Day 2 - Pittsburgh to Indianapolis to Chicago

So it's about 1am and i think I have just enough energy to make an entry, thank god that I'm using my laptop on the sofa, so i can just fall asleep after I hit 'publish.' I'm beat. Today was pretty great, though. It was one of those days where, looking back on the morning it feels like that was about a week ago.

Anyhow, I'll get right down to it. I started the day in Pittsburgh by going to the Duquesne Incline. For those of you who've never heard of it, don't worry, I hadn't either. Apparently though, it regularly rates as one of the top ten views in the country. I'd have to agree, and the ride itself was pretty unique. You walk into the 'station' at the bottom of a mountain that has what looks like train tracks up its side. The grade of these tracks has to be at least 45 degrees, probably somewhat more. You then get in the 'car,' which has to be at least 80 years old, and it takes you up at least 600 feet in a period of about two minutes. The top is astonishing, you couldn't ask for a better post card. After a few pictures and perousing around the 'incline museum, I got back in the car, fired up the GPS and headed west for Indianapolis and Chicago.


I actually ended up going through a piece of West Virginia along the way which kind of surprised me. For a moment, I was convinced that i was going the wrong way. Nope, the northern spike of West Virginia is right next to Pennsylvania on the interstate. It was only about 12 miles worth, but (being West Virginia classy) it was enough to have three casinos and a gift shop. Another hour or two and I was pretty much out of the mountains and into central Ohio. Pretty blah, I'd been through Columbus before and it wasn't too impressive the first time (no offense to a certain Ohio quasi-native). Eventually, I reached Indianapolis. For those of you who've never been, its a really bizarre place for us east-coasters. First off, its probably about twice the size of Richmond, not small at all. Weird thing though is that it comes out of nowhere. Literally six miles out of the city center, I was looking at grain silos and harvested fields. Then all of the sudden, bam, city. Only being a glorified rest stop for me, I didn't want to spend too much time. I got my HRC pin, and walked around downtown for about an hour or so. Apparently Indianans (? Indianaites? Indians???), are big fans of monuments. The city is built around this monument that you can go inside of, to lost soldiers of the Civil War. It was pretty cool actually, very dramatic. The ascent to the top of the monument, maybe 250 feet, was only a buck. Good thing too, I wasn't but so pissed when all the windows were too dirty to really take good photos. After a while, I headed out of Indianapolis to my final destination of the day, Chicago.

The drive was actually really beautiful. A lot of people give the plains a hard time for being 'boring' and I guess I can see that, but it really is pretty in its own way. You can literally see forever it seems, with just little farmhouses dotting the landscape. Especially as someone who'd only seen this part of the country from a plane before, it was really interesting to see what it all looked like from a normal perspective. Not a place I'd choose to live mind you, but still beautiful in its own way. After about two hours, Chicagoland started. The burbs here really do go forever, more than D.C. even it would seem. Neat thing though, you can see the skyline from about 20 miles away. So even though I was pretty far from stopping, I knew I was in the right general area. After parking and chilling out for a bit with Sarah's roomates, I ended up going on an extended walk. Not FOR anything in particular, I just love to roam around a city and see what I find. Turns out that Sarah's apartment isn't that far from the center of Chicago. I walked for about two hours without stopping, along the Chicago River, the Magnificent mile and the Sears Tower. While it was certainly colder than the night before, there was a little bit of snow falling, it still wasn't too cold. Not enough to make walking uncomfortable anyway. This really is a pretty amazing place, like New York...only less New Yorky.

After a while roaming, I found Greek Town. Apparently this is something pretty unique to Chicago, its just like it sounds. The Greeks have taken over eight blocks fairly close to the apartment and set up dozens of restaurants and shops selling all things Greek. As a fan of the Greek food, I knew what I'd be eating for dinner. Four bucks bought the biggest gyro I'd ever seen and a diet coke to boot! For those of you wondering, they actually had it written out phonetically on the board "Ye-eros." The food was awesome, best Tzatziki I'd ever had no doubt, but the best part was the local wildlife. As I was eating, I was piddling with my camera and had the headphones in as well...suffice it to say, I wasn't really looking for conversation. The small TV near the ceiling was playing the movie 'Misery.' Again, I was pretty oblivious to everyone...including the 70 year old man eating a sandwich at the table next to me. After a while he starts waving at me trying to get my attention. I took the headphones off and he says to me, "CNN runs all day right?"
"I think so," I said, quickly putting the headphones back on.
"Tell the bartender to change it to CNN. I wanna see my heating bill."
"Well, I'm not really watching it, and I don't know where he is."
Mind you, we weren't in a bar, so bartenders were few and far between. It was just so weird and he seemed pissed that I wouldn't go along with his order. I pretended not to notice him and he went back to his food. Well, a couple of minutes later, I notice that he's falling asleep at the table! WTF?!? I was just about done eating, so i snapped this beauty and left. Man, I can't wait to be old and just talk weird for no reason.

Anyway, tomorrow will probably be spent in Chicago. Hopefully I'll be able to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and Second City's improv production. I'll update it again after all that, yee haa!