FIELD OF DREAMS and CHICAGO!

Coincidence: we love our Roots it seems. :)

“If you build it, he will come.”

Our 11 hour drive into Chicago from South Dakota had only one memorable pit-stop: the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa! Yes, it really exists! The place where dreams come true. The farmhouse and the baseball field are still intact; admission is free. The only things that weren’t there were the cornstalks since it is November (and, of course, no ghosts of baseball past)… but there was a whispering voice on the horizon… “Go the distance, Mark and Megan. Go the distance…”

Meg and I both ran around the bases, and wished we had brought our baseball gloves. “Do you want to have a game of catch?”

We said goodbye to Iowa and entered the state of Illinois. Much more support here for Obama than in Iowa. Not much to share, but entering Chicago in our car, we experienced frustration. Here’s a conversation:

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: That’ll be 3 dollars.

MARK: Oh. Is there a toll road ahead?

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: Nope. You been driving on one.

MARK: What? That pot-holed, bumpy road back there?

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: Yep. Thaz it.

MARK: Okay. Alright. Here’s my credit card.

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: No credit or debit. Just cash.

MARK: Ah, okay. (Scrounges for change) Here ya go.

(Car horn beeps behind us; impatience)

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: This won’t do. (Hands back some Canadian quarters)

MARK: Oh, aren’t those worth more than American quarters?

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: Don’t know. Need American.

MARK: Well, we’re here at the front of the line with no American money; can’t use debit or credit; and you don’t accept Canadian. What do we do now?

(Man writes up a ticket; takes down our license plate; tells us we have 7 days to pay online)

MARK: Thank you kindly. How many more of these toll-booths are there?

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: Two more. You should get some American money before you get there.

MARK: Can’t you guys use cameras to mark down our license plate when we enter the toll road and then also when we exit? That might be much more efficient.

OLD-TOLL BOOTH MAN: Don’t know about that. Thank you kindly.

After this absurdity, we found ourselves staying at the luxurious Hyatt hotel near the O’Hare Airport. Megan found the deal online for $58. What a deal! The lobby was gigantic! The room magnificent! Probably, the most comfortable bed we’ve slept in since the trip began.

 

The next morning, we took the ‘L’ into downtown Chicago. Ah, Chicago! What do I think about when I hear that name? Al Capone and the Untouchables. The Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, and da Bears. ER, Home Alone, Second City, and The Blues Brothers. Harpo and Oprah. Roger Ebert, Planes Trains and Automobiles, the musical Chicago and Wayne’s World… on and on and on….

On the shores of Lake Michigan, we wandered over to the reflective Bean, actually called Cloud Gate. This place is a lot of fun; Megan and I spent a good deal of time here taking pictures and being goofy. Afterwards, we looked high and low for a good restaurant in Magnificent Mile; found it in Stout, where we ordered grilled cheese and a side order of mac and cheese. Well… they served the mac and cheese on the grilled cheese, and the bread they used was massive! Meg and I had a few bites and were instantly stuffed. Argh. We forgot that the portions are always bigger down here.

After downtown Chicago, we strolled over (an hour stroll) to the United Center, home of the Bulls and Blackhawks. Posed in front of the Michael Jordan statue. Now, Megan absolutely loves Michael Jordan; she was a super fan back in the day (and still is). Who doesn’t love Michael Jordan? We bought standing room tickets for cheap to end the night on a high note. In the end, we acquired unfilled seats. What a deal!

The Chicago Bulls were playing the New Orleans Hornets. Now, our Bulls didn’t win, but it was still exciting watching a Bulls home game. From the ceiling hung the pennants of the Chicago Bulls NBA Wins: 91, 92, 93 and 96, 97, 98. What a team! Michael Jordan! What a player!

Scottie Pippin in attendance (wearing blue blazer courtside)

Tomorrow, we head back into Canada to Elmvale, Ontario! Once safely back, we’ll answer the trivia question and add one more post to conclude this trip. Don’t fear, a week after we get back, we’re off to Malaysia! Our blog will be there with us along the way; hope you are too, faithful readers.  

