Category Archives: USA 2017

Farewell USA once again …

With the number of trips we have done, you would think that we have the baggage gig sorted by now. At least this time we had some hand scales which made it easier. My bags were sorted in half an hour but Jenny took all the time til check out at 11am with stuff going back and forward between her two bags.

We still had a couple of hours before we needed to be at the airport so some geocaching filled in the time, before heading into Busse Woods for a picnic lunch with the leftover food we have accumulated over the last few days.

A quick fill of the rental car and it was soon dropped off and we were on the shuttle to the airport. At check in, all the bags were under the 50 lb limit but only just and the staff were friendly at the International counter for American Airlines.

I had tried to book some seats online through the Qantas website but had no luck with it error in out. Even phoned them up and they couldn’t help saying that it was dealt with at the airport. Of course, the staff at the airport couldn’t help either as it was handled by Qantas not American. She did tell us that Qantas were in the International Terminal and it could be dealt with there.

After taking the tram to the International Terminal, and walking up and down it, we couldn’t locate anything that looked like Qantas. Oh Well, we will try again in Los Angeles.

No issues getting through the TSA check but I did get a little massage on the back and legs due to the body scan showing a couple of dubious areas. I asked him to get his thumbs in deep but he didn’t oblige.

The flight to LA was overbooked which seems to be the norm in the US, with offers of $300 ftravel vouchers to fly on the next flight in an hour. We thought about it but then didn’t want to miss our connection to Australia. As it worked out we probably should have taken the offer.

On arrival at LA, we found out the fight to Sydney was delayed by 2 hours so instead of leaving at 2230 hours it would be 0030 hours. Qantas gave us a couple of meal vouchers which gave us $US50 to spend in the food court. Wish we knew this was going to happen earlier as we purchased a couple of toasted sangers when we landed. Not to worry, we still had some Panda Express and frozen yogurt.

There was another announcement of a further delay of an hour putting ou departure at 0130. Looks like we will be late back into Oz. Further complications occurred with the Melbourne flight having mechanical issues so had to return to LA and they parked up in the gate our plane was due to.

There was a wait for another gate with the plane finally getting another gate, but with refuelling and loading the plane, we didn’t get away until 0200. There is no way we will make our Adelaide flight now.

The flight was not all that full and we had two empty seats next to us which Jenny used to make her bed and grabbed around 7 hours sleep while I had my seat and managed around 6 hours of upright sleep. During the night I went for a walk to the rear of the plane and the rear section was nearly empty so I could have probably grabbed some seats for a bed there.

The flight was smooth most of the way apart from the usual turbulence as you cross the equator and then some more turbulence as the pilot manouvered around some cyclones near Fiji and Vanuatu.

The last hour was interesting with a smoke detector going off in the toilet near our seats. Flight attendants descended from all over the plane armed with extinguishers and heat detectors. They left the toilet shut while checking for heat by hand detector and all feel. It ended up being a false alarm but a bit of excitement 800 kms out over the ocean. It was caused by a woman spraying deodorant (not sure how that got through the TSA check).

It doesn’t stop there with one of the crew falling ill so we were told the plane is in quarantine until it can be cleared by authorities in Sydney. This means that all crew and passengers to remain seated until cleared.

And for something completely different, the plane couldn’t get into the gate due to a catering truck left in the way. Needless to say we were going to miss our flight to Adelaide and was placed on a later flight, as was the case with all other connecting flights.

Time for a GeoEvent …

Another sunny and clear skied day in Chicago but at least today was a little warmer around 13C. And there was a distinct lack of wind today so the sun could actually warm you up. We are continually reminded that it is Spring in Chicago and this is what to expect.

An easy morning with a visit to the local Dicks Sports Store so that Jenny could look at their softball gear. With the current exchange rate, it didnt work out too cost effective to get anything so jenny walked out empty handed. Me on the other hand, walked out with a $180 Chicago Blackhawk Ice Hockey jersey for $60. Apparently they are changing from Reebok to Adidas so all stock must go.

This afternoon it was a chance to catch up with a lot of old geocaching friends I had seen three years ago during the last Chicago trip. The location for the event was Stadium Sports Club and Pizza and called “Firesafe is back in the Windy City!!!“. It wasn’t too hard to find the venue as there was a group of people searching through a garden bed at a nearby cache location. We were definitely at the right spot. It even took the out of country guy to spot the cache.

It was a great location with good food and drink. The staff were friendly and we were made to feel welcome. It was a good turnout with many of the faces I had met three years ago. It was amazing that there were at least 5 in the group that had been to Adelaide. Often you have to explain where we are in Australia. It was a welcome change. The koalas I brought across were a hit too. Thanks to all those that made the event today.

