6/5/07 Cleveland, OH to Chicago, IL

After sleeping surprisingly late and watching TV until almost noon, we finally mobilized and repacked the car in the Dietz’s driveway. While the fact that we needed to repack the car after a single three-hour drive was slightly questionable, we felt good about the revamped packing job and headed to Chipotle for lunch. It was here where we bid farewell to Muffin-top Dietz and the state of Ohio. Next stop: Chicago. On a side note: it was in Twinsburg where we ran into a little bit of a scare with the gas pump. We suspected that there was a leak in the Land Rover’s tank after the pump continued to run for 10 minutes. Just as we were thinking about finding the nearest dealer to investigate the malfunction, the pump did indeed stop, leaving with us with a price of $73456892 for the tank. Awesome.

The drive to Chicago was pretty uneventful. Once again, we thought there was a problem with the Land Rover when we did a simple gas mileage calculation and discovered that the vehicle was only getting 15.3 miles to the gallon. After double-checking his long division, Deyle confirmed the result, at which point we slapped ourselves in the face and renamed the car “Fat Ass”.

We arrived at the south side of Chicago just in time to meet up with Matt and go to the White Sox – Yankees game at U.S. Cellular field. Matt has just finished year one of a three-year Master of Architecture program at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is currently working at a landscape architecture firm in Chicago. We walked from Matt’s residence to the game, where we sat in the upper deck for $25, ate hot dogs, bought beer for minors, and watched the Yankees beat the home town team. Boo. U.S. Cellular is a nice, new ballpark with very steep upper decks and seating almost all round the outfield, making for a cozy feel to the park. Also, leaving the upper deck treated us with an amazing view of the Chicago skyline at night. From this point on, I had trouble containing my amazement with the architecture of the city, a fascination aided by Matt’s extensive knowledge of the buildings here. After the game, we decided to take it easy and prepare for our big day in the city. It was here where the decision was made to follow in Matt’s footsteps and go for a run at 8:00 AM the next day along the waterfront. What the hell were we thinking?

-Jonah