The Beautiful People in Illinois

Here are some of the
beautiful views of Illinois.
I think.
It might be somewhere else. But it must be...Anyway
There's a lot of corn and dramatic clouds.





I think that the photo of me infront of the Chicago skyline accurately depicts that I am both relieved, happy, grateful, annoyed, frustrated, and excited to be in Chicago. It was a real difficult endeavor to get into the city. The routes proposed by others and the way that we enevitably ended up going was all awful highways with no shoulder and evil drivers. I feared for my life. Once in Monee, IL. Maya and I took a break (= went to a dive bar for a beer). We debated our options for getting to the city and opted for a brief train ride from University Park to Downtown. Yay!











Where's Waldo in the bean?








Over here Over here we have the McDonalds Cycling Center. Pretty Cool. Never thought I would say "Good Job McDonalds". But here it is, because I support bicycle advocacy. You can rent, repair, and shower. (It's on Randolph Street-What's Up Randolph!??! Saw you all over the city. There was a Wallace Street too, ya know).

Here is Maya with a forced preggers belly. We had just consumed a delicious salad and split a pepperoni pizza at Gino's East Famous Chicago Pizza. Deep Dish. Did I say Delicious!?




Our second night staying with Adam Heenan, he took us to go see blue grass music. It was awesome awesome awesome! We went to the Hideout Bar. I even got to meet someone from Western Washington University who is also transferring there in the Fall: Tara. Super nice.

We made some friends at this event. We started talking to Aaron (blue family reunion shirt!). Lots of good conversation and he introduced us to Joel, one of the members of the band (they're cousins) Joel plays a mean steel guitar.

Aaron bought us the bands CD! Thanks Aaron, you are awesome, we are very happy to have met you. Hope you are checking out our blog and that you stay in touch about moving around the country and stuff.
We all had a real good time and Maya and I were so happy to get to listen to some good live music. Finally!

There is still a lot to be said. Adam Heenan is as much an amazing Couchsurfing host as he is simply an exceptional human being. Chicago could be renamed AdamsTown. We really enjoyed his company and are forever indebted to him for taking us in on such short notice, PLUS hooking us up with such phenomenal company across the state of Illinois!! Big shout outs to Cisel and Ellen (De Kalb, IL) and Curt, Veronica, Nathan and the whole Fam in Rock Falls, IL. Super great people who inspire me to share the community love.

Maya and I are currently in Rock Falls. We are two days outside of Chicago and meeting up with Papa, Roland Buelow. He will be driving out to meet us this evening! WooHoo!! Get your engines ready (bicycle engine legs), the bicycle adventure continues.

Signing Off,
Lara