After a few hours it was time to head back to the hotel and get the bags packed, making sure they are under weight. We make the big trek home to Australia tomorrow afternoon.

Take me out to the ball game …

Well we were conned. Woke up and looked out the window to see clear and blue skies. Perfect for a ball game or so we thought. Headed outside and it was cold. It was 11C so I guess the cubs t-shirts we bought were going to cut it. So pack the jumpers, coats and gloves.

As we drove closer to Wrigley Park and closer to Lake Michigan, the temperature on the dash was getting lower. It was now 9C. Not sure where we were going to park. There was plenty of people offering parking on their properties from $30 to $45. I am sure there is something cheaper, so we headed out to where Bradley will be working and there was a one park left out the front – and it was free.

Free parking comes with a price but the 1.75 km walk at least kept us warm.

On the grass outside the field, Budweiser had set up some bars and an electronic batting game. Jenny and I both gave it a go. You had a practice swing then 3 game swings. Of course I hit a home run on the practice swing and bombed out on the game swings and Jenny got a couple of taps in the game swings. 

Clark the Chicago Cubs mascot was there so we had our photo with him and also got to see the 2016 World Series trophy. Time to put on the oxygen and head up to our seats. I had chosen these seats as they were undercover however with no rain on the radar, it would have been better to have been in the sun.

The view from the seats was good, able to see the whole field and even still make out the ball. There were plenty of screens, both large and small to keep up with what is going on and the place was nearly packed to capacity. I guess there were still some people working in Chicago today.

What was really interesting was the grandstands on the roofs of all the buildings on the other side of the road in the east and north. Even though they miss out on the big screens, they would have enjoyed the sunshine. The wind coming off Lake Michigan was brutal and the wind chill would have put the temperature somewhere around 3-4C. Having thin blood doesn’t help as I lost feeling in my fingers by the end of the game. I guess my gloves weren’t thick enough.

It was a close game with it looking like the Cubs were going to take it out 2-0 but a 3 run Home Run hit by the Yankees late in the game took the win away. The Cubs seemed to have lost hope and never recovered. It was still a good game despite the loss.

The walk back to the car started the blood circulating and by the time we got back to the hotel, I had feeling back in my hands.

The Illinois Foodfest has 2 more days to run and tonight we headed to Red Lobster for some seafood. Of course we have enough leftovers for tomorrow nights dinner. It will be good to get back to Oz and some reasonable sized meals.

Now that is a jelly bean …

Even though there was little chance of rain today, it was still cold with a maximum of 9C but a little cooler with the wind chill.

This morning was better spent indoors with the Adler Planetarium where it was warmer. Car parking here was interesting with a flat rate of $19 in the centre carpark or park on the street which is closer for $2 an hour. We parked on the street.

The Planetarium had a couple of large domed roof theatres with very comfy chairs. How do I know. I only saw about half of each show we went into as I was snoring for the other half. There were exhibits on the moon, the planets, telescopes and astronomy in different cultures. It also provided a venue for today’s Illinois Foodfest, the Galileo’s Café, where you could look out over the very choppy Lake Michigan.

We spent the end of the day wandering around Chicago again taking in the Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain and of course the Giant Jelly Bean or as it is more commonly known, Cloud Gate. I wonder if Cloud Gate (2006) was inspired by Adelaide’s the Malls Balls (1977).

The big mistake for today was heading out of Downtown Chicago at the start of peak hour, with most of the first 20 kilometres spent at 10-15 kph. A diversion to Walmart for some chicken and salad for dinner then back to the hotel. Tomorrow is the big Cub’s vs Yankees Ball Game at Wrigley Field.

Until you’ve been on a Harley-Davidson, you haven’t been on a motorcycle …… apparently

Another cool and windy day in Chicago so today rather than wander around the streets it is road trip time. Jenny said why don’t we go to Wisconsin and I said well there is the Harley Davidson Museum there so why not. After all it is only 133 kilometres up the road.

We had been driving through flat land for miles and then we spotted a sign to ski areas. Not sure where they ski as we hadn’t even spotted something that looked like a hill let alone a mountain. Figured that they meant water skiing but after some Googling, I found one of the hills they were referring to, Wilmot Mountain. It was literally that, a small hill, that almost looked man made with a few lifts. Apparently Vail Resorts now owns it. I guess you will ski whatever you have available.

It wasn’t too hard to spot the Harley Davidson Museum arriving into Milwaukee and we must have picked a good day as it wasn’t too busy.

