Chicago, 21/5-2004
Hi all
Well, I'm officially off on the road trip which means (as the more perceptive
among you may have noticed) that I'm writing in English from now on, as a lot of
the new people on the mailing list are sorely lacking in their Danish
abilities... If some of the new people on the list don't want these mails feel
free to tell me so and I will remove you from the spam list :)
The plan, which has
been modified more than once, is now to visit every single state in the US apart
from Alaska and Hawaii. This should take me from Minnesota through Wisconsin to
Illinois and from there across the south west to California. Then north to
Washington state (with a quick detour to Canada to get my Visa in order) and
east from there through the Great Plains states to New England. From Boston I’ll
head south to New York and then on through the original 13 colonies and the rest
of the south east. Finally a trek across the southern states back to California,
where I’ll end up in San Francisco, and catch a plane home via Minneapolis on
the 25th of August… That’s the plan anyway; we’ll see how it works
out.
I left on the morning of the 16th heading for the mighty state
capital of Wisconsin, Madison. The hostel I checked into was kind of strange,
with signs everywhere saying stuff like “Can you hear the peace train coming?!?
It’s not to late to gate on board!”, and other equally potent morale boosters.
The owner of the hostel, it turned out, was something of an old hippie, spending
most of his time in his office listening to old Bob Marley and Jimmy Hendrix
slayers and being generally pissed off at the world for letting things slide
since HIS generation was calling the shots. For a man of peace he was extremely
rude, but in such a funny way that you hardly noticed ;)
The good people of Madison are nothing if not proud of their State's immense importance, a fact which has made them construct a huge Capitol building (said to be some three feet shorter than the one in Washington DC and looking remarkably similar). This building along (which is impressive it must be said) is however the only thing remarkable in a city that looks like an extremely fun place to live, but not very fun to visit.
I had heard that Wisconsin was settled by Danish immigrants back in the days,
but I saw no trace of this in Madison (apart from the very irritating ability of
the inhabitants to IMMIDIATELY identify me as Danish on account of my accent).
However, as I left Madison and ventured into the countryside it became quite
clear why Danish Immigrants had chosen this spot to settle. A friend recently
told me that parts of Minnesota looks a lot like Finland, but the landscape of
Wisconsin looks exactly like rural Denmark, right down to the roadside sale of
potatoes, milk, and cheese. I stayed a night in the small town of Newburg where
I among other things climbed the mighty Dundee Mountain in the Kettle Moraine
State Forest... This particular mountain being the third tallest in Wisconsin
stands at an impressive 600 feet, underscoring yet another similarity between
than Denmark and Wisconsin (naming road bumps as mountains, that is...).
Having basked in the glory that is small town America, I decided to bypass the
largest city in the State (Milwaukee) and head straight for Chicago - The Windy
City...
The first thing you notice in the state of Illinois is that their highways are
really crappy... I had driven not 20 feet before my car felt like driving a Ford
model T through a crater. This however, was not as bad as the fact that not only
was the road poor; it was also not free... They took my money at broad daylight,
and they weren't even armed. Granted, it was only about a dollar, but it’s the
PRINCIPLE of the thing…
With images of Al Capone and other men of lesser moral fiber in mind, I thus
arrived in Chicago about 1 o'clock on the 19th. The people of Illinois might be
highwaymen all of them, but they do know how to build a city. Towering
skyscrapers, Roman styled museums and stadiums, and even tranquil parks and
harbor piers blend seamlessly into
each other, making the city much more homogenous than Minneapolis where almost
everything looks out of place. I spent the afternoon checking in to the
International Hostel and looking for a parking space (cost me 20 bobs A DAY -
making it the second time within 4 hours that the BASTARDS robbed me blind), and
the evening exploring the harbor front. A lady manning one of the harbor
master’s boats gave me a free ride to see the city from the water, and I can
tell you that the skyline of Chicago is at least as striking as that of New
York.
I spend the next couple of days soaking up the atmosphere of the city and seeing the many sights. The trip to the observatory/planetarium was kind of a letdown as it seemed more than anything to be a place for school excursions. It was far inferior to the planetarium in Denmark. The football stadium, Soldier Field, however is impressive, as is of course the Sears Tower and the Hancock Observatory from where you can pretty much see the world. I liked the harbor front the most. Unlike most major seaside cities, Chicago has retained a yacht harbor where the boats are required to anchor offshore, and then call the harbor masters tug, whenever they want to go ashore (or use their own dingy if they have one). This makes the harbor look a lot more inviting than the usual rows upon rows of vessels lined up at identically looking piers. The harbor and the neighboring Grant Park with the impressive Buckingham fountain was a place where I would spend a lot of time, reading and writing.
Oh, and another thing… On the night of the 20th there was a thunderstorm here. Doesn’t sound that special does it? But I have never heard thunder like this before. I don’t know if it is an echo effect of the many tall buildings or if the thunder storms are just that much louder in this city, but the effect was quite spectacular. The next day we had a similar storm and I was able to enjoy the full effect from under a hotel’s canopy, it really is something.
Tomorrow I’ll go check out the Navy Pier which is sort of an amusement park at the other end of the water front. I don’t expect too much as it seems like a miniature Disneyland from the pictures, but I’ll check it out anyway. And then the day after that I’ll pick up the first of my traveling companions, Henrik and Marlene, at the airport, after which we’ll head south-west in search of the elusive Route 66 to Oklahoma and LA. More on this later.
Well, that’s it for now, sorry for being a bit long-winded, but I felt talkative ;) Hope you are all well, and would like to hear from you now and again.
Martin