Chicago - Love That City - Not This Trip

It's an admission that I do not care to admit but for the first time ever, I didn't want to travel to Chicago.  I love Chicago.  One of our nation's greatest cities.  So much to do, so much to see.   I was going for a conference.  Work wanted me to go.  The conference involved a program that we were ready to dump.  Why should I be wasting my time going to a conference on a program that we wanted to eliminate?  Made no sense.  Like the good soldier I am, I obeyed my direction and would go to Chicago. 

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What made it worse, I was going alone and that made me unhappy.  My navigator would not be coming along and trips anywhere without her just don't measure up.  As part of my agreement to attend this conference, I negotiated a few extra days to be able to make a couple of stops along the way.  The first stop would be London, Kentucky.  This little city, right off of Interstate 75 is home to my daughter.  A year earlier, she had accepted a new nursing position leaving her home behind and venturing out on her own. 

Ever the proud father, I wanted to stop and take my little girl out for dinner.  Thought I would take a nap, grab dinner and then get back on the road.  After spending a few hours together and not getting the nap in, I decided it was time to move just a little closer to my final destination of Chicago.  Next stop, Dayton, Ohio. 

Dayton was not actually a direct route for me but then who would not stop to see their 91 year old mother if you were even close to her vicinity.  It had been almost a year earlier when my navigator and I visited Mom.  This visit would be a brief one but it would still be coming home for me.  Arriving in Dayton, Mom and I caught up on all the news.  She had baked a cherry pie for me and as remembered, it was great.   Unable to sleep, it was time to move forward with the journey to Chicago.  This was going to be a whirlwind trip and I was wasting little time stopping.

I have always enjoyed driving through the night.  It was peaceful and quiet this night until I came upon a distant light on the interstate.  At first, it looked like emergency lights, perhaps an accident.  It was still a few miles ahead.  Getting closer, it was still difficult to figure out what was the problem but now it appeared that there were no emergency vehicles or flashing lights.  All of a sudden, I noticed that it was a fire.  Slowing as I approached the blaze, I saw that it was a tractor-trailer engulfed in flames.  The flames were shooting out over the highway into both lanes.  There were several other vehicles present but no emergency vehicles had arrived yet. 

Seeing that there were other stopped vehicles making sure no one was hurt, I decided to play Evil Kinevil and drive straight through the flames.   It was exhiliarating.  Coming out cleanly on the other side of the flames, I continued on with my journey getting closer and closer to Chicago.   I was closing in on Chicago and I wish I could say that I was excited but clearly I wasn't.  All I knew  was that I needed to go downtown.  I had no maps and more importantly, my navigator was absent and not pointing me in the right direction. 

I safely reached my destination,  although not without multiple wrong turns and mistakes.  None of which would have happened had my navigator been with me.  The highpoints of the next three days were only my excursions over to Michigan Avenue to browse this wonderful street of Chicago.  I spent much of my time looking at the architecture of Chicago as it provides some of the best designs anywhere in the world.  Enjoyed some of my favorite food that only Chicago offers and  did participate in a conference trolley excursion tour seeing the city which was fun but very cold.  The rest of the time was spent inside at a comfortable hotel learning about a program that we wanted to dispatch from our operation. 

On my last morning in Chicago, I had parked my car in the same parking garage that I had used each day.  I chose to take a different walking route from the garage to the hotel this day and that was a mistake.   Walking only a few steps, I was quickly approached by a rather tall, pretty woman who wanted me to buy her a cup of coffee.  Somehow I gathered that she was looking for something more than a cup of coffee.  All I could think about was my navigator's reaction if she saw me walking with this woman. 

She put her arm through my arm and started walking with me.  It was 7 am and I was dressed in coat and tie for work.  I politely but firmly reported to her that I was not interested and moved free as she walked quickly to a taxi cab.  Then, I quickly checked to see if my billfold was still there in my back pocket.  Thankfully, it was.    

My trip to Chicago was now complete.  I had seen the architecture I love; ate at my favorite restaurants; saw my daughter and my mother and was solicited by a prostitute.  What more could one ask for from a boring conference trip to Chicago.   I'm hoping that someday soon I will return to Chicago with my navigator.  That would be a trip I would be looking forward to.  This trip was not much fun without her.  I think I might be able to influence her if I let her know that Michigan Avenue is a wall to wall extravaganza of shops and stores.  If need be, I'll pull out the big gun of influence and let her know that there's a Chico's on Michigan Avenue.