I haven’t been a huge fan of Harleys, having owned 1 Yamaha, 2 Suzuki’s and a Honda (still have a Suzuki ER185 and a Honda CB900) but I was impressed by the history of the Harley Davidson from humble beginnings through several bad spots and still keep going.

The museum had one of every motorbike model they ever produced or so it seemed and I took over 100 photos. What was interesting was the 80’s when the Japanese bikes were taking over sales, and the Harley style changed to mimic the Japanese bikes more. When AMF merged with Harley, the diversification was different with golf carts, boats, ski mobiles and mini bikes. Not to mention the Topper scooter produced in the 60’s. I bet not too many hard core Harley riders were aware of that.

At the end of the museum tour and just before the gift shop, there was a selection of Harleys that you could sit on. The touring bikes were comfortable but not sure about the other models particularly for long rides. It didn’t take long for orders coming in from Australia for t-shirts from the gift shop. I even bought a t-shirt and a Hawaiian shirt for myself.

I took over 100 photos today of all the bikes on show in the Museum. I have uploaded them to my Flickr account and can be see by clicking “here“.

An hour and a half drive back to Chicago and out for out Illinois Foodfest venue for tonight, the Olive Garden. Nice meals but off course way too big and you come out as full as a goog.

Wow that is a long way down …

Even though the rain had eased, it was misleading looking out from our hotel room. We knew it was going to be cold so layers of clothes were in order, however, we underestimated the wind chill factor once we got into Chicago Town.

There were a few tasks before we made it into Chicago.

Today was 17 years to the day that Selective Availability was turned off for GPS’s and the birth of Geocaching back in May 2000, so first order of the day was to find a geocache and there just happened to be one outside the hotel.

I had been chasing tailgate seal for the Colorado to keep the dust out of the back and was not having much luck over here (it is something that is not available in Australia).
After some more googling, I managed to find a supply at the local Truck Stop. They had two in stock so I grabbed one. Jenny messaged her two brothers that have the same ute. So far only one brother has replied as there may be a physical challenge for the remaining one.

It was our first real chance to play in Chicago traffic and it didn’t let us down. It was heavy for the last 10 kms into town and also kept you on your toes with cars cutting in and out to get to the traffic lights first.

I was wondering where the River Cruises started from and looked over and immediately saw it by pure chance. Found a parking garage nearby and as soon as we started walking, the rain and wind picked up. Once on board the Shoreline Cruise, the rain abated but the wind continued. This would have to be the best way to take in the amazing architecture that Chicago has to offer. The river guides are very knowledgeable assuming they are not making up stories.

After an hour and a half on the water, we headed to the nearest Starbucks to grab a bite and thaw out.

One of our Chicago bucket list items was to do the SkyDeck Ledge in the Willis Tower. These are glass sections that protrude from the 103rd floor of the tower and are completely glass so you are looking all the way down to the ground. From the river cruise they looked a long way up. From the street level, they looked a long way up. Once you were standing out in them looking down, it definitely was a long way down. Jenny wasn’t too keen to get out there but she managed a foot shot and also a lying down shot.

We certainly got our 10000 steps in today walking around Downtown, even seeing a couple of runs by Chicago’s bravest, Truck 3 and Engine 13.

Getting out of Chicago in peak hour seem to be better than Adelaide with traffic lights timed and the traffic flowing. One last stop before heading back to the room was to call into Fire & Risk Alliance near the Wrigley Field. No we weren’t checking out parking for Friday but did ask the question. Bradley will be doing a 6 month intern-ship here from June so we wanted to check it out. We met up with one of the owners, John, and he showed us around. It looks like Bradley will enjoy his time here and John will be great boss.

Chicago Town here we come …

Well I didn’t think Jenny would do it but she managed to get up early enough for us to have one last visit with Bradley before he headed off to University classes and we headed off to Chicago.

We had left plenty of time to get through the mighty metropolis peak hour traffic of Champaign, but ended up getting to Bradley’s apartment before he had even got out of bed.

After a bit of going around in circles due to roadworks and one way roads, we finally found his Engineering building and farewelled Bradley for the last time until January (if he comes home).

Back to the hotel, packed the bags, packed the car and we were on the highway to Chicago. Only a couple of stops for geocaches and we were soon into the gnarling traffic of Chicago. It was not so much the volume of traffic but the large amount of roadworks holding up the flow.

It was still early when we arrived at our hotel, so some exploring was in order.

We have been to the Pro Bass Shops before, but just up the road was a Cabelas which is a similar but rival chain store for outdoors. You would be mistaken that they have taken the same design for their stores as Pro Bass Shops with the stuffed animals etc. Even with all their stuff, I came out empty handed. So some time for more geocaching.

