This was an old Hiawatha car we saw in Minneapolis. Zephyr was pretty upset it didn't look like this.
We took the Hiawatha line from Milwaukee to Chicago on Monday afternoon. This is a commuter train that runs several times a day. Taking the train into Chicago is always a grand experience, in that there are so many trains making their way into Union Station, and it is such an industrial city. Zephyr has taken on terms like “shunting” or “intermodal box cars” or “manifest”. I am so proud.
For once, Zac seemed small.
We showed up and gave Beth and Willie a call. They promised to be there soon, and told us which big city intersection to stand at. You sure feel small standing in all those tall buildings, all the people, all the electricity. Marveling at the architecture, at one choice which could equal thousands of dollars, extraneous glass panels that serve no purpose but to decorate these man fingers. We spotted the Sears tower, and considered if it were to be called The Itinerant Locals Tower. Catchy? Willie showed up and we all jumped in his minivan and he confessed they were actually in the middle of a huge catering gig. The deal was they would dump us off at the palace, and we would entertain ourselves till the madness was over. They live in the heart of Pilsen, which is the mexican neighborhood, in an old theater. It was a theater of the Czech persuasion that was built in the late 1800’s. This place is incredible. But more on that later. We headed down the road, looking for adventure, and whatever comes our way.
No caption necessary here.
Ended up eating a bunch of pastries and riding the L. We went around the city loop, and finally Beth and Willie called wondering where we were. Time flies when every city block is a 1/2 mile. We headed back, we actually got kind of caught up in the promise of 1/2 price day at a big thrift store, and went on a wild goose chase to find it. We never found it, but enjoyed watching the trains in this huge train yard connect and disconnect. We returned to Beth and Willie and had a little happy hour in their new restaurant, which is just lovely, and then they took us out to eat. We went to 
“the Half Shell”, which was so good. Such good seafood, I forgot we were in the midwest! This was a restaurant that Beth grew up going to, and she shared with us so many of her memories of being a kid in the city. After dinner (which put Zephyr to sleep after eating an oyster) we took the scenic drive, up the Michigan Mile and through downtown. It is so fun to drive in a city late at night, when it sleeps, if you will. Beth had a million stories, most of which I missed because I was in the way back of the van with the two kids worming and snuggling all over me, and the music was on and the windows were down. Pretty dreamy, just that. Never mind the view!
This is soooo Chicago. Playing in the fire hydrant.
Next day we were just gonna run out to a music store and then catch up with Shea, Shea our friend from Hot Springs and her two girls. Just running out somewhere when you don’t know where you are going is always a gamble in the big city. We hopped on the train, and then another, and then walked, and the walked some more, and then we were there. At the crack of 2 PM. The music store was a maze of rooms, all with different themes and instruments. It is always at that moment when I freeze and can’t remember what it is I would buy if I could buy something. There was a pink guitar case, a pink violin, and a pink ukelele, and a gong the size of my kitchen wall. It all would be fun to have, and I don’t really need any of it. They had a tuba mute, and upon comparison, I am so glad we didn’t get that tuba mute in Tucson. Actually, there are so many things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but when you really reflect on how many times you would have moved an item, it seems brilliant that you left it behind.
After the music store, everyone was starving, so we ducked in for a couple of burritos, and then met my old friend Brian Kash at a park with kids running around. We quickly summed up our lives over the past 9 years since we’ve seen each other, and parted ways. Us to head back for our gig at the Honky Tonk BBQ, and he to play racquetball with his buddy.
Zac informed me that in all that train riding and chaos, that we wouldn’t have time stop downtown and hang out with Shea at Millennium Park. Time management gets away from me sometimes. On our walk back we got to witness the ultimate Chicago street scene, these kids had unscrewed the fire hydrant and were playing in the street. The amount of water that was coming out of there was unreal, and the kids were ecstatic. One guy came through in his minivan, and got totally soaked, then he drove through the spray, unrolled his window, and tipped one of the kids a dollar. I love it. We got back to Beth and Willies and there was already a mass of people gathering for the big show, so we ducked upstairs and dressed, and came back down and played a couple of hours. The gig was a mix of kids going apeshit, running, the Zoppe’s showing up, old friends, new friends, fun and laughter. Mixed with the smell of all that smoked meat. Yum. The venue was a little louder than I think most of the kids would have liked, so that contributed to their inability to settle out. After we played, we all sat down at the table together and had a small feast. The kids had gotten sucked upstairs, and were spending time on the computer, making accounts that “were free” to make monsters and profiles and probably make some corporation so much money for the next 10 years, all for free! But what do I care, I got to enjoy my dinner and eat till I was full.
Urban Bee Keeping
The kids eventually required attention, nothing this good could last forever, so we headed upstairs to work it out and get these little people to bed. Shea spent the night with us, so it was one giant slumber party in the huge oval czech theatre room.
The next morning was packing, hanging, eating, drinking, checking emails, and trying to get through the four hours it would take till we could leave. Willie Jr. was giving a bee keeping demonstration for homeschoolers, so we tagged a long. Day 44 of this trip was particularly long, and it was kind of hard to be zen about it all. The tour had been good, but long, and thorough, and we have covered a lot of miles. Willie pulled up, we threw our luggage in his van, and drove to Union Station with the side door open for some Chicago style air conditioning. We showed up just in time, and got settled into another 13 hour train journey, this time, the grand finale.
Us leaving and arriving, it really looked the same either way.
So here I sit in southern Illinois, knowing that in 8 short hours we will be in Little Rock, to see what has become of our car which was left in long term parking, to see how hot it really is in Arkansas in mid-July, to smell our musty, uninhabited house, to see if our garden is dead or alive, to see how much mail our mailbox can really contain, to see if anyone altered our house at all (since the guy who sublet our house never showed up), to see if the chickens are dead, and if there are any fallen trees, how tall is the grass is, and to slowly try to get back into the swing of things and see what Arkansas looks like this time around.
Mississippi River, again!
St. Louis in 45 minutes. I guess I’ll wrap this up and look at some cornfields, because tomorrow I probably won’t remember to stare out the window.