Holidays, USA 2017

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

May 3, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

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.

Geocaching, Holidays, USA 2017

Wow that is a long way down …

May 2, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

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.

Family Life, Holidays, USA 2017

Chicago Town here we come …

May 1, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

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.