Day 12 - We Made It!

WoooHoo.....We made it!  When I say this....I mean to Chicago, IL, the end of the Mother Road!  We are certainly not done with our road trip yet!  2,700+ miles and 12 days....what a journey!  Now, I know that the "stated" mileage from Santa Monica to Chicago is less than the 2,700 (by about 300 miles) that we traveled but we took a few side trips and definitely made some wrong turns along the way that added some mileage on - who cares....we are here!!

We got on the road this morning from Chatham, IL where we camped and went straight to Springfield...the capital of Illinois, the city where Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president; made a life for himself.  This won't be something new....we spent more time here than we thought we might!  I mean, if you are going to stop in Springfield to take a look around, you might as well take a tour of the area where Abe himself walked the streets and lived - right?  That is exactly what we did.  We watched a little film about Abe and his life in Springfield and then took a tour of the area and his house which, by the way...is the only home that Abe and his wife Mary ever owned.  

That is Abe Lincoln's house behind us.

60% of the exterior of Abe's house is still original.  The backyard

has been replaced/ fixed up and the outhouse is from the same

period of time, but not the actual one that the Lincolns used.

80% of the interior of the house is original and was owned
by the Lincolns themselves - Furniture, wallpaper, carpeting,
the doorbell, the cast iron wood burning stove in the kitchen and lots
of the "decor" items - it is truly remarkable what great shape everything
in the house still is!

All above are originals with the exception of the top middle
L-R Top:
 Wallpaper in the dining room, Wallpaper in both Abe's
bedroom and Mary's bedroom (this is a reproduction), Wallpaper in the family room,
L-R Bottom:
Wallpaper in the guest room, Carpeting in most of the house,
Wallpaper in the entry

Honest Abe

We were in Springfield for at least three hours total between our tour and grabbing some lunch which didn't get us rolling to Chicago until 2:30 or so - agh!  There goes our "Let's spend most of our day in Chicago" idea!  Darn it!  At this point, we knew we wouldn't get to the city until 6pm at the earliest.  Wishing we had an extra day......we started our drive north.  

Just in case you were wondering...no, Chicago is NOT RV (or trailer) friendly!  I spent quite a bit of time on the iPad between Springfield and Chicago trying to figure out what we were going to do with the trailer once we arrived in the Windy City.  Our first thought was to set up camp just outside of the city, drive in and then when we were done; drive back to camp.  Well, the closest place to take the trailer was in Gary, IN which (without traffic) is a 35-40 minute drive into the city.  All other places were upwards of twice the distance away!  I am shocked, really!  So, it came in handy that I just happen to work at the convention center in Chicago every winter.  That's right folks....we took the trailer right into town and parked it in the convention center marshaling yard! Brilliant!  If you don't have a clue as to what I am talking about, here's a quick explanation....At the larger convention centers around the country where lots of trucks are delivering or picking up at one time, there is a large area sectioned off for the trucks to park and wait to either deliver or pick up - this is what is referred to as a marshaling yard.  This particular area in Chicago is also home to all the tailgating that commences pre Bears Football games in the fall/ winter.  

The drive to Chicago consisted of - Corn, Corn and.....more corn!

A BRILLIANT place to park the trailer overnight!

Once we arrived in Chicago and dropped the trailer, we made our way over to the Silversmith Hotel on S. Wabash.  A little gem of a hotel that I swear nobody knows about!  I hadn't stayed before but it happens to be right near Millennium Park which is where the kids decided they wanted to hang once we were in the city.  We checked in and wouldn't you know it...both of my children go to the closet first and yell, "Mom!!!  They have robes here!"  And.....I guess that's what's important. Put that in your back pocket and save it for the next time you are booking a hotel for yourself WITH the kids!   Robes = Hero...I am ok with that.

The Silversmith Hotel
Trattoria #10 for dinner

The Windy City Skyline

We walked to Trattoria #10 for dinner and once we were done there nobody had any energy to do anything but lay down - another long day had come and gone and we were done.  The decision to go to Millennium Park tomorrow was made.  Unfortunately, for Shale and I, that was not the end of it!  As we packed up our bags to spend the night in the city earlier, I realized after we got to the hotel that I had left something behind in the trailer - NOT brilliant!  As exhausted as Shale was from driving over 300 miles today, he took me over to where we had parked the trailer to get my make -up bag........you can stop laughing now!  Yes, I left my make-up bag behind and that's all I am going to say.  

The kids are now showered and quietly watching TV as they fall asleep.  I am too tired to shower at this point as is Shale, we'll have to get to that in the morning.  All I can think about now is how thankful I am that my husband has only had a couple, at most; driving frustration outbursts over the past 12 days and he didn't say one word about driving me over to get my make-up bag tonight! 

We made it!!  It's been 12 FULL days of driving, sightseeing, photo taking, laughing, joking, exploring, loving each other as well as solidifying the appreciation for this wondrous land we are blessed to live in. The night before we left on this journey I wondered if this trip across the country would be the "Trip of a Lifetime" or possibly a mistake.  If you ever have the chance to cram yourself and the ones you love into a trailer to live for a couple of weeks while you embark on a cross country voyage....do it!  You will never look back and regret one minute of it - in fact, you will wish it wasn't over.  

Until tomorrow.....