It’s early evening in Joliet. We are fed and watered and resting back in our room ready for an early start.
Despite threats of more storms the view from our window is of a wonderful sunset. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Glorious Sunset
News
Chicago to Joliet
A bit of a false start, up at 7am for a mile hike to get a healthy breakfast. All packed and sat waiting for the transfer who got the wrong hotel then sat asking us for directions cos he couldn’t get his GPS to work while driving at 50mph. At least we made it to Eagle Riders and that was fairly painless to hire the bike, which wouldn’t start because “we left the ignition on!”, ok you go test it and sure enough they found the alternator was faulty, so profuse apologies as they wheeled out a brand new Electra Glide with 250miles on the clock, and free Route66 caps and tshirts for the inconvenience.
And they’re off on a new bike that neutral is a little fiddle to find, still I only managed to drop it once when Mrs Fogg was off it fortunately and it took two of us to right it.
Made it to Joliet and the Hampton Inn, with a pool and we have done a few little stretches of Route66 so far.
First trek on Route66 from here.
Run Forrest Run
Oh Yes!
Bubba Gumps at the Old Navy Pier Chicago and the mother of all drinks a CoronaRita, a half bottle of Corona upside downing Margarita, Pickled liver anyone?
Two of these and I’m anyone’s, so to sober up a little we are still walking all round Chicago and enjoying a tea and coffee outside the Tribune Tower (which has rocks and stones in it from Edinburgh Castle, Houses of Parliament and many more). A slow womble back then to the hotel to rest at 2am UK time.
A good start to the holiday.
Forrest Ran from here.
Chicago My Kinda Town
Howdy y’all
8.5 hours on a average virgin flight (oh how they have gone downhill).
Here we are in Chicago, 6 hours behind the UK in 28 degrees heat. Nice
Now walking tour to stretch the legs and more food.
Route66 starts from here.
Flat start
First day of our holiday and things were looking good. Mr Fogg was dispatched this morning on errands while I finished packing and the final bits at home.
All was on track. Cue Mr Foggs return with a problem. One very flat tyre on the car we’re taking to the airport. Torrential rain too. Joy
So my hero Mr Fogg jumps into action, battling terrible rain and German engineering to get the jack out and popped the skinny on the car. So two soaked people later and I’m now in York waiting for Slow Fit to find a slot to replace the tyre. Apparently they are really busy so it’s likely to be 2pm before this will happen.
Thank goodness we are flying tomorrow not today.
oh, and thunderstorms in Chicago forecast with heavy rain for the first day on the Harley. Now where’s that number for the hire car company?
The Non-Sensical Tour
We’ve decided, well ok I’ve decided as part of the Route66 tour to incorporate this with the non-Sensical tour, spotting all those things that really make no sense at all.
So to kick off the tour we came for a swim to the local gym and decided to have a snack afterwards and here is our first Non Sensical sign.
More Turkey’s than Bernie Matthews
Time was you could rely upon Mr Tom Thumb Missile (think about it for a minute) to deliver a decent or semi interesting movie, but of late the Turkeys just keep on coming.
First was the exploit of Jack Stretcher (names changed to protect their embarrassment), a tough 6ft plus action hero, which was frankly little more exciting than a made for TV movie and so not believable. And tonight we went to see Obvious (because that’s what the plot became after about 15 minutes), where cliche followed cliche and excerpts from other movies abound (Independence Day, Star Bores, 2001, Eagle Eye, the Island, you name it, they nabbed it). Come on Mr Missile no more turkey’s please, at least until Christmas.
When Mayo Fights Back
Off to see a movie, so we decided to have Fush n Chups in the local, nicely cooked and a decent price. Sauce sachets are an extra 10p as advertised on the board, so 4 sachets should be 40p right? Nope 60p apparently because on set of sachets look bigger, ah time for dog with a bone from Mr Fogg! I think your maths are wrong 4 sachets at 10p is 40p, ah no sir these are more expensive, well I’m sorry but your board has a stated price, you can’t charge more than that. Well we were going to update the price because these are more expensive, well I would pay more once the board states that, until then I will only pay the advertised price. In which case we haven’t got any at the price advertised!
So we made them check and blow me they do have the ones at 10p each. A smallish victory for the consumer, or how to be a grumpy sod when out!
Who Needs a Gym
Hard day at work dear, what you need is a nice dip in a pool followed by a trip to the sauna, what’s that I hear you say, haven’t got a pool, us neither, sauna, ah well that’s where we differ.
On arriving home in the 23 degree sunshine I opened the house door to be met with a wall of heat I have only experienced in Saudi Arabia. Turns out our central heating oojamaflip doofer valve has decided to cease open making it impossible for the heat to turn off. After speaking with one plumber convinced there was an off button, which there ain’t (I may not be a plumber but I know an off button), we managed to disable the lot and now have a plumber in tomorrow.
It only took 2 hours to cool the house with all doors and windows open.
P.S there weren’t actually any hotties in my sauna unlike the picture, otherwise you think I’d be complaining!