Back on the DI

It's weird, but it feels like I was coming home.

As soon as I saw that bridge - smelled the factory and looked out across the river I thought to myself, It's good to be back.

But, I suppose that's what most people would feel after seeing 2,800 miles of unfamiliar.

We took a different route this time down. Last time we took the route that was the shortest. Compared to the route we took this time, it is also the most boring.

Well, maybe I'm just saying that because we spend 2 nights in the most interesting city on our way - a city I had never been to before but had heard was awesome - Chicago.

I was expecting it to be good. Definitely up there with my other favorite cities. But the way I set it up for myself and the way it surpassed my expectations were all very surprising.

After being stuck in traffic for about 40 minutes heading in to the city - even at 11 am - suddenly the road opened up as soon as we were heading downtown. It was almost as if the city said, "Let these guys in already" and as soon as we started moving I knew this had to have a soundtrack. So of course I turned on "Homecoming" by Kanye. I don't care how cheesy anyone else thinks that song is - I love it because I remember the first time I heard it. Thinking, "Ok, this song is about some girl right? Some baby mama that he left in his hometown." And by the end of it realizing, "Huh, that was actually pretty smart." Props Kanye. You provided a perfect soundtrack for driving in to downtown.

In 1 day we did as much sight seeing as we could do. Unfortunately our hotel (The Westin) made us sign a waiver that we wouldn't leave the dog on her own without anyone else in the room. So because of that we had to take her with us - everywhere we went. I was afraid she wasn't going to make it - sure the dog can probably run 6 miles (we take her on 3 mile+ runs every now and then) but walking around the city for 7 hours? I'm not sure she would make it.

Remember those Family Circus cartoons where little Billy is walking all over the yard and getting in to and out of things? Let me see if I can do that on google maps and get everyone a trail of what we did:


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Start at the Westin (A), end at Buckingham Fountain(G). All told almost 8 miles. Including 2 boat taxis, 1 boat architecture tour, some shopping on the magnificent mile, hot dogs and italian beef sandwiches at Portillo's, and then more sightseeing at Millenium Park. And the whole time the dog was right there, walking right beside us. Sure she took a nap, and yes she got lots of food and water along the way, but for every one stride I make she takes 4. So maybe that's what was so impressive about Chicago - is that my dog kept up with us.

In all seriousness though, Chicago is probably in my top 3 of most beautiful cities I've ever seen. It's almost like if you took NYC, got rid of a lot of the bums and the trash and the crazy people and replace them with large concrete flower boxes and a river that basically creates a large canal running throughout the city? Then you have Chicago.

The wife even said that she wouldn't mind living there. And that's pretty rare for her to admit something like that.

Enough about Chicago though - and just as a side note and totally out of chronological order of our trip. Our 2nd stop on our drive across the country was in Sioux Falls, SD. After stopping in Rapid City last year I wasn't too keen on stopping in South Dakota again - but the next stop would've made our 2nd day of driving a 15 hour day after we had driven 12 hours on our first day to get to Billings MT. Not going to happen.

As soon as we got settled in our hotel we went out for a run in the neighborhood behind the hotel. Here's how you can make an impression for your entire city on people who aren't from there. Wave hello at complete strangers who are on a run and ask them how they are doing. After exchanging niceties with a complete stranger who looked like he was just finishing up mowing his lawn we decided that Sioux Falls had, "Very nice people." And that's all it took - was just that one person to say hello. And of course all the friendly people we met at Red Lobster that night too.

After Chicago we drove down to Knoxville. The original plan was to stop in Louisville but as soon as we got there we both felt like we had at least another few hours of driving in us. Looking back on it I think it was a bit of a mistake because Knoxville was small. And kind of odd. It felt like a ghost town but there were people there. It felt like a ghost town because they had the "old town" of Knoxville and then they had the new town. And in the new town there were plenty of buildings that were empty and for lease. And in the middle of town is where it seemed like everyone was congregating. Everywhere else - there was just no one. Knoxville = weird.

One of my favorite drives to take though is along the Bourbon trail in Kentucky. After days of driving through miles of straightaway where you can see the road ahead for almost 10 miles (I picked out landmarks to see how far my eyes could see and then measured them - yes this is how bored I was driving through big sky country) driving those twisty roads through green trees and then heading up in to the smokey mountains was amazing. I think I'm definitely going to make it a point to stop in that area in the future.

After days of driving, our last drive from Knoxville to Charleston went by so quickly. And although it took us a few days to find a place to live for at least the next 6 months, I'm happy to be back on the island. Yes it is a little "Stepford Wives" as a friend of mine puts it, but so is the area I'm from back in Seattle. Plus on the island I believe that people care about their community, whereas in a larger city I think people can lose sight of that.

Tonight as I was walking the dog I looked up in to a gorgeous sunset on the best night (weather wise) we've had out here since we arrived here last week and I saw the Charleston flag displayed for me in it's natural state in the evening sky. A waxing crescent moon perched high above a palmetto tree. So happy to be back and I am excited to share with those coming to visit.