Little Bighorn, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore

OK, I just realized that I MAY be starting to sound like my mother…..when my mom, and brother came to visit me in New Zealand we clocked about 5000km on our rental  car as we toured the North and South Island, and with every bend and curve my mom was floored by the roads and the speed at which people travel on them.  I have noticed a pattern in my writing to sound somewhat similar.  So I am going to shift my focus to something else….although I did forget to mention that after the drive to Victoria Maureen informed us that the highway we had just driven on is the second deadliest in BC, to the Kokahola.  OK, done. 

So a childhood favourite of mine is CALAMITY JANE, featuring also one of my all time fav’s Doris Day, and her love interest Howard Keele.  I am a lover of musicals for the most part, but this probably has to rank up there among TSOM (can any of you figure that one out?).  Anyway, so Mark and I were driving amongst the Black Hills of Dakota (check out this song for a little serenade as you read: video)  and we stopped on by Deadwood City, a place Calamity and Bill Hickock are both known.  We both loved the town, it felt as though we had just entered a western movie, with saloon’s surrounding us, pistols at the ready and all (perhaps a slight exaggeration).  It was awesome to see a place associated with a character that I have loved for so long (even though she isn’t as kindly represented in the TV show Deadwood).

Deadwood, South Dakota

Meg with Calamity Jane

Mark scanning the streets of Deadwood

I just want to add a few things about ole’ Deadwood. I learned much of its history from the HBO show ‘Deadwood.’ The show has real-life characters, including Sheriff Bullock, Al Swearengen, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Charlie Utter. Only three seasons: loved the first and third. The town from the show is not much different than the real town; it’s just how I would picture Deadwood 130 odd years later: casinos, one main street, saloons, the Black Hills all around. This was also the infamous site of Wild Bill Hickok’s murder. Well, you see, he was a big gambler and card player, and one day he angered a fellow player by taking his money in a fair game. Well, that player, named Jack McCall, snuck back while Hickok was playing cards and shot him right in the back of the head! (The cards Wild Bill was holding when he died is now called 'Dead Man's Hand': two black aces, two black eights).They didn’t show that in Doris Day’s ‘Calamity Jane’ now did they? Here’s a scene from Deadwood (it's the arrival of Wild Bill, the only scene I could find without swearing or blood): video. Now, back to Megan.

HBO's Deadwood

Doris Day Calamity Jane

HBO'S Calamity Jane

Previous to Deadwood we visited a place that Mark knows much more about…….Custer’s Last Stand, at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  For me this place brought back memories of my mama’s tasty custard, so you can see that my level of knowledge on the site wasn’t aplenty.  Hence why I am going to pass it over to Mark to tell you a little more about it.   (yes I know it’s not CUSTARD, but it’s where my mind went) haha

Well, not much to add. Custer was a General in the American Calvary; he was involved in the Indian wars, tracking down Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne when lo and behold he found himself surrounded by 2000 led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. His group of 200 positioned themselves atop the hill at Little Bighorn, killed their horses to use as barriers and fought the good fight. None of the Americans survived, including Custer. Back to Megan.

Little Bighorn

And the last stop for yesterday was MOUNT RUSHMORE.  Neither Mark or I had much information on the background of the site, when and why it was constructed, but nothing a little Wikipedia can’t solve (right Marky boy…I always tease him, as he uses this as his point of reference).  It was a pretty impressive bunch of heads, apparently they had intended on making some pretty impressive torso’s, but sadly ran out cash.  Oh well.  Anyone remember Richie Rich?  Brought back more childhood memories ha

Here’s Mark to go into a little more detail with Mount Rushmore. 

