End of Chapter 3, and continuation of chapter The Halfiax sucks Arse.

Today was Alana's last day, so with little time to do anything, we headed out of town to Aurora, to their version of MacArthur Glen, to see if she could get any last minute bargains, we didn't leave the room til about 11am (checking out time, due to last night's events taking us to about 2am! Alana bought a few items, I bought Ice Cream :) then we headed to the Airport (O'Hare) to drop off the car and see Alana off. In the end we notched up 3915 miles in that Sentra, with fuel pices ranging from $2.15 a gallon (US) to $2.85, (we did see $2.05 and $3.45) all in all, it served us well, as much as we'd have preferred to cruise along in a mustang or something old and chromed, it did the job, if without any of the power it should've had. After dropping off the car (and not leaving anything in it) we headed in, Alaa checked in, we grabbed some water and had a chat and a drink whilst waiting for her flight (it had been delayed for nearly an hour.) Once we'd gone our seperate ways, I grabbed an airport shuttle to the Hostel, it took a good hour or so to get to where it dropped me off, which kinda cool, as I got to see a different part of the city in a relaxed space. Also, as I was now bricking it about being on my own and what would I do if one of my cards ballsed up, it was a nice relaxing time as I was doing something, there was nothing I could do about it or to it or anything to make it any different, I could just tag along and enjoy the ride. Of course, this being me they dropped me off at a vey expensive hotel which sounded like my hostel, but it was ok, as my hostel was only round the corner and took all of 3 minutes to walk to. Then check in time. Interestingly enough I'd booked 2 nights in a 10 man dorm, and 3 in an 8 man dorm, as the 10's were all sold out on those dates, when I arrived, I fond out I'd actually been booked into a female dorm for 4 nights. Obviously I wasn't going to complain, but they did move me to a male dorm, drats, maybe next time. Next, I paid for my bunk and headed to my room. Or did I? No, of course I didn't, I bamk with the Halifax, and therefore, my card declined (now, I've lost count of the amount of times I've told them I'm away 'til mid june, and I knew I had enough money to cover it in there) so I asked the lad to try again, for a lesser amount, nope, declined again. OK, plan b, bit of a pain, but I want somewhere to sleep, so I wandered off round the corner to an atm to get cash out of my Nationwide account, except, there wasn't any in my nationwide account, because I'm poor. Fudge. So, slightly miffed at the card declining stil, I wandered back in and sked if there was a wifi connection I could pinch briefly, there was, so I jumped on that, logged into my account, and low and behold, there was more than the amount sitting in my account waiting to be used. So, we know what happens next, a 10 minute phone call to Halifax, who seem bemused I'm in another country, "have you told us you were going out of the country sir?" I resisted the urge to use expletives, as it's obviously not his fault that his company is entirely incompetent. Then he checked my activity and said there had not been any attempted transactions recently, and then tsaid, "oo, it might be because our computer card system has been off for the last 15 minutes, but Mastercard usually takes over from us." Sorry? You turn off your entire system once a day and hope someone else's system takes over? (it was explained it was daily maintenance, done at this time so to inconvienence as few people as possible - I lose again) that's a ridiculous way to run a credit facility, ever heard of a secondary?? Twats. Anyways, he then laimed to call "head office" to tell them any transaction coming through from chicago in the next 15 minutes would be me and fine to pass. (ANY??? I said the company name, their location, everything. I don't want ANY transaction you tit.) Anyways, eventually, I got in! and it's very nice, I had a quick look around and it is a lovely hostel, though right next to the L! (El - Elevated Train system) - Oh yeah, and my phone charger broke this morning too :(
But I'm all good :)

I can't find the keys....I'm turning into Dad!

