Chicago

The first thing that happened when we arrived in Chicago was guy offered me a free hot dog. No seriously, we were just past the BP oil refinery on the outskirts of the city, and suddenly a man at a hot dog stand shouted at us, “Where are you coming from?” I answered, “Arizona!” to which he replied, “Come and get your free hot dog!” Jared said, “No lets keep riding we’ll get sick.” I don’t eat meat, but I fucking wanted that hot dog.

Sometimes when you are bike touring, you ride past something before you think about it. The momentum supersedes the opportunities. The hot dog offering was sort of a momentary moral dilemma for me. For one thing I was starving. For another thing, I have a problem denying any kind of free food or kind gesture that someone throws my way. Toss me a hot dog, and I’ll figure out something to do with it LOL. I knew that I should have gone for it, but sometimes to keep rolling is much easier than stopping. For the next few hours I was whining to Jared that I should have taken that free hot dog.

We arrived at the lakefront bike path and the cityscape loomed in the distance for miles. We were hungry as we’d eaten nothing but cookies all morning. I was nervous about finding a place to stay for the night. I don’t like entering cities without knowing where we are staying, and though I’d tried repeatedly to line up a place to stay through warmshowers.org, no one accepted our request. Thus, the excitement of coming to a new city was squashed by my apprehension.

Finally we arrived downtown and it was like being thrown into the fire. Taxis, pedestrians, buses, bike messengers, and somewhere in there were two confused bicycle tourists all in the swarming urban clusterfuck of downtown. It was pretty overwhelming to go from waking up in a cornfield in Indiana to being shat out into the middle of capitalism at work in a bustling city. We were both a little stressed, and though I’d studied Google maps enough to have a basic understanding of where we were, I still felt completely lost. Once we steamrolled our way threw downtown, we found ourselves in the more hip neighborhood areas outside of downtown.

We ended up in Logan Square, which is sort of hipster-central neighborhood of Chicago and hightailed it to a coffee shop called New Wave Coffee. New Wave is a spacious place with black and white tiled floors, comfy chairs lining the walls, tables throughout, solid fast free wifi, and pretty decent coffee. I began desperately attempting to find us a place to stay for the night as well as potential residence for the month of November. It was raining. Things did not look promising. In a pathetic last ditch effort we taped a note to my bike seat stating, “We’re from Tucson. Can we sleep on your floor?”

Someone recommended that we check out Blvd. Bikes, a bike shop which was right around the corner. Since we’d discovered that my brake pads were completely worn, we decided to go and get some new Kool Stop pads as well as check out the shop. Well, when the guys in the shop learned of our predicament, one of them offered up his sacrificial futon for the night as a testament to weary bicycle tourists who come to Chicago without a place to stay. John turned out to be a super awesome dude who is very well known within the Chicago bike community. More about him in a minute.

Things were beginning to look up in the late afternoon in our new hometown. The shop let us leave our panniers in the basement while we went apartment hunting in the pouring rain. I’d found a possible sublet for us for the month of November. We headed to Rogers Park, which is a neighborhood on the far north side of town by the lake. It sort of has it’s own scene and things going on from what we hear.

The apartment is what I can only describe as so Chicago. It’s a sardine can sized place on the 3rd floor where the train comes literally about 2 feet from the window about every 10 minutes. Totes Blues Brothers.
“How often does the train go by?”
“So often that you won’t even notice it.”

The guy that we are subletting from is going on tour in a play and reminds me a lot of my former roommate in Tucson. We decided to take the place for the month. We’ll be paying $450, which split with Jared is just about the cheapest rent I’ve ever had. November will give us the opportunity to get our bearings in the city and attempt to get jobs. We can make a more permanent decision after that.

We made the trek back to Logan Square after securing the apartment. It was pouring down rain at this point, so we were soaked. But at least we had a place to stay thanks to John. I cannot describe how awesome it felt to take a hot shower. He made us veggie subs and provided libations. He took us back to the bike shop in the pouring rain to get our panniers. John has toured almost the perimeter of the U.S. himself and is a freelance writer and works in the bicycling industry. On top of that he seems to know everyone and is super friendly. I am glad that the cosmos steered us toward John.

I really mean that thing about how it is easier to keep rolling than to stop. Jared epitomizes that concept- and I know you guys have heard about our predicament before. The dude has been on the road for about 3 years. Is he even capable of anything else at this point? To stop requires that you suck it up and join the masses. People aren’t going to be throwing free hot dogs your way. You have to struggle like all the other wriggling maggots. Jared seems to cringe every time we talk about potential employment. I think that Jared and I are both feeling exceedingly overwhelmed. There’s nothing like a sprawling metropolis to remind you of your relative insignificance.

-L

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