nickname of The Windy City is CERTAINLY well earned, but I greatly enjoyed wandering and exploring.

When Joe finished work, we traveled into the suburbs to meet the friend of Joe and another one of my friends, Ben. We gathered pizza at Giordano's before I was brought to karaoke at a gay bar nearby. I don't often involve myself in karaoke, but I ended up having a great time, met alot of fun people, and even sang. [Sodomy from HAIR, Papa Loved Mama by Garth Brooks, Mr. Cellophane from Chicago] No one died from my singing, which is a miracle of science, and we made our way home having enjoyed the day.

A bit of relaxing and talking at Joe's casa was the nightcap to a wonderful day in Chicago, and we headed off to sleep-land.