7 April – probably the last bits of Route 66 we will be driving on, but through some of the most interesting towns. Great big squares in the centre of town. The houses were amazing. Beautiful wooden houses, just like really ornate dolls houses. Lots of Easter egg hunts going on in town squares. We stopped in one town and went to a soda fountain, which was in the original chemist shop. The chemist and soda fountain had been in the same family for 120+ years until the 80’s when they sold to an “outsider” – it didn’t last and they closed 2 years later. The furniture shop bought the building and resurrected the soda fountain. There are very few original ones remaining. Drove through miles of farm land, crops not cattle. We were on the prairies apparently.
8 April – after an early start, the RV park was closing early as it is Easter, and she had her family coming for Easter lunch, we stayed at Lake Louise – after a bit of confusion on the phone with the manager. She thought as I was a tourist that I was wanting Lake Louise, Canada. But finally convinced her that she had the camp site we needed. Had to buy luggage today, to pack the stuff we have been buying in, as the RV goes back tomorrow. Most of the day was spent sorting, tossing and cleaning. We need to have a quick getaway tomorrow. Ridiculously expensive camp site without any wifi or cable.
9 April – handed back the RV this morning at 9.00 am so it was another early start heading towards Chicago. Quite a nice drive, through a lot of very expensive housing estates and golf courses. Hand over my list of things that were wrong with the van and mention things I had bought to make our life a bit easier. As it turned out everything we need to buy should have actually been supplied, so got quite a nice refund from that. Covered the cost of the things we bought and also the cost of the taxi to Chicago, plus some for coffee. Happy with a win!
Things I won’t miss – RV Parks are always next to train lines (or so it seemed) and the trains go all night. ALL NIGHT. And they toot their horns all night. Not being able to stop suddenly to take photos, stopping needed to be planned, otherwise the cars backed up behind me would be very upset. a lot of photo ops were missed due to stopping/parking options. Most of the people doing this full time, tow a car as well. The rattles – OMG that thing rattled. And the very crappy bed.
The cab driver was a nightmare. Genuine cab, no stretch limo this time. Texting and writing notes as he was driving down the road in the fast lane. It was a 90 minute drive, was over it by the end. But he got us where we needed to be. Parked illegally in front of the hotel.
The hotel is quite surprising, the foyer is small as anything, and so are the corridors, but the rooms are enormous.
GOOD NEWS – the bag was waiting for us at the hotel. Intact, with everything in it. I did get a response to me email, telling me it had been delivered. And yeah sorry, hope it wasn’t a bother. No offer of compensation or anything else.
Spent the day just having a wander up and down the street. Thankful for the ski jackets and hats.
10 April – today the temp was 8 deg C the wind chill kept the temp at -2 or below for the whole day. Chicago is living up to its name of the windy city. We had a cruisy day today, caught the on/off bus. Sat on it for the entire route, will do it again on Thursday, when the weather improves, and will get off at some of the stops. It was so cold that most people were rugged up for winter. My fingers started going nmb toward the end of the day.
Adventure before Dementia 