Hello, class. Well, Mount Rushmore was originally called Six Grandfathers and was a spiritual site of the Lakota Sioux tribe. There is controversy surrounding it, since the American government had given back the land after taking it in 1868. On this land, they decided to sculpt the faces of four American presidents into the side of a cherished mountain; seems a bit of a slap to the face to the Lakota to say the least. There have been several protests to this, including one in 1971. Presently, the Lakota are sculpting a rival to Mt. Rushmore: one for Crazy Horse, the Native American fighter who fought in the Battle of Little Big Horn. The battle rages on. Back to Megan with the weather. Megan?

So the light turned to dark, and the deer eyes were gleaming at the side of the road, so being my paranoid self we retired for the night in Murdo, South Dakota.  A few things of interest there:

-At the entrance to the Super 8 there were 2 boxes of semi-dirtied towels….one box reading CLEAN, one reading DIRTY….to clean GUNS and BIRDS. WTF! Comforting.

-I never saw one person NOT in hunting camo, without a pet….I guess you could say it was ‘hunting season’….as long as these fellas were just hunting animals made me relieved.  A nice image before we fell peacefully asleep for the night.  On to Minnesota (oh no, again), Iowa to the field of dreams (or the remains of one), and our end destination for the night CHICAGY as Calamity would say, CHICAGO as most of y’all would know it by.  Night partners for now, it’s turning in time. 

TRIVIA:

The answer to the trivia questions are: Mark was afraid of FREDDY KREUGER as a kid; Megan and her friend Christina dressed up as WALDO AND ODLAW.

Now, onto the new ones:

When Megan, her mom and brother Josh were in New Zealand, they decided to spend their hotel money on what instead of sleeping in a hotel for the night. As a result, they slept in a parking lot. What did they spend their money on? Was it…

a) Casino Slots and Blackjack

b) Custard Slices and Lemon Drops

c) an Expensive Indian Meal

d) a Whale-watching Adventure

At Mark’s brother Paul’s birthday party as a kid, what did Mark’s dad have to rescue little brother Paul from? Was it…

a) choking on ice cream cake

b) drowning in a pool of plastic balls at Chuckie Cheese’s

c) a weirdo clown

d) an overdose of helium from those darned balloons

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, IDAHO, MONTANA!

(Double-day post; check out below this one) 

Tofino was our furthest western stop. Our whole journey so far had slowly been leading us there, and once there, it was time to return east. My first post was called “There and Back Again.” Well, we completed the ‘There’ part, now it’s time to tackle the ‘Back Again.’

Seattle: the birthplace of grunge rock, home of the Mariners, the Seahawks and the Supersonics, home of Frasier and the first Starbucks, where Tom Hanks couldn’t get any sleep, where Grey hooked up with McDreamy, where it rains for a good part of the year.

We arrived in rain and left in rain. In between, we strolled around in the rain. And oh boy, what rain there was! We wandered through Pike Place Market and saw the famous fish stand where the big fishies are thrown back and forth. Across the street is the first ever Starbucks, founded in 1971 believe it or not; the logo is slightly different, a little more monstrous with more nudity. We also checked out the wacked out gum wall: basically as it sounds, a back-alley wall covered in gum. 

The 'Gum Wall': Modern Seattle Piece of Art

We didn’t visit the Space Needle due to the cloudy nature of the day, so we ventured to our hotel where he got dried up and hit the sack early.  

Next day we drove 1000 km or so from Seattle, Washington to Belgrade, Montana (which is slightly outside of Billings). In between Washington State and Montana, we skipped across the state of Idaho. I thought Idaho was the home of potatoes, but all we saw were Rocky Mountains; maybe the potato fields are to the south. Finally, we said goodbye to the Rocky Mountains which have been on the horizon, figuratively and literally, for quite some time now. Back to the plains and hills for us.

Our flight for Malaysia is on Nov. 13 at 12:30am-ish. We aim to be back in Elmvale, Ontario (north of Barrie) on Nov. 5, which would give us a good week of rest before we left. Other than Chicago, there aren’t many stopovers between Belgrade, Montana and Elmvale, Ontario. We plan to stop in at Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, and the Field of Dreams though.

