REAXblog

Sorry it’s been awhile since an update, but back to the business. Today went like a blur. We woke up in Chicago. I started off going down the street for a coffee while Micah went on a morning run. It became a point of contention over the trip how fast Micah can run a mile in. He says he could not break 6 minutes, I think he could do so this very second and further still could break 5 minutes if he trained to. Anyhow.

After exploring the neighborhood a bit, finding a “Seattle Style” coffee house, I waited across from the Dunkin’ Donuts near the Bryn Mawr “L” station. I knew where he was going to run because he left the page for the route up on the internet. I stalked him. Not too well, apparently, because he got back to the apartment without me seeing him, but I might have been busy reading the paper and just missed him.

We met back up, and went over the plan - drive to Akron Ohio to see the Akron Aeros minor league baseball team. We’d leave soon, like 9 am, get in to Akron at about 6pm, and then proceed from there. It’s not how things went.

First off, we got out of Chi late; maybe at like 11:00. We packed slowly, then drove down to Alvin’s place of work, and looked at the good work he was doing. I hope Micah explains it better in the comments, but the ultra-basic of it is that it’s a day center for kids. So there was that, but we hit the road.

We were going down Lakeshore Drive, past Oprah’s place. Micah and I discussed race and sex as they pertained to the election. I told him about my plan to go to Times Square on election night. We hit the freeway - I missed the UIC campus, which I would have liked to visit - and we were off.

We hit Indiana (and the Indiana tolls) pretty quickly. Unlike in Illinois, you just grab a ticket in Indiana and flash it when you leave the freeway, and pay a rated toll. There were Oases (Oasii?) just like in Illinois but they were on the side of the road, spaced about 50 miles apart each. It would be like this in Ohio too. We raced across, but stopped in South Bend. I had imagined South Bend to be deep in the heart of Indiana, that it was so close to Chicago surprised me. We visited the campus - saw Touchdown Jesus, the stadium, and conned a lady in the Art Museum into using her restrooms. We grabbed some lunch, I think Wendy’s, and drove on. But the stop was about an hour or so, and we could already tell that we wouldn’t make it to Akron in time.

Indiana stretched on for quite awhile. I had crossed each western state the hard way, in big stretches. In Indiana I was cutting across, but it still felt like a drive. We emerged eventually and bore down on Toledo. Just outside of Toledo we added gas (a sub 20mpg tank, I suspect because of getting lost in Chi) and soldiered on. I added a pair of energy drinks, maybe some gummi worms or something, while Micah got some granola bars and stuff.

In Ohio, they also have the roadside oases, they are a little more ‘mall’ like then I remember in Indiana; it’s got a food court, big screens with weather radars, travel time estimates, everything the family on the road needs. By this point, it was dusk, so we stopped at one to grab some dinner. Mickey D’s was the only thing open; our order was taken by a sassy but helpful lady; I finally had some Filet-O-Fish at $1.50 apeice. Mmm. I added some oil at some point here, just a single quart of the “Murray’s” off-brand motor oil which I picked up in Chicago. That’s a little mini-story:

On our way out of Chicago, I decided to buy another case of oil; there was a Murrays auto parts store (like a Schucks). When I hopped out of the van, an older black dude gave us his rap; he could fix our car, whatever was wrong, for real cheap. This was the type of guy the Venkatesh described in Gang Leader for a Day. I half expected that it could have been the same guy, Walter or something, but who knows? Anyways, the regular case of Penzzoil or Quaker State oil was going forlike $46, a little more than I wanted to pay, so I picked up the Murray’s for just $30, $2.50 a pint. All oil is essentially the same, right?

OK, after dinner, I let Micah drive, as I was getting a bit tired. Just back on the highway, Van Go stutters, accompanied by a loud ‘pop’ from the engine compartment. Micah noticed, but ignored it. I feared the worst, and didn’t say anything. Silent Magic. A few prayers in there,too.

It happened twice, the second time, Micah asked if that was normal. No, it wasn’t. Micah shrugged and drove on. About 30 miles down (and importantly, just like 3 miles past a rest stop) Van Go began rattling again, losing power momentarily as the engine skipped a beat. I became very away of the mileage markers; Van Go rattled on, popping about as frequently as the last few popcorn kernels. For my sanity, I order Micah to pull over to the road edge. It was 9 or 10pm at this point, very dark. Semi’s whizzed by. This wasn’t what I meant when I said I was on the road.

To Be Continued…