Today, we went for the Adler Planetarium, which was very cool, 2 shows on those 360 degree domed screens you get for such presentations, some cool exhibits about space and the world, and the pod from Gemini XII which was awesome to see, it was tiny, with two unpadded seats and then a mass of switches, levers and gadgets around them, just to think, this is the space two men lived in for 2 weeks! how did they get any exercise or stretch their legs??? After this we wandered over to Sears Tower and went up to the skydeck, though the main skydeck is undergoing refurbishment (on the 103rd floor) we could go up to the 99th and look around, which was probably better as the visibility did end a few miles away, so any higher and we'd have just been further away from what was insight. The views were amazing, this place is massive we saw all the sports grounds, both airports, and more, before eventually deciding we should come down. We then started to head back to the car, and as we passed the Art Institue on the way had a look in there. We eventually got back to the car park about 7:30, paid for our ticket nly to find we no longer possessed the car keys. Which after being so damned careful for the last 2 weeks seemed impossible, also the reminder on the keyring that said min fee for lost key $250 was not helping. Fortunately, we're both pretty sensible when we need to be, so I called the Aquarium, and the skydeck, only to find that the aquarium was shut and the skydeck had no-one on the phone after 5pm. Then I called the shop I bought stuff in, and they were hepful and said they'd call back if they found them. we then headed to the planetarium on the off chance they'd have a security guard wandering around. they didn't. so we headed back to the art institute via the park where we stopped to see the floral sculptures made of car parts to see if we'd dorpped them, no luck, Alana ran on to the Institue as they were about to close, they were very sympathetic and gave her the number for the local police station. I called them, no luck. and again when hanging up the phone, like the shop they wished me a good day. good day? it's 8pm and I've lost my car keys you ****! we headed to the skydeck next, all the time I was trying to remember the roads the dunkin donuts we stopped at was on so I could call directory enquiries and get them as I was sure that's where the keys would be. Outside skydeck we got apporached by a man working for the local shelter (why he chose to approach two angry faced, power walking, crazy looking tourists I don't know, but I though for a bit of Karma I'd give him a dollar or so, allowing Alana to get ahead, as I walked into the skydeck, there was Alana facing the security guard who had made me empty my pockets earlier holding up our keys! yay! (we'd ha to empty our pockets for a metal detector, and somehow my wallet, phone and camera made it back out of the box into my pockets but the keys didn't. Though seeing as it was the same guard and he'd obviously noticed, how comes he didn't say anything? He could've saved us 45 minutes of panicked power walking! Though I didn't feel justified about the karma thing. My legs were now broken, as was Alana, but we had to power walk back as if I stopped for too long I wouldn't get started again, so much for the plan of getting back nice an early for the last night, having a KFC and chilling watching a film. I decided we both needed beer, so we made it a point to grab beer on the way home. also, to soak our feet in the bath, thus appeared the idea of kfc, beer and feet in right now isn't even as funny as the real image was! We got back to the car, got out of the car park, having to pay again for the parking as they're bloody useless too. then headed off for beer, check, petrol, check, taco bell for Alana, check, and, KFC for me, ahh, now here was the problem, I'd set my mind on popcorn chicken, (film, popcorn, worked for me) and we'd seen loads of KFC's everywhere on our travels, normally attached to a taco bell. well, in the end it took an hour of searching, finally giving up and using interent on my phone to find one, (bt the way, the KFC mobile site is exactly what you need from a mobile website, the first thing you have on the screen is an option to enter a zip code and it'll find you the nearest outlets and show them on a google map. the second option takes you to the menu. brilliant, whoever desgined that concept needs a raise, a promotion and to make everyone's corporate mobile sites. what else do you need??) eventually we got back, did said foot spa with a foam cup for a plug, as they didn't have one in the room, and drank the beers watching coupling 'til 2am. :)

It's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses

Today we got up, and went down to Museum Campus, which is by Soldier Field (where we had to park) and went to the Field Museum, where we bought a "City Pass" for $69 this gives us free entery to the Field museum, Aquarium, Planetarium, Skydeck or John Hancock Tower and the Science and Idustry museum. Bargain!The field mueseum was massive, loads and loads of exhibits from all over the world of all kinds of things, and Sue. Sue is the world's largest t-rex fossil/remains/skeleton whatever you want to call itand everything apart from her head sits in the main hall. She's huge, then you have to imagin all the flesh etc on top of the skeleton and the size is immense! the hea has it's own exhibit on the 2nd floor were it shows you how they restored the artifact, as it was filled with rock and partly crushed due to Sue's pelvis being ontop of her head, welding her jaw shut. It was very impressive. Next we headed to the Shedd Aquarium and saw many cool things, barely anythign of which saw in Australia, there was also apparently the chance to dive their fake caribbean reef, though I didn't see that. we saw some big white beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, which are very amusing, penguins and loads of other stuff, it was great :) we then wandered toward downtown to see if we could find some food etc, afer a while we gave up headed back to the car and stopped off at wal mart on the way home! We got home at a decent time so I introduced Alan to the Blues Brothers film, as I'd brought it along to watch when in chicago. (sorry if you've been looking for it bloke! I've got it :P)

Bent Bridge

We left St Louis, took a minor detour by accident, but it did get us some grat picutres of the St Louis Gateway Arch, then we saw one end of the Cahin of Rocks bridge, and drove on the new bridge 3 miles to the other side, and walked back across most of it. (It's an old bridge that can't be used for cars anymore, but was part of the route, starting just after the chain of rocks canal and passing over the Mississippi, with a 20/30 degree bend in, and it just a mass of metal, we got some cool pics and it was nice to have a decent walk. this took us to gone 12 and we were on the border of Missouri and Illinois, there was stuff on the bridge to inform us of this. At the next rest area ALana took over the driving until we got to "memory Lane" and 8ft section of the original route, now blocked to traffic but preserved as a monument, it was cool, we then swapped over again and I drove the old (in some place very old) route to chicago, passing through Joliet, sparking off Blues Brothers memories, watching the film with dad, and seeing the tribute with mum and dad at the marlowe, it was awesome, we stopped by an ice cream parlour to take a picture of the jake and elwood they had on their roof and then proceeded into chicago. It was raining alot., by the time we finished the route, then tried to find our motel, we ate, and slept.

