Day 12: Illinois

I can't see everything in this trip and the past few days have pointed that out to me even more clearly. My original plan was to go North from Sioux Falls, SD into North Dakota, and then through Winnipeg, Canada on my way to my friends in Toronto, but the more I kept looking at the map, the more The US midwest kept calling me and the less the northern coast of Lake Superior. Thing is, I knew I wasn't going to have enough time to hang around and smell the roses as it were. I'm really glad I did come through as I got to go to Baraboo and see the Forevertron and eat Cheese Curds, but it meant that I was only with my hosts a night each. I left Madison for a full day's drive through rainy Illinois.

The only thing I took pictures of on my drive was this silo with Pumpkin

I got to Chicago and sat in as much traffic as it took to get to Chicago. 2 hours to get to Chicago and 2 hours sitting in Traffic (at 1pm on a Thursday no less.) I met up with my friend Joy

whom I used to work with at CalShakes in Berkeley. Joy is an amazing person. She's super smart and really enjoys the ridiculous. She's also very political and is on a one woman mission to save animals from cruelty. She rescued this awesomely sweet pit bull named Rosetta Cheese when we first met and it was just as nice to spend time with Rosetta. Such a good dog. Joy gave me a tour of the Theater company she's working for, Steppenwolf and while there I ran in to a Jim Ingalls, a Lighting Designer whom I have the utmost respect for. I most recently worked with Jim at ACT on a movement based piece last year, but for years admired his work while a student at Emerson and then working for various theater and dance companies. He's the best of the best and one of the nicest and most considerate people out there. What a treat to hang out with people I know, love and haven't seen in a while on this trip. Later that night Joy and I went out for Ethiopian food and I got the dime tour of Chicago. It was the first city I had been to that reminded me of Downtown Manhattan. I got a little home sick for New York and understood why Chicago was such a beloved town. After dinner we caught a showing of the new Coen brother's film Burn After Reading which I loved, though not as much as some of their other films.

Chicago, United States