This Wednesday dawns and the fresh-cut grass and smell of beer and unhealthy food beckons!
Time to close out our Chicago trip with a Cubs game at Wrigley!
We brave the traffic to arrive on the North Side well before gametime. In fact we are among those early enough to enter the ballpark two hours before the cry of “play ball!”
No question this is a shrine to baseball fans and while we don’t live and die by the game/scores/standings/World Series it’s still fun to visit a place where plenty of baseball history was made.
Babe Ruth’s called shot.
The Steve Bartman incident.
Is that about it? No, gotta be more. It’s just not coming to mind right now.
Speaking of the Bartman event I did sit in the famous seat and attempted a lame imitation. Fun takes all sorts of forms.
How about another Chicago Dog? This time it was a foot-long. Still delicious. Still excusable since I am on vacation.
The game wasn’t exciting but wasn’t a bore, either. Cubbies pitcher Jon Lester struck out 14 batters. Besides, where else will you see a manually operated scoreboard? Or ivy on the outfield walls? Or seats on top of adjacent buildings?
The trip was well worth it.
After leaving it was time to hit the highway. Goodbye skyscapers and obnoxious downtown drivers! Hello corn and soybean fields!
I was ready to be out of the city.
One thing I noticed about Chicago/Illinois highway signs: They don’t have qualms about giving states as destinations instead of control cities. The Dan Ryan Expressway in Chi-Town gives “Wisconsin” and “Indiana” as place names rather than Milwaukee and Gary. Why? Who knows? It is Chicago, after all.
South of Joliet I see this phenomenon again:
Might be right up there with a sign near Palm Springs, California.
I drove this for many years thinking “Other Desert Cities” meant adjacent burgs such as Palm Desert, Thousand Palms, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, etc.
I guess it could be a subtle jab at Phoenix, Tucson, and El Paso.
But I digress. We spent the night in Springfield with the intent to visit things Abraham Lincoln the following day. Me? The plans are OK but I’m mentally ready to be back home.
Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the remainder of our trip. More about that in the next entry.
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