Blogs from Illinois, United States, North America - page 6

A couple of coincidences happened today. At breakfast over the road at the Hilton who should walk in but our dinner buddies on the American Queen, Allison and Lance, fellow NZers. They are staying at the same hotel and catching the same flight home on Friday night. We are hoping we will get away as a number of flights have been cancelled because of the heat and it’s meant to get hotter. This morning we woke up to an impressive thunder storm and torrential rain. fortunately we had our trusty Kathmandu raincoats with us. Not like the first day we were here when a couple of nice security guards gave us their ponchos when we were caught short at the outdoor concert arena. Free concerts or outdoor movies alternate at Millennium park but unfortunately at about ... read more

Ride home .... via Galena IL. I decided to extend my stay in St. Louis by a day; this extension would allow me to visit one of my favorite Irish Pubs in the U.S. - McGurk's Irish Pub in the Soulard district of St. Louis. A little known fact: St. Louis actually has the 2nd largest Mardi gras celebration in the US after New Orleans. This celebration takes place in the Soulard district. I found McGurk's on my Cajun-Parrot ride in 2013. One of the few places in the US where the Guinness is consistently good (at least good - by U.S. standards). McGurk's has live Irish music 6 nights a week and a great outdoor patio area in the summer time. The same bartender that took care of me in 2013 was there to serve ... read more

Day 1: Friday June 7: We’re on our way! EL and HM arrive at O’Hare via Uber. Helens first Uber was smooth! Although nervous about their luggage weight ( I know insert weight jokes here) they were pleasantly surprised that they squeaked by the 40 lb limit set by Spirit Air. They actually encountered the ONE nice Sprit employee. A lunch followed and the wait begins for the Schmitty gals and ND! Once reunited the cattle call to steerage begins. Strapped into their cardboard seats they are about to embark on one of the bumpiest air flights ever! As the kids say it was Bumpy AF!!! Finally off the death bucket it’s car rental time! Our consumer savvy girls get their “Costco” cars and off they go! Time to hit everyone’s favorite Florida hotspot.... Sam Club! ... read more

Tomorrow early morning we depart O'Hare airport for Maui with Dan & Marilyn Flaherty, our traveling buddies. Thankfully, United reinstated their non-stop flight from Chicago to Kahului airport on Maui. That eliminates a layover in Honolulu for an extra hour or two. It's a long flight (about 8 hours from Chicago), but well worth it once you get there. It will be a welcome break from winter. ... read more

When I awoke around 7 AM, there was an inch of snow on Rita and the temperature was 27 degrees. Although it didn't look like anything was sticking to the pavement, I didn't want to take the chance that I might encounter some ice on the highways. So I hung around the Gateway about as long as I could and decided to get on the road at 11:00 AM. The weather forecast for home was a high of 51, but the temps were going to drop to the high 20's at night so I didn't want to wait so long that I would run into those temps at the end of the ride. So I knocked the snow off the bike, saddled up, checked out of the lodge and headed south on US 45. The road ... read more