Friday, June 7th, 2013
Before the border, everyone has the jitters. There is something utterly irrational about this anxiety, considering we were just on vacation, and had done nothing wrong. By the time our passports had been given the once over, our fears had come true.We were asked to go into the office and are interviewed again by a 2nd border guard. We sat and we waited.
After a long delay staring at business news, suddenly the alarm bells go off and guards run out of the building and converge on a car. It soon becomes clear they will be leaving soon, because the border guards found what they were looking for. From what we gathered, a gang of white men with glasses, or the 'nerd gang' were on the loose wreaking havoc everywhere they went, and we loosely fit that description. Maybe we were stopped because we made the mistake of telling the border guard we would be painting the town red, and he misunderstood. Not quite sure.
After a couple came in with handcuffs and were brought to the 'interview' rooms, we were released shortly thereafter with a 'you can go'.
We drove through Michigan, which seem to stretch on for days, signs for McDonald's, adult video superstores, and of course the occasional abandoned movie house (see: Flint) scattered along the way. By the time, Indiana came it was nightfall, and it was my turn to drive. Everyone was tired by this point, and we ran into a bit of construction, low light, and quick turns in a short span. It was a bit harrowing, but we got through it, even if it was a bit of a roller coaster ride. I should have volunteered to drive a bit during the day, just to get used to it again- it had been months since I had driven. No dents or lost limbs, so we'll put this one in the books as a small victory.
Gary, We Hardly Knew Ye
After all the legends Paul and I had told the group about the city of Gary, most of the group thought we were going to get shot at on the highway. Thankfully, these fears never came true and we made an effort not to stop anywhere in the city. Although the birthplace of the Jackson 5, Gary has a reputation due to its being the murder capital of the U.S. for quite awhile, and its economic strife. I can remember going through Gary on a Greyhound sometime ago, and seeing industrially scarred buildings along the highway, and the downtown looking mostly rundown as we passed through. Needless to say, we made it through Indiana quickly.
Despite my not so great start to my driving, I was now driving straight into Chicago. The skyline at night sparkled and it was a shame that we were not staying in the city until a couple of days later. We drove on through until we needed to make hotel arrangements for that night. We got off the highway, and stopped at a McDonald's in Skokie. It was near the end of the night, and the place was crowded with rowdy High School students, but seemingly only one cashier to take our orders for our late night snack.
After waiting what seemed like longer than our border stop for food, we ate and tried to figure out our next move.The Wi-Fi was fast enough, but Paul couldn't get Hotwire to extend our Saturday stay one way or another. When we called Hotwire directly, the operator seemed like they wanted to get rid of Paul, and suggested he tried and call the Holiday Inn Express directly to see if they could give us an early check-in at 1am. A hotel is not likely to forgo a whole night's worth of money to accommodate an early check-in 13 hours in advance.
Andrea and Genevieve were getting antsy, and did not understand why we
couldn't settle the hotel issue on the road, while Dave tried to look up
Skokie hotels just in case. Paul finally was able to talk to someone at
the Holiday Inn Express, albeit with a patchy phone connection. It
seemed that the gentlemen had to put Paul on hold to get the spelling
of his name right but that might have just been fatigue talking. We were
able to get a room in the hotel but no cot.
Milwaukee Bound
On the road again, we made our way to Milwaukee, and members of the group dozed off one by one. Of course, there was a long detour to our hotel due to construction on the exit off the highway. Just our luck.
Paul, Dave, and I went into the hotel and talked with the front desk attendant, Darrell, who actually turned out to be pretty awesome. Just as we were checking in, a local twenty something drunk staggered into the hotel looking for bars. Darrell assumed he was with us. The drunk in question followed us out to our car, and started asking what we do for a living. Dave remarked that he was an actor and comedian, and which point the man said that Dave was not very funny. He also told us all his past experience with Canadians, which every drunk American has the compulsion to do. Eventually, we were able to shake him and make it to our room, not looking back.
Within minutes of settling in the hotel, Andrea opened the bathroom door, and the mirror on it dropped to the ground and cracked. We hoped this would not be an omen of things to come...
Next blog, "Moon Women, Secret Agents, and Cerveceros"
