DAY 16 – July 14, 2012 – Detour Through Chicago

I left 2 ½ days open for Kirtland, not knowing if we would need wiggle room on either side.  But we’ve been told Kirtland can be done in a day, so 2 days seems plenty.  We decided to spend our ½ a day free in Chicago.

Well, Chicago is not a motorhome friendly city.  We figured that, but the reality of it left Mr. S a little white knuckled.  Our goal, was to drive through Chicago and say we had seen it.  We also wanted a couple of photo opps to prove we were there.  One of them had to be the “Cloud Gate” at Millennium Park.

The logistics for this turned out to be quite complicated.  Since it wasn’t a planned stop, we had no maps.  So we typed in Millennium Park, Chicago in our GPS, and only one came up, so we headed that way.  You know something is wrong when Mr. S keeps saying, I never realized there are so many trees in Chicago.  I kind of under my breath said wouldn’t that be funny if we are just circling it.  Well that turned out not to be so funny because we did.  That darn GPS brought us to a tiny little Millennium Park 30 minutes away from Chicago (on the far side), so we did end up circling Chicago.  We pulled over, regrouped, got internet reception and refigured out what to do.

Since we were searching, we decided to call the Chicago temple.  It turns out our little tour of outer Chicago brought us close.  But they didn’t have opening for baptisms until noon.  So we headed back to Chicago.

The kids and I really enjoyed driving downtown.  We pictured a Los Angeles like city, because that’s what comes to our mind, but Chicago is SO much more that that.  The architecture was amazing.  The buildings were taller, and there was just more of it than in LA.  Which we knew in theory, but the reality is just different.  There were streets that looked like earth was just walls of buildings, you could hardly see the sky, just the street, and the sky scrapers neck to neck on each side of us.  Fireball asked if we could move there.

We saw the Chicago Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile. The GPS circled us forever, but eventually we made it to Millennium Park.  Our kids had seen Millennium Park in the movie “Source Code”, and wanted to see the Cloud Gate.  But there was absolutely no parking for motorhomes.  So we did the next best thing…Mr. S parked in a loading/bus zone blocking everyone, and we all jumped out in a sprint running through the park looking for the Cloud Gate.  Thank goodness that park isn’t too big.  We found it, took our pictures, and ran back as fast as we could to jump in the motorhome and drive away.  That was our Chicago experience.  It was fun, and silly, but for Mr. S it was stressful, so we jumped back on the freeway and headed for the Chicago Temple.

We were surprised to see the Chicago Temple looks so familiar.  It looks like the Boise Temple in the front, similar stone, shape and everything.  The boys did say it was very different inside.  They did baptisms while the kids and I played games on the lawn.

On the way out of Chicago we passed Gary, Indiana.  Well, I wanted to have Mr. S stop and get gas there so we could get a photo with Starburst and I in front of a Gary, Indiana sign.  Starburst loves musicals, and so I thought it would be fun since Gary is home to the movie “Music Man”.  It’s also one of our favorite friend’s hometown.  (We love you Allis P : )  But when we got there, Starburst was fast asleep, and the only Gary, Indiana sign that was anywhere we could park was Gary, Indiana Sanitation.  But I was there for a picture, so we took it anyway.  Us…at Gary, Indiana Sanitation (I whited out the Sanitation part and doctored the photo to say “Indiana” so we will remember the stop with fonder memories… : )  Such are the best laid plans…

Then we got back in the motorhome and to head towards Kirtland.  It was a great drive for all of us.  The kids were reading books, and we were playing card games.  About dinner time I put on my pajamas, pulled out the bed, and was sitting there playing cards with Fireball and Starburst, with the cool wind blowing in and thinking this was the life.  It was pretty great.

But Mr. S sure has had a tough day, while the rest of us are enjoying Chicago and the drive to Kirtland, he’s been driving all day.  He really is our Superman.  Hopefully Sunday will be more restful.

It turns out it’s hard to find campgrounds near Kirtland (that really exist).  I had seen that on the internet, but figured we’d find something.  Well that lack of planning, had us finding a very expensive something at midnight.  Kind of a cruddy way to end the day.  I will have to plan better next time.  So everyone’s sleeping, and I’m heading to bed, but we are excited to see Kirtland tomorrow.

Summary of Day 16 – will have to fill this in when everyone wakes up : )

Starburst in front of the Chicago Temple

Drove:  487 miles (97049-97536)

Places we visited or saw: Chicago Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park, Cloud Gate, Chicago Temple, Gary, Indiana

Favorite thing we did today:

Everyone just loved seeing Chicago.