Unstoppable

---

From St. Louis we ended up in the windy city of Chicago, Illinois, where there was a little bit of sunshine in sight and luckily our GPS took us straight to our hosts for the next two nights. Chicago is pretty large in size, and traffic that is to definitely be avoided...bad drivers everywhere. There didn't seem too much to do in Chicago though, ironically enough, there were a few museums, theater, the great lake and finally the most delicious restaurants! We'd probably rate it the best city to eat in so far, full of options for every taste. We went to the Chicago Diner, and they had the best burgers ever and the greatest milkshakes in the world- the cookies and cream is a must! Our CS hosts were Danelle and Judy, and they made yummo breakfast every morning for us which was damn good to wake up to we must say. I went for a run through all the parks whilst Bryce caught up on some z's, then we went out for some beers at the local microbrewery- we were meant to go to the movies in the park however the torrential downpour prevented us, and it rained...all night long with some slight flooding. The last day of Chicago was our last stop at six flags, an okay park but much the same as the previous parks- we decided to not go as far as Sandusky, so these were our last rides for the trip, and from there it was time to start make the journey back to Alberta, Canada. Stopping over at small towns is great, the people are friendly and the buildings are really beautiful, and for a moment sometimes it feels like you are back in time in the western days- some shops are still original too and it's always exciting to see an old saloon- we are just waiting for one to be open before 5pm so that we can actually go in! When we arrived in Badlands national park, it was beautiful, like something out of Jurassic park, all green grassy plains then these jagged mud and rock hills as far as you can see, well of course Bryce and I go off the track and start climbing over all of them, sometimes just sitting on the hill and watching time fly by, it was so relaxing and if we stopped talking we couldn't even hear a sound which is kind of crazy in todays world. That night another storm came in, this time the wind just took off, and since we were staying at a campsite it was tent city. Us, of course, were rugged up comfy in our van watching a movie, whilst outside tents literally blew past the van as the rain came down hard, I go to Bryce "We can't be assholes, lets help out", so we got out and tried to help a nearby family however they had their way of doing things and so we left them to it and returned to our movie...we actually had a really good night's sleep. We decided to take of after taking a few hikes the next day as we had seen most of the Badlands but the campsite manager wasn't too impressed with us getting our refund (Bryce is always good at handling matters of this nature) and we got the cash back in full. It was great to keep moving on the road and driving to the next destination and we even got a phonecard so we could finally call the parentals, all of whom are doing great. We are now on our way to Great Falls today, and then going to some lakes in Canada before we stay at Abraham lake in Nordegg again for a week or so.
Stay tuned!

Tarryn and Bryce :)

---