Chicago: the About This Page:

[DouglasE]

<font color="purple"> For those familiar with my trip reports this will seem quite an abbreviated version. To be frank, I am just too busy to devote the time it would take to one of my traditional trip reports. </font>

<font color="#666666">Adventurer: Douglas
Place: Chicago, IL
Time: September 2, 2004 to September 7, 2004
Occasion: Labor Day weekend </font>

<font color="purple"> Southwest Airlines has finally started service at Philadelphia International Airport. Yipeee! Long distance travel is finally affordable for me. I decided to visit some friends of mine that live in the Chicago area. As soon as I had made my decision to go over the Labor Day weekend I notified my friends and checked to see if they would be available. All said that it was a green light to go. As soon as they said that, I purchased my plane tickets online with Southwest Airlines. Money approaching Labor Day had gotten a bit tight so I didn't have as much play money as I would have liked. But I was still going on this trip. When I get a great idea in my head it's difficult for me to abandon it.
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<font color="black">Thursday, September 2, 2004</font>

<font color="purple">A good portion of the day was spent working. 3 o'clock arrived and it was time to head to the train at Suburban Station to take me to the Airport. Earlier that morning I had printed out my boarding pass on my home computer. I did my best to travel light on this trip. I was taking one overnight bag and one smaller personal travel bag. This way I didn't have to check any luggage and could proceed directly to the security line for the terminal I was using. United States air travel forces you to arrive hours before your flight leaves. I was a dutiful traveler and ended up waiting and waiting and waiting. My one complaint about using Southwest is that since there are no assigned seats people queue up to get their best possible seat over an hour in advance. So my bony a** was sitting on the floor in the line for group A boarding, instead of sitting on the nice cushiony seats that the airport provides to await your plane's arrival.

My plane arrives on time and we board in a reasonable fashion. I get a window seat very close to the front of the plane. But now Philadelphia International totally rearranges where all the planes should arrive and depart. Consequently there ends up being a line of 20 planes all waiting to take off from the tarmac. We were an hour in the plane just sitting in the plane as it tooled around the airport. Finally, we take off.

I arrive at Midway Airport (Chicago) with no problems, but an hour late. Originally, my friend, Jeffrey, was supposed to meet me at the airport. But he had called me while I was still waiting for my plane at Philadelphia to let me know he would not be able to make it. No big deal. At the airport I picked up my Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) five day visitor pass. I took the orange line and then transferred to the Red line to eventually get off at the Thorndale El stop.

I walk to the nearest corner and phone Nathan. Nathan is Jeffrey's partner. Since I was planning on having Jeffrey meeting me at the airport I did not bring a map of their neighborhood with me. He did a great job at re-directing me and I arrived at their doorstep in no time. Jeffrey ran down and let me into their apartment building.

When I originally had made plans, I told Nathan that I would need them to let me know asap if the timing would be good because I wanted to get a good deal on a hotel. He said not to worry because he wouldn't hear of me staying anywhere else but at their place. Turned out to be wonderful, since I ended up travelling with less money than anticipated.

Once I plopped my bags down, I was given the grand tour. Their apartment is sooo nice. Nice and roomy for an apartment in the city, over 2000 square feet with a "porch area" and a deck on the back. Nathan was all excited about being a great host. It turns out the guys moved into the guest room and had me stay in their bedroom. (Why do you call it a guest room if your guest isn't going to stay there?) I knew better than to argue with Nathan about this. After the grand tour we all sat down in their living room for champagne and hors d'oeurves (?sp). We got caught up on things and discussed my ambitious plans for the next few days.

I used to live in Chicago. I lived further south in the city than these guys do. I lived four blocks from Lake Michigan and a few blocks from Wrigley Field. I was a very busy guy, still in "the closet". My goal for this trip was to be a typical tourist and see the stuff I never took the time to see and do. Also, some of the stuff on my itinerary didn't even exist when I last lived there. When I travel I have a tendency to jam pack my itinerary with all sorts of stuff. I just never know if I'll ever be back. I want to make the most of my time.

We finally decide that since it was 2 am Philadelphia time, I should go to sleep. </font>