Chicago: My Kind of Town

I am tired, but not super-sleepy. I was dozing earlier after I came home.

Let's see. Saturday, I drove to the Lake Bluff train station with my bike. Bad idea. I should have ridden there. I ended up scratching my paint on my car because I had my bike jammed half-way in the trunk (too big).

Got into Ravenswood about 5:30 and rode to Anne's apartment (I had giggle fits at the thought of riding my bike in Chicago - don't ask why, I don't know). Anne was running late from her errands, so I wound up meeting her at the El stop. Kristi was going to come over and hang for a while, but other things happened for her, so Anne and I just went to Trader Joe's for light dinner stuff. We got the most important stuff: Beer!! The heifeweizen we got there last week was so good that we decided to try the bohemian lager. Not too shabby. It was fun for Anne to lug all the stuff back in her little backpack! I didn't bring a small one, so I couldn't help (we were both on our bikes).

We ate our food while watching 1 3/4 discs of Veronica Mars. Anne enjoyed the show. Hopefully she'll continue to watch it. We were going to bed around 11pm (which was much later than we intended)...just as we were both about to fall asleep this fucking car alarm went off in the street.

I have never before wanted so badly to trash someone's car. Seriously. This was the same alarm that was going off last week. It just goes off and off and off....for no reason!! And whoever the fuck it belongs to doesn't turn it off!! This was past midnight and we were getting peeved. We had to be up at FOUR IN THE MORNING to go to the Bike the Drive start. We wound up calling city works and going outside to report the car. We were NOT the only ones. There were two other irate neighbors doing the exact same thing. It was practically a block party. I was halfway serious when I said we should just bring out the rest of the beers and sit on the grass and wait for the cops to come. God, it was annoying. The cops finally came and tried to find the owners. The found the apartment, but no one answered. They ticketed the SUV. I hope it was fucking expensive.

Funny? Having the alarm go off again while the cops were there. Someone came over one of the cop's radios and asked him "are you at that car alarm yet?" [I'm sure dispatch was getting annoyed with the calls.] He clicks on his radio and says, "You mean THIS one?"

Long story short - damn alarm went off again in the 2 and 3 o'clock hours. Seriously. Next time I'm down at Anne's and that fucking thing goes off? It's getting broken. I will wear gloves, wipe my prints - whatever - and I.will.break.it. I have a baseball bat in my damn car trunk.

Okay, maybe I won't take my bat to it (that's noisy and wakes the witnesses neighbors), but I can think of several other silent options that will permanently incapacitate that vehicle. And I could probably find several other people who would love to join me in doing that!

Anne got up in the morning first while I kinda laid on the air mattress wondering what the hell I was doing getting up so god-awful early.

We got out the door and the first thing Anne does is nearly impale herself on some short spiked fencing while trying to get on her bike. Morning people we are not. Lord. We rode to the Wilson stop (red line) and got on...and then something else weird happened. There were plenty of cyclists getting on to go to the start. It was cool. But it was also very early morning - when some of the finer denizens of the city are stumbling home. There was this high/drunk dude that got on and he started up a ruckus with a kid (who probably didn't help the situation by running his mouth off). Rule #1 of city survival: don't start trash talking some high/drunk/violent dude who can beat your ass if you're a scrawny runt of a 13 year old. So of course, the kid's mom has to try and calm this freak down - and it's just not working. He was HOT (and I don't mean hot-sexy); he wanted to beat the shit out of that kid. He was saying vile things to the mom, too. One woman pushed the help button to call the engineer, another guy called the cops on his cell, and several other men got up to intervene and keep the psycho dude away from the woman and her kid. All things considered, I was impressed with how many people stepped up to try and get rid of the loser. But it was definitely uncomfortable. He finally got off and was escorted away by security at the Fullerton stop.

All of this before 5:30 am. Oh yeah.

We got to the Columbus/Balbo entrance of the event. Dude, it was exciting! It was a gorgeous morning for a ride as well - sunny and warm (not too warm like it got to be later, thankfully). Anne and I decided to head south first to the Museum of Science and Industry. Fucking hell - that place is away from EVERYTHING else in Chicago. I've never been down there before. It was unbelievable to ride right along the lake going past downtown with all the skyscrapers, Soldier Field, McCormick Place. FUCKING AWESOME. Once we got to MSI and turned around, it was postcard picture perfect to see the whole skyline of the city loom up in the early morning haze. Chicago is beautiful, no ifs ands or buts about it. Going north you hit Navy Pier and that section is much closer to the water (the Gold Coast area) than the southbound section. I so wanted to take a dip in the lake by that point. I hope Anne's pictures turn out - I can't wait to upload them.

We probably got going at 6am. I don't know how many of you know Lake Shore Drive, but it is amazing - goes right along Lake Michigan. Very scenic and very busy with cars unless, of course, they shut it down for this event! It's only in its fifth year, but this thing has gotten MASSIVE. I can't tell you how many thousands of cyclists were out there. I couldn't believe it. People of all ages and abilities. If the racing numbers we had to wear were any indication, there were at least 16,000 people registered. Anne and I were going at a pretty good clip, but we were getting smoked by the hard core cyclists - the people on the racing bikes, in their high tech gear and drafting each other. At times, a pack of them would pass on the left and it would sound like a car passing you. Freakish! I wonder how fast they were going!

Anne and I wound up doing the whole 30 mile trek - and we were done by 8:30 and that included the likely half hour we spent at the two rest stops at the north and south ends. Like I said - we were BOOKING along. According to the website, the full 30 miles should take three hours for a casual (6mph) rider, 2 hours (10mph) for an intermediate rider, and 1.5 hours (15 mph) for an experienced rider.

I was so impressed with how well we did (pretty much 10 mph throughout). Especially Anne - she hasn't even been casually biking like I have. Fuck, she just got her bike last weekend! We were pretty peppy up until the last leg going from Bryn Mawr back to Columbus/Balbo. That seemed to be ALL uphill and it was the section of LSD (yes, isn't it funny that Lake Shore Drive is shortened to LSD?) that has the worst pavement conditions. God, it was nasty right before Navy Pier - it was a long incline and I just had to put my head down and pedal like it was the only thing that mattered. Gorgeous (albeit evening picture) here of LSD and I did ride on this section! Anne and I weren't talking by that point - not enough breathe/energy left to talk! We were hot and grimy and sweaty. Yuuuuck!

The worst thing was how your ass and other delicate parts were getting abused by the bike seat. Thankfully both my legs and everything else seems to be fine right now. I don't have any soreness. I hope it stays that way.

We rested at the festival area for a little bit once we finished, and then headed back on the El to her apartment. We got cleaned up and then met Kristi for a late breakfast at 11am. I still smell of sunblock though. I couldn't scrub it all off myself, apparently! It's in my damn pores! Anne and I were both sleepy after breakfast - food coma and tired! We'd already been up for eight hours practically!

I took the train home at 2:48. Hot afternoon. I was so glad to get home and find the AC on. I dozed for a while until I had to get up and myself something to eat and drink water. I was feeling nauseous and faint - that bike ride definitely took it out of me!

Still, I'd do it all over again. If you're ever in Chicago on a Memorial Weekend, I highly recommend doing the Ride. There's also the L.A.T.E. (Long After Twilight Ends) ride coming up, but I don't know about that one. It is literally during midnight and it goes past the IIT campus - not exactly the best neighborhoods, even if you are with a herd of cyclists. Some of my friends have done it in past years when the Cabrini projects were still largely in existence (I think there's only one building still open now) and it was dangerous.

Oh hell - look at a photo from a previous L.A.T.E. ride. Now I wanna go!!