Day 5: 8/12/02:

• 6:20 hit the road
• tried to pick up on the KOA chicks last night... Boy that sucked (disaster) [I still fee bad about giving Brian the "dude, you can do this" hype-up before sending him in to the lion's den... let us not speak of this again.]
• spent the day in Chicago
• Camera rewound after 2 pictures... What the fuck? [Brain broke it.]
• Saw Sears Tower. Went to the top. Pretty tight
• Sat and watched Sears tower video and somebody kept taking pictures of it... pictures of a movie... hmmm... [The whole Sear's Tower experience was pretty odd. The elevator ride on the way up had a short movie, complete with star-tours-esque mishaps and shenanigans. There's something unnerving about an elevator "pretending" to go haywire... I wonder if there are people who would've opted out of going to Sears Tower if there wasn't a wacky movie for the trip up... There should've been a movie for the long ass line that we waited in for tickets... I felt like there should be a roller coaster or naked women at the end of it... instead I coughed up a fistful of cash. weak. I think the best part of that place was the fakin' pictures you could get while waiting in line. "Hey! I just drove all the way out to Chicago and got a picture of me in front of a picture of the Sears Tower! No shit! and it only cost $8! You even get a realistic reflection of the flash in there at no extra charge! I'm gonna go shoot up some bleach..." Me'n Brian took a pretty good karate one, but declined to purchase...]
• Tried to have a woman take our picture at the top, but she couldn't figure out how to work the camera and I thought she was going to break down and cry right there. [she didn't, so I had to dropkick her down a flight of stairs..]
• Pretty awesome car fire on our way in
• Walked around 4-ever looking for a diner to eat breakfast at. Ahh, Monday's was great [It turns out that it was about a block and a half away from where we parked, but we'd walked for 45 minutes before getting directions from some diner-saavy lady.]
• Met a dude who was convinced Nate was from Ireland studying linguistics. Nate tried, but couldn't convince him otherwise. [This happened right around the time something we came off of the L tracks and went in my mouth... I was on a roll already. Brian and I were standing there, trying to figure out what train to take, and some guy with weird skin nobbies offered to help us out. He gave us directions and began following us as we walked down the street. I politely ended the conversation a few times, but this guy was a master... "So you're irish, eh?" For an instant, I envisioned me responding "yes" and him beating the living shit out of me for stealing jobs from well-to-do italians. I jokingly replied "yeah" (I figured I hadn't had a bottle broken in my face lately and I was due.) Well, he took that ball and ran with it. He started asking what part of Ireland I was from, when I carefully explained that I wasn't from Ireland, re responded with "Ah... just practicing your linguistics skills, eh?" He walked with us for another two blocks, asking about what I was studying in school and telling me about the computers they use at his work. He ended up getting confused and walking away at one point. We breathed a sigh of relief]
• Rode the "L" to Wrigley field, took pictures, checked out waveland ave, [heh... I think a bug flew into Brian's ear when I took that picture... or maybe god was giving him a wedgie] tried to walk thru a parking lot, but found out it was "reserved"? [Evidently, reserved parking lots are also reserved for paid walkers, too. The guy pointed indignantly at the sign as we approached... like we should've known better. We ended up walking along the cement divider between the ghetto and the reserved area. I totally snuck 3 or 4 steps in on the reserved side. moral victory!]
• took "L" to Belmont, went to army surplus, Belmont is way indi/punk [I'm going to move there and marry some tattooed girl someday]
• A man was wondering, "why that truck is parked over there?" Nate didn't know. Random. [so there I was, taking the god wedgie picture of brian when this guy walks up to me and says "I'm trying to figure out why the (Budweiser) truck is parked on that side of the street." I shrugged and tried to look harmless. He kept right on going "I got it, look!" he pointed to the bleachers on the roof of the building that the truck was parked in front of. I gave him the "yep. you've got it all figured out. the world is yours" look and bolted. I scrambled up on top of a phone booth and waited until he scurried back under a rock before I came down.]
• Got oil changed, the dudes tried to sell us wipers 4 times. [They seemed nice enough, but they must've been smuggling in wipers from Bolivia... they were pushing them so hard. I left to call my sister, and brian had to knife fight one of them to keep him from affixing new wiper blades to my car.]
• We kicked ass at navigating the public transit. B.T.W. Nate doesn't know north from south [It's true. This was proved time and time again in New York... but Brian's no saint. He sent a random couple into Queens at 1 in the morning... the poor saps.]
• Decided to barge to Toronto, it's going to be awesome, eh [There's something great about being in Chicago at about 6 at night and saying "tomorrow, we wake in Canada" and then doing it... man. we rule.]
• 4:00 Indiana! Missed the sign though [Indiana is a silly place, anyway.]
• 4:16 So far lots of fire works and strip clubs
• 4:50 Michigan, great state motto, but not as good as Indiana's "Fuckin' A"
• 5:14 Injure/kill a highway worker: $7500 + 15 years
• 6:10 42 wheels on 1 truck!
• 8:54 66,666 miles on Nate's car
• 8:57 CANADA!
• 9:17 [(PST) 12:17 kanuck time] Smuggled 10 beers into Canada. So far, so good. So I never realized until now, when it actually matters, but the km/h markers on my spedometer are totally invisible at night. Well, at least Brian's driving. [The joke's on him!]
• 11:59 started setting up camp.[2884 miles] I showered. [It's important to note that when I actually note taking a shower, that's probably the only time I actually take a shower... you can rate my scummyness by how many entries I go without mentioning bathing.]

  onward to day 6! >