Day Twenty-Four

Chicago has a gorgeous downtown. On Monday I spent most of the day on a Lake Michigan beach where I turned into a lobster and read a good portion of a book called The Shack, a parting gift from my best friend at PLU and his wife. I walked most of downtown and then the beach boardwalk until I found a perfect little nest between hundreds of people all out of their Midwest winter hibernation. It is an interesting crowd on Mondays down on that beach. I even learned a few words that I can't type on this blog because my mother and her friends read on a regular basis.

So in my best efforts to save some money while staying downtown with my buddy Nate, I decided to park my truck in a suburb and then ride the metro into town. He told me parking downtown was some astronomical rate. So I return to my truck three days later to find a parking ticket for $60. Sweetness. If you've never seen a Chicago parking ticket, you can check mine out below.

PS: I hate Chicago toll roads. I don't think one should have to stop every 8 miles to pay 40 cents. So in an act of civil disobedience I started blowing through them. We'll see what happens.


Here is downtown Chicago from Navy Pier


Here is Kelly in front of downtown Chicago from Navy Pier



Here is some sweet guy that works facilities on Navy Pier that doesn't want you to bother him for an autograph.



Here is my first parking ticket ever.

Day Twenty-Three

Sunday consisted of walking around Chicago with my buddy Nate from LA who is in town on business. Having a friend who travels as much as he does is a real blessing to the vagabond, especially when it means a free night at a sweet hotel in downtown Chicago. We saw the beach on Lake Michigan and laughed at the waves and the million people all packed in the mile stretch of beach in Chicago. I think the ratio of people to grains of sand was 1:1. After traveling a bit we took a break and napped, followed by a Chipotle run where we met Horace. Horace is a homeless man with a degree in political science from Depaul University (he showed me his alumni card) who kept telling us that the white man is going down. So naturally we bought him a beer and hung out for a while. We talked politics, family matters, and more about the white man going down and Nate was even kind enough to let Horace borrow his cell phone so he could make a few calls. After we said our goodbyes Nate got about four calls from whomever Horace was calling and we couldn't understand any of what she said, but I hope she keeps calling Nate cause I think it's hilarious.

I forgot my camera when I was walking around today, so no new photos.

Day Twenty-Two

Saturday consisted of playing a round of golf in the morning, driving, eating a gigantic Hardee's Monster Thickburger, driving and some more driving. I have included a photo of the burger I ate at Hardee's. I actually wrote a paper in a sociology class my senior year defending Hardee's and their ridiculous sized burger. In my personal book of morals, no burger no matter what size, can ever be claimed as damaging to society. So eating this monster was of particular interest and really helped justify my views.

Here is some riveting reading if your interested. Totally got an A. Hardee's Monster Thickburger Paper

Day Twenty-One

Today started at 6:15am to say goodbye to Andrew and Stephanie and to get my bike onto a trail that led to the Mississippi river, 40 miles round trip from Cannon Falls through Minnesota country. So I rode, and rode, and rode to Red Wing, MN which is basically Wisconsin. On my way over I stopped six times. One time because there was a deer and it's fawn in the path staring at me like a deer in bike reflector, one time because a wild turkey was on the path, one time because I saw two eagles being chased by birds smaller than pigeons and that came off as peculiar. And the other three times I stopped because I was choking on bugs. Once I arrived in Red Wing I parked on a park bench and finished the book Brave New World about a dsytopian future. It was a fascinating read and really was something fun to wrap my mind around as I sat on the river. The book is based on a bleak future of world order by intense social control where feeling and free thinking is totally abolished through caste systems, extreme behavioral conditioning, and just some really crazy stuff that turns people happy all the time, but totally mindless. Society is at peace, there are no diseases, life's pleasures are at a whim.. but at the cost of free will and being numb to life. The optimism of the whole thing is that there are a few who are able to question the system. They realize that in it is not just the happiness and pleasures in life that give us the human experience. It is the pain, the sufferings, the challenges that we encounter in life that make happiness genuine only through the reference points of feeling life's downturns. We have the opportunity to live mindlessly through life's distractions and work through the system, or we can choose to really feel life.

"And that is the secret of happiness and virtue- liking what you got to do. All conditioning aims at that. Making people like their inescapable social destiny." - The Director, Brave New World

Day Twenty

Thursday morning I packed up my belongings and left the Nesvig's home. The night's rest helped me recover from my crushing Farkel blow the evening before.

I drove into St. Paul and left my truck in a park to explore the city on bike. I know this sounds a lot like yesterday's post, but rather in the other twin city. However, I assure you that yes it was pretty much exactly the same, except for the fact that I had a Chipotle burrito for lunch making the day totally different.

After reading on the river for a while and conversing with some new friends, I packed up and headed down to Cannon Falls to stay with Andrew Holloway and his wife Stephanie. Andrew and I played football together at PLU, Stephanie didn't quite make the team. It was much fun to hang out and laugh at stupid things and eat good food. Some of the simple joys of my visit came from the stories these two west coasters had about their adjustment to Midwest life. Tatertot hot dish anyone? And from dubunking Waterworld. Here's our criteria: 1) You'd think that if it took hundreds (thousands?) of years for the earth to turn into an ocean, in that time wouldn't all the inhabitants of Waterworld lose their southern accents. 2) If the Earth is all water, why is everybody so dirty all the time? I'm sure the conversation is open to suggestions and theories.


St. Paul from that park I left my truck at.

Day Nineteen

I dropped off my truck in downtown Minneapolis for the day and pulled out my bike to explore more on wheel. I rode around for about three hours within the city and gave myself a pretty good little tour including downtown, the University of Minnesota, the bridge that collapsed a year ago, the Metrodome, Starbucks, and a Barnes & Noble. Later in the day I left downtown and went to the Nesvig residence where I spent the evening with Kirk and Mary, and their kids John and Ben. Kirk and Mary went to PLU with my parents and offered a warm bed and some warm meals for my travels through the twin cities. Upon my arrival, I found a box from Lauralee full of her world famous, and now web famous, monster cookies. She somehow managed to get the cookies to arrive on my one night stay at the Nesvigs, a very narrow window. That's like hitting reentry on an Apollo mission. Many thanks Lauralee- Kirk and Mary would like the recipe. Post cookies, we ate dinner on the deck overlooking the golf course and played a riveting game called Farkel, a combination of Yahtzee and Russian Roulette if you were to ask Ben. Myself being the rookie, only took second to last thanks to his selflessness. The Nesvigs will send me off tomorrow with some worthy reading to think about and pocket Farkel to ensure that I make friends along the way and spread the Farkel magic.


Midwest Mountaineering is an oxymoron.


Downtown Minneapolis, MN


Here is the wreckage from the bridge collapse in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007. Just up the river they are rebuilding. You can see the cranes.


Some downtown Minneapolis bike riding.

Day Eighteen

I left the Anderson lake cabin on Bad Medicine Lake around three in the afternoon after some morning water skiing. Maren and I completed the dangerous "high-five maneuver" which was captured via the magic of digital video below.

I made my way down to Rogers, MN where I met up with my old PLU teammate Max. We hung out and then ran over to Maynard's for dinner and beverages to watch the Lakers get pounded. 131-92?!?! C'mon that's not even respectable. Tomorrow morning I will head down to Minneapolis to tour the town and to meet up with the Nesvig Family.