Yeager 2011 Chicago Trip

The Chicago Great Lakes Navel Base Trip

Trip Report: June 29 - July 3, 2011 -- Victoria's husband, Josh Ham, started his military career shortly after they were married. In a show of family support we caravanned to the North Chicago area with Josh's parents to see him graduate from Navel Basic Training. Our brief excursion to the greater Chicago area was planned to attend Josh's graduation from basic training and catch some local flavor while in the "Windy City".

We got up early in the morning at Trenton and headed north. We would eventually plunge deep into enemy territory, Chicago, Illinois, home of fuzzy liberal thinking and corrupt politics. We had to place some of our freedoms on the roadside when we crossed into that state. Chief among these freedoms is the right to carry a side arm.

The Honda Civic Hybrid had some minor work done to correct some issues and improve others. When we had to find a sudden replacement for one of our cars we found a used Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission (which get better highway fuel mileage than the new automatic only hybrids). The car we got, like most used cars, was not perfect. Before the trip we replaced the missing lower fairings, added Skunk2 Racing suspension links (to get full camber and caster adjustment to for rear wheel alignment), and installed and carbon fiber hood (lost 25lbs - likely made the least difference). This was the first major trip after the modifications it was achieving around 47.x to 55.x MPG. The modifications and "improvements" seem to have made a difference. The last time we had the Hybrid fully packed with people and luggage was on a trip to Kansas. The fuel mileage for the Kansas trip varied from 44.x to 46.x MPG.

We pressed on toward the motel some 900 miles from our home. The Missouri scenic hills did not do the Civic Hybrid MPG any good with road construction also a big issue. Apparently Illinois shared the same governmental past time as Oklahoma: road construction. We arrived at our motel late that evening.

The next day we took the train to downtown Chicago to do some sight seeing. The ultimate goal to attend the "2011 Taste of Chicago" and then catch Natalie Cole in concert. On the way we discovered that we could still go up to the observation deck of the Sears Tower. The Chicago skyline was impressive. We were not prepared for how much bigger it was than Dallas or Houston.

At the "2011 Taste of Chicago" we sampled Chicago style deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. Just to say I did, I sampled a Gold Coast Chicago Style Hotdog.

The concert was a big disappointment because was advertised as free, however they did sell tickets. These ticket holders get preference. If they run out of "paid" seats then the peons are on the grass with a big "TV" to look at. The grass area was a good 100 yards from the stage. Once we determined how things really worked and noted the approaching storm clouds we left.

The free concert was a prime example of how much of the Chicago civil services are offered -- we had no idea of the actual arrangements and believed what was advertised. We found most of the publicly run services in Chicago to be similarly inefficient and information poorly disseminated. Another example is that the greater Chicago area does not post block numbers on street signs. Some information is just kept from public view. If one is an insider one will do fine. If you are not a member of the chosen few and are not privy to the actual workings of the "public system" then "best of luck". Depressingly like the current Federal Government -- almost as if there were a connection of some kind.

The formerly mentioned storm clouds played a significant role in the remainder of our evening. As we were riding the north bound train back to the Lake Bluff area where the motel was the storms got very strong and spawned some small tornados. Thunder storms shut the trains down due to a small tornado and some possible downed power lines. After two hours the train crew finally disclosed what was occurring and cleared the train of passengers. Just moments after most of the passengers had departed, the train began moving onward without so much as an attempt to reboard the now stranded passengers. We had to find our own way back to the motel. We made it back to the motel thanks to Josh's folks. We later learned that one of the supercells near our hotel dropped a small tornado that personally was spotted by Michael, Josh's step father, and Andrew, Josh's cousin.

We were unable to attend Josh's graduation because it was the 100th graduating class from the Great Lakes Navel Base and many military and government dignitaries were attending. Normally each recruit can will be issued four "tickets" and then other family members may come and be seated until all seating is taken. This time there was little or no extra seating and back ground checks were done on all who attended so only the coveted "four attendees" were able to witness the event. We spent our time browsing the Naval Exchange (PX) gift shop.

After the graduation we had lunch with Victoria, Josh, and his family the The Silo Restaurant in Lake Bluff. We had a dear waitress and the management treated us to a complimentary appetizer sampler in honor of Josh's graduation.

The following day we saw Josh off to his active duty assignment very early at O'hare International Airport and then had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel once we were south of the greater Chicago metropolitan area. We divided the return trip into two sections. The first leg culminated with an over-night stay in Rolla, Missouri. The following morning we headed out at 5:00 AM and were greeted by triple digit temperatures by the time we got home.