Sunday, August 16, 2015

0713, Sun, 081615. Chicago, Illinois.

We made it through the various states and are now in Illinois. Tess is having little moments but overall running rather well. She has plenty of get up and go as long as I don't push her over that 65 mph limit. This makes it a challenge when passing a truck that is slugging along slow on the uphill and fast on the downhill. The up side is being able to pull into the next rest stop and let her rest for a minute. It seems to reset something and we are good to go again.
Oh one other little glitch. It looks like the hose to the radiator was slit. I don't know if the mechanic was trying to make a tight fit or what, but it has created a leak and possible failure of the hose, so we dropped into the local Home Depot thanks to our GPS guide, Betty, and got some magic tape. This stuff is amazing. You soak it in warm water for a minute after putting on the protective gloves of course, then wrap the hose. After four minutes it is hard as a rock and will hold up to 1500 pounds of pressure. Remember that one when you burst a pipe around the house. So, on our way once more.
Katie, our host in Chicago, Sue's niece, was worried we would be stuck in traffic coming into Chicago but the show had started so there wasn't hardly a car on the road. We zipped through town, parked Tess at Jennie's, Katie's sister, and taxied over to Katie's. We were just in time to make the Blue Angels. We walked into the lobby of her apartment complex and were greated by the man behind the desk, Vince, who looked down his nose at us asking if he could help us. He had us sign in and gave us directions to the roof. We were 28 floors above terra firma and right at the spot a lot of the turns were made by the jets. I think one pilot had green eyes, wow, we were close. At times they were below us. What a show. They fly so close it is hard to realize they are traveling so fast. Such precision. I don't think I could walk down the street with such precision.
After the show we got a great tour by Katie. We walked a little, road a water taxi down the river and back, got a ride on the "L", short for elevated rapid transit, and ended the day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant in China Town.
We spent the night at Jennie's apartment, her getaway for when she comes to Chicago. It is a little, very little, apartment but perfect for a second place. So we are up and heading out the door to find a cup of coffee.......more later..