Welcome to the Wild Wild West! No, not that horrible Will Smith movie, but the rolling plains from many a good western of old. Megan dislikes westerns, but I plan to convert her to a classic few: Unforgiven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Pale Rider, Little Big Man, Ride the High Country, yes, even Blazing Saddles. She does love the Doris Day movie Calamity Jane after all, and isn’t that a western…? To Deadwood we go! To the Black Hills of South Dakota!

VICTORIA!

Hey!

Soooo, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote, but Mark has done a fine job of keeping you all in the loop.  Thanks again to our kind hosts in Vancouver, it was great to see Kamala back in/on her stomping grounds (not sure if it’s in or on…seems like a question for an ESL teacher?). So from rainy Vancouver, to rainy Vancouver Island, we seemed to be getting the ‘hang’ of the west coast winter.  It very much reminded me of my days in New Zealand, not too cold, not too hot, just lots of moisture in the air….nothing a good umbrella can’t handle (aside from the slanted/side rain….that’s another story). 

Anyways, Mark and I loved Tofino, and yes I’d say he is hooked…I had previously surfed in France and England with my friend Rae, and a few times in NZ, and despite the several year breaks between bouts I also am hooked.  We’ll see what waves Malaysia has for us….or perhaps we’ll just have to venture down to Indo?  Laird Hamilton, Kelly Slater….you got nothing on us J

So, after Tofino we set off to Victoria….after a few stops along the way, and a craving for Swiss Chalet of all things, we got within 100km’s of Victoria.  It started to get dark, and of course it was raining, but HARD this time…joy.  I found this drive to be quite stressful….knowing that I would have a heart attack with Mark driving, I decided to take the wheel again.  To distract myself from the winding, rain covered roads (of which I could barely see due to a combination of poor headlights, and road lines that I think were painted to match the asphalt) we decided to make our pre-USA phone calls.  So Mark called his parents and wished them safe travels on their upcoming cruise, and I called my parents to get the updates (on speaker, of course).  I chatted with my folks for about 20 minutes, which kept me less focused on the sheer terror that the roads were and more on the convo.  So we arrived to Victoria, to an old co-worker of ours, Maureen and her husband Allan.  We got all caught up on the past year or so, and had wished that we allotted more time to chill, but the road was calling so we had to get back at it.  Maureen introduced us to a new YouTube favourite of hers (feel free to check it out…knowing that Maureen has an interesting sense of humour : here), we also watched a few Louis CK, which I had never seem before….pretty funny/dirty stuff for those out there who haven’t seen him. 

So back to it, the next morning we got a tour of the city, dropped Maureen off at work, and had some time to look around.  The city reminded both Mark and I of Ottawa, with the Parliament buildings, and shops, minus the beautiful Ocean of course.  So after our walk around we caught the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, where we would depart and drive about 2 hours to get to Seattle.  The ferry ride was pretty tame, some mild rocking of the boat, and after a short nap looked outside to see dolphins every few minutes swimming alongside the boat, which I was pretty happy about.  The next leg of the journey will take place in the U S of A….so check out our next post for Seattle, and beyond. 

Oh yeah…the answers to the trivia questions posted before:

The movie that first made me cry wasssssssssss…..common Juby, you better know this…..WHITE FANG.

AND to remember Mark’s middle name I think of………..common Alice, you better know this….SARAH JESSICA PARKER, as his middle names are SIDNEY JOSEPH.

And to leave you with 2 new Halloween trivia related questions:

What famous monster made it difficult for Mark to go to sleep as a youngster?

A) Chucky      

B) Jason Vorhees   

C) Freddy Krueger     

D) Pinhead

What horribly embarrassing costume duo did Megan get dressed up as with her friend, Kristina Bender in Grade 7?  (The year that Brooke went as Mimi from The Drew Carey Show, Josh as an upset Vampire due to a ripped cape, and Justin as a hyper Penguin).

A) Woody and Buzz  

B) Robin and Batman 

C) Tin Tin and Snowy  

D) Waldo and Odlaw