Soon the rain came in heavy so we called it a day and continued the Illinois Foodfest for the evening at Portillos. I had the Jumbo Dogs and Jenny had the ribs. She also ordered pasta but we will end up having that tomorrow night.

Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow.

Bradley do your assignments …

Bradley was working on a final assignment today so it turned into a bit of a rest day for us. We were able to have a bit of a sleep in for the first time since arriving (well me at least – Jenny has had plenty of sleep ins).

The weather was still marginal but occasionally the sun did sneak a look but not for long. We made a visit to the local Walmart to pick up another suitcase. There is starting to be a collection of suitcases back at home. Next time we will bring extras with us. I am sure we have said that before.

Later in the afternoon, it was still raining so we just drove around Champaign and the University campus checking out the scenery. Eventually it was time for Bradley to eat dinner, so rather than take up time he needed for his assignment, we picked up some pizzas and took them to him.

A quick meal, some quick conversation and we left him again to work on his assignments. They were due by midnight.

And guess what, it was still raining.

Catching up with Bradley …

After a week in the same spot, packing up took a little bit of work and of course it was still raining as we tried to load the car. We had a great stay in our AirBnB apartment in Garfield Park and would recommend it to others.
 
FDIC was not quite over yet as the trade show still had today left and besides the weather was still bad and rather than drive through it to Illinois, the plan was to spend some time in Indianapolis to allow it to clear.
 
A last minute attendance to FDIC of “Molly the Fire Safety Dog” and her owner Dayna, who I had made acquaintance through Geocaching and Facebook but had never met was unexpected. It was good to catch up with them and see the passion that Dayna has to get the fire safety message to kids all over the road. We even have one of Molly’s Fire Safety geocaches back in Australia.
 
After bidding farewell to Molly and Dayna, we hooked up again with Billy and Teri, checking out the trade show, meeting many of Billy’s contacts along the way and spending some quality time chatting about various subjects.
 
The weather had cleared up so it was time to travel west into Illinois to catch up with Bradley. Hopefully we get the opportunity again next year to get over to Indy to stay again with Billy and Teri.
 
It was a good run through to Champaign with a phone call to Bradley to check where he was. He had taken part in a colour run of sorts or was it just a beerfest with paint. Not sure but he was covered in all sorts of colours and was at the Frat House. The party had been going on here for a while and after meeting many of his friends, we could see that having parents at the Frat House on a Saturday night was not the done thing.
 
Bradley took us back to his apartment where we met his Mexican room mates and he had a chance to clean up. His roomies seemed like good guys and the apartment wasn’t too bad for a college kid apartment.
 
It was time for the the Illinois Foodfest to start, continuing on from the Ohio Foodfest and Indiana Foodfest. We were initially going to go to the Olive Garden but with an hour and a half wait for a table, we moved onto Denny’s. They must have been having a bad night with staff issues and missing some of our order.
 
Bradley need to get some assignments done tonight and tomorrow so we dropped him off and would catch up again tomorrow afternoon.
 

Chicago Fire is very popular here …

Overnight was another wild night with thunderstorms, lightning, flooding and winds as well. There was apparently tornadoes elsewhere in the State. And for a second day in a row the I65/I70 crossover was closed due to a truck incident. This time a truck got blown over in the wind blocking the freeway. Yesterday it was a crash between 2 trucks with a fire.

Today was the last day for classes, well in the morning anyway. Once again I left Jenny in bed and headed in early with water everywhere.

My sessions this morning were “Responding to Motor Sports Incidents” by Andre Biron from Manchester FD in New Hampshire, and “Firefighter Rehab: Best practices for implementing NFPA 1584” by Captain Frank Califano from Roslyn FD in New York. Both provided some valuable information I can use back in Adelaide.

That completed the classroom sessions for this years conference. Jenny had arrived at the Conference Centre so we went in to have a look through the trade show before catching up with Billy and Teri. Billy had organised for a couple of the Chicago Fire cast to come down and do a photo and signing session. It was overwhelming the number of people that turned up for the session with many missing out as there was only a 2 hour window.

The session was to raise some funds for the Firefighters Cancer Support Network with Eamonn Walker (Chief Wallace Boden) and David Eigenberg (Christopher Herrmann) providing their time free of charge for the event. Even though we missed out on a photo with the actors, we did have a good chat with Steve Chikerotis (District Chief Walker). Steve was a District Chief with the Chicago Fire Department and is now the fire department advisor with the Chicago Fire TV show as well as playing District Chief Walker in the series.

After a bit more time looking around the trade show, we headed back to the apartment to freshen up before meeting up with Billy, Teri, Steve, Molly and Mike for dinner at the Marriott. Another good meal but without the shock of a huge check tonight.