100 Days Roadtrip: chicago! and not

saturday afternoon (9/19) we arrived in chicago to meet julia’s friend, maria at her school – school of the art institute of chicago. we visited her for a bit in her dorm room on the 14th (!!) floor of 7 w madison ave. very nice. then she went to her class and julia and i walked around chicago a bit:

View Full Album

then, i left julia in chicago to catch up with maria and i headed outta town to find a place to camp. the internet gave me two options. one, bliss woods nature preserve in kane county, about an hour west, and illinois beach state park, about an hour north. i liked the name, so i chose bliss woods, and headed west. omg! chicago traffic is the absolute worst!! only complicated more by endless road construction. nevertheless, i finally reached kane country and bliss woods, only to find out, just before dark, that the park closes at dark, and no one around to ask if there was camping. so i ended up car camping in the holiday inn parking lot (!!). you know, it wasnt bad at all. well lit and safe, and no one bothered me. i woke early (6 am) and headed back towards chicago and then north to illinois beach state park. arriving late morning, i found this place to be bliss. a beautiful campground right on the lake michigan. so i chose my spot, registered and went into town – zion – a great place to bee.

stopped at the piggly wiggly (hee hee) and bought some hot dogs. stopped at a farm stand and bought one corn and one nice tomato. when i got back to the beach, i left my corn and my tomato sitting on the table while i took a nap, only to find them eaten by some critter when i woke up!! when i woke, it had started to rain :o( , but only rained off and on the rest of the day. the camp store delivered me some fire wood and it had stopped raining enough to light a fire and cook some hot dogs (yum!). then the rain really got started so i cuddled inside the vibe and read half (!!) of jack’s dharma bums. it was nice to read, actually (smiles at doc). then it was night night time, as i fell asleep to rain drops. here are some pictures i took monday in the gray morning at the beach: