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We set our alarms to 5AM this morning, it was by far the earliest start so far. I took some photos of the campsite while we packed the van then watched the sunrise on our dive to Chicago. We stopped for a meeting and lunch just before we were approaching Chicago and Jon talked us through what we were going to do. He also said that we’d be meeting up with Lucy today, she was getting the train in to rejoin us after her knee operation. As we drove towards Chicago we could see the Sears Tower which towered high into the sky, a very impressive building. We drove around the streets of Chicago until we arrived at our HI hostel where almost the entire group was in the same dorm, it was great. We weren’t there long before we headed off to explore Chicago and meet up with Lucy. We waited at the train station for at least a half hour until Lucy finally arrived. She looked great, no sign of the pain she was going through last time we’d seen her, she didn’t even have a limp and she’d only had the operation a week ago. We all said our hello’s then decided to go to the observation deck in the Sears Tower. We paid our entrance fee and the elevator whisked us to the 103rd floor and as we stepped out we were stunned by this view. It was just incredible, we were so high above the city, looking down at the skyscrapers below. It looked like a model city from the sky deck, one of the most amazing city views I’ve ever seen. The group went crazy taking photos of every angle, trying to get the best shot.

As I looked down I could see where we were waiting for Lucy outside the train station. It looked so far away and so tiny. We then had a walk around the city taking some photos of the amazing architecture and tall skyscrapers. But we soon headed back to our hostel to get ready to experience a local blues club in the heart of Chicago. We got ready and met in the hostel lobby playing pool and table tennis until the entire group arrived. We headed out to the ‘House of Blues’ in Chicago and ate dinner and had some drinks. Soon after we finished dinner a live blues band came out to entertain the busy blues club. It was awesome, great music, drinking with mates, we were all having a ball. Some of the girls went off to dance while Dave, Jon and I just sat there drinking like mad. We left early in the morning when the band were finishing up, then went to another bar down the road. It was pretty empty and seemed quite dodgy but we drank like mad through the night. We stumbled back to the hostel in the early morning, it was a fantastic night.

Day 24:
Minnesota - Chicago
350 MILES TRAVELLED // 4615 TOTAL
HI Chicago Hostel

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