My Road Trips - Chicago, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois:
This was possibly the most quintessential Road Trip that I've ever been blessed with. It was spontaneous, sensual, uniting, exhilarating, and extreme. It was filled with the sense of freedom and power that come from living on your own, apart from parents and external demands.
It was a Saturday afternoon, at about 1pm. I sat in a friend's dorm room, and a quantum fluctuation in my brain, inspired from another dimension, created a thought. I said, "Hey. Let's go to Chicago." My dear friend Clif, the only person I've ever known to possess the same intensity of adventurous spirit as myself, was immediately all over that idea. Our mutual friend John, not wanting to be left out and excited by the adventurous possibility, was also soon sequestered. Next and finally our comrade Cameron and his beautiful, brilliant, and talented girlfriend Michelle took some convincing. After waiting a few hours for everybody to make up their minds and get their stuff together, we were off in my (new to me at the time) trusty 1987 Dodge Shadow ES 2.2L turbo car.
With all five of us (Clif, John, Cameron, Michelle, and myself) in my four-door compact, the personal space was at a minimum. Clif rode shotgun, as is customary (he's the best co-pilot), and poor Michelle was sandwiched between John and Cameron in the back. I remember Michelle was wearing her crazy, floppy, black artist hat. She somehow managed to squish all of her beautiful long hair up in the hat.
We stopped somewhere near the Quad Cities, Iowa, and Michelle talked to her ex-high-school boyfriend. After getting food at the truck stop McDonalds, we drove on to Chicago, stopping only to say, "It's 106 miles to Chicago; we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it." It was thrilling, hitting the huge 8-lane sodium lamp lit interstates of the western suburbs, not to mention liberating to shamelessly destroy the speed limits, driving at speeds up to 100 miles per hour just to enjoy the light traffic and frequent joyriders. The cops never busted drivers for speeding on the interstates; the patrolmen usually drove at least 80. And the citizens knew it, which is part of the reason that so many people with sporty cars loved to devour the road.
We hit downtown Chicago around 10:00pm, and after getting lost and driving around a lot (which was incredible fun), we found North Pier Mall. We were pilgrims, in search of the revered and honored (though sadly no longer present) Virtual World. That's right - we were going for commercial virtual reality gaming at it's finest in 1994. Up on the third floor of this modern mall, we signed up for a game of BattleTech and a game of Red Planet at the Virtual World game center. I still have the score sheets.
Our games were not scheduled to start for over an hour, so we decided to check out the other pleasures that North Pier Mall had to offer. We stood in a bar for a while. John, ever the good ole boy with his tall, lanky stature and light cowboy hat, scored by ordering a Bud Dry. The maximum age of the members of our rag-tag group was 18, so alcohol was still prohibited. John said that ordering something obscure, such as a Bud Dry, increased the chances of successful beverage procurement. I'm a big believer in Bud Dry.
After the bar, we played games at an excellent and popular arcade right next to Virtual World, and finally played our BattleTech and Red Planet games. There are really no words to describe the feeling shared between the Road Trip team members during this time. The controlled and super-futuristic ambiance of Virtual World, together with the enveloping nature of the Virtual World game pods, was no less than enlightening. The scores of the games are totally irrelevant, the big score was that everyone won. We had fun.
Leaving North Pier Mall, we cruised north on Shoreline and stopped at a small beach. There are many such places along Shoreline in Chicago, and they are completely unique places in the world. To the east lies the vast expanse of Lake Michigan, and on the west is the unmistakable skyline of the sprawling metropolis of Chicago, the third largest city in America. Protected from the somewhat chilly weather by our favorite jackets, we walked along the beach, devouring the smells of the surf and sand.
By this time, it was rather late at night, perhaps around 1:00 or 2:00am. We needed to get back. Lacking any real cash or desire to secure lodging for the night, we faced another 6 or 7 hours of driving. We said goodbye to Chicago with our spirits lifted, and energies flowing. Due to high city gasoline prices, we waited to fill up until arriving at the well-known DeKalb Oasis. I filled the gas tank at the Mobil station, and we scored some food at the McDonalds. We sang beautiful songs in high harmony in the McDonalds vestibule, then continued on our way home.
We spent the early part of the trip home talking and conversing, exchanging ideas and feelings. Eventually Cameron, Michelle, and John fell asleep or stopped talking, so only Clif and I were left. Sometime shortly after the sun came up, we were heading into Des Moines, and I was totally exhausted. As I was physically spent from lack of sleep and little stimulation, Clif noticed that I was having trouble staying awake and focused. He popped in a CD which I was not familiar with at the time, in order to wake me up. The music was good, but I couldn't sing along because I didn't know the songs. So after a couple of songs, he realized that it wasn't working and popped in a Nylons CD. It was some of the best 4-part men's harmony music ever recorded, and I knew the songs. So I started singing along and kicked my brain into full gear, supplying me with the energy I needed to make it home.
We finally arrived back at school Sunday morning, sometime around 7:00 or 8:00am. Upon arriving home, we all became alert and energized, so we went to breakfast together, recounting the night's adventures. It felt both good and strange to be home again. Afterwards, we all crashed hard for the rest of the day.