Toufer. (Two for the pice of one)

Sunday 24th
Today we headed to Joplin, our orginal intent had been Tulsa, but it's too close to Oklahoma City, and would make the next day unfeasibly long. Our route was mostly off of the interstates with route 66 being a fairly large way aways from the main roads, this being because when they made the new interstate, they were going to follow the old route, but Oklahoma wanted it to connect to their newly made expressway, so it detours. Still, it made for some nice driving, some cool sights, including a very old bit of road near Miami, Oklahoma. which was again very cool, as all these little old bits seem to be.

Monday 25th
Today was a straight driving day, with just one stop, at devils elbow, to see an old bridge and take some picutres, the first half of the day was mostly away from the interstate on the old route 66, at devil's we swapped over and i drove us to St Louis, using mostly the interstate as route 66 lies on it.

Dead bugs :)

Today was a bit of a strange day, we started of with the Bug Ranch, 5 horrible little Nazi Wagons (VW Beetles) Buried nose first in the ground, like the Caddys, best thing for 'em says I. All rusting and falling apart, and also being sprayed, one was even a pick-up! The target for today was to make Oklahoma City, we stopped next at the Devil's Rope and Route 66 museum. Who'd have known there was so much to know about barbed wire? Well, apparently there was, I'll be honest, I wasn't all that interested, but I had a look around anyways, it was like 4/5 times the size of the route 66 section! It was kinda cool in an odd way, and free, so it wasn't so bad. Then we carried on, trying to follow the route across Oklahoma state, which was a total mission, the road wasn't signed in most places, and our maps didn't really help when you weren't on it, the was alot of annoyance and frustration, aqnd some rather large detours, but eventually we got there, I drove the whole day as it wasn't a massive distance, but it did leave me pretty much dead for the night, so we went to Pizza Hut to grab a take-out, met the worlds most bored sounding worker, considering he did actually seem to really enjoy his job and be very enthusiastic (in a bored sounding way) about all of the offers and what they did and didn't have. (Seriously, this place still had the 80's branding on the outside.) But in the end we got very good pizza, part of which is about to make for todays lunch. Mhmmmmmmm good badness. Lunch was indeed good, and we did make it to Oklahoma City at a reasonable time, we drove round a bit looking for our motel, and for food, and had a bit of bbq cookin' hehe. I managed to have a total day off of the driving, which was nice.

Is this the way???

Today sees us on the "...way to Amarillo" which is mostly on the I-40 again, but somehow this 300 miles stretch is set to take us a good 5 hours? :S add to that the fact that we will stop places, (I'm eying up the Route 66 Auto Museum, just outside Santa Rosa, Adrian - the (contested) mid point of of Route 66, and the Cadillac Ranch just outside (Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la,) Amarillo. Which is a row of Caddies buried nose first in the ground as a tribute to Route 66. Can't wait!...The museum was awesome! about 30 or so old cars, in great condition, I ended up taking well over 120 photos, there were 5 mustangs, and I love mustangs. (Ok, so one was a gay 80's mach 1) 2 Sting-Rays (one early one later) a GTO, a Plymouth Roadrunner, and old school Ford Falcon Convertible, and some really old and crazy stuff, also, rather suprisingly, a 280z...in a horrible shade of umm, brownygold? we spent a long time in there, longer because my camera is still playing up, everyso often the screen goes white and to make it work involves some random mixture of pressing the side of the casing in, blowing through the back of the screen and shaking it about, so that'll be going back to the vendor when I get back. The museum also had a few engines on stands at the front which were pretty cool. Next stop was the midpoint of Route 66 in Adrian. THe owner of the Midpoint Cafe came out and took a picture for us, which was very nice of him, we still didn't buy anything from his cafe or shop though. (The whole road is littered with these kitsch souvenir shops.) then we headed to Amarillo, stopping just outside to visit the Cadillac ranch, which has been moved from it's oringinal site, due to Amarillo getting bigger! (development creep) The reason it's been moved is well, a load of cadillacs buried in the ground getting continuously graffiti'd isn't going to help property prices, AND, the guy that did it, did so as an homage to the route, and wanted to keep the background to it bleak to add to it's presence. It definately worked, considering it was just a few cars stuck in the ground, incidentally at the same angle as the choebs?? pyramids in Egypt. We got some awesome photos, I climbed up into one, and have left my marks with some blue spray paint I found lying around. (there will be pictures on facebook once I get hold of the ones Alana took too.) Eventually we made it to Amarillo, after what was essentially a very car centred day, had some food and drove round the town a bit.