5th May

Well we got here last night at about nine PM but that was 3AM UK time and we’d been travelling for 23 hours. We’d got lost coming down from the airport but I expect that and we soon found our way to the hotel by following our instincts and driving east.

The hotel is a bit of a hole with wires running along the upper parts of the walls without any conduits to contain the unsightly mess. Still we could avert our eyes downwards to the carpets that remind me of the sort that old people used to get way before we became old. This hotel has most certainly been passed over by the last century and is waiting for the look of tired and depressing to become the new chic.

Of course we were a little on the knackered side but needed to stay up a bit longer to get our body clocks in tune with the USA and reluctantly left the comfort of our room to take a stroll round downtown Chicago. We walked round for a bit and noticed that Chicago was a bit quiet for a Saturday evening but maybe we were just in the wrong part of it to fully appreciate it or to see its delights. We were wrong as it turned out but I’ll come to that in a minute.

Just outside the hotel and to the left was a railway line. Not just a railway line but it was on stilts and was in the sky. Now we’ve all seen this in the movies but to be right under it is fantastic. In fact it’s like being in one of the movies and yet all those people in Chicago just don’t bother. Not only don’t they bother, some of them don’t like it because of the noise it makes when the train passes their office of bedroom.

What’s up with them? I ask my train obsessed little self.

After a while we found a bar come diner on a corner of the street and went in there. You could watch something like 16 television screens all showing either sport or news. You have to feel sorry for people who are so obsessed that they have to have all the sports of America on screen when they are out for a drink.

Alternatively, you could look out of the window and watch the trains passing in the sky. How sad is that?

I said that I’d come to why we were in the right place and here it is. On our way back to the hotel we walked a different way than we’d come. Thing is that all American streets are in grid formation so everything is more or less at right angles meaning it is reasonably easy to find your way back to anywhere if you get a bit lost.

So we walk down this street and on the corner is Buddy Guy’s Legends Club. For those who don’t know who Buddy Guy is, he is the man who all the rock guitarists of the 60s wanted to be like. And I mean all of them from Clapton to Beck, Richards to Hendrix they all were influenced by this man. So we were outside his club and it was open 7 days a week meaning that Sunday night was going to be blues night in Chicago for the Gills.

We are staying in what is known as Downtown Chicago and you couldn’t get a more cool sounding description if you sat up all night with five of the most imaginative people on the planet. But on Sunday we took part in Daytime Chicago and it was fantastically American.

Everything is big here. The building are all massive and I know it will be said and probably has been by many, that it is like looking at a load of penises thrusting erect into the sky. No? Just me then?

Sky scrapers are not what you or I may think of as beautiful but here they look like the architects have lovingly designed them as a form of art with old and new standing out as different but at the same time being as one. And this skyline is right on the edge of a massive lake, Michigan, which looks like a sea with all the boats moored up on the “coast” like lakeside.

We took a stroll down the lakeside and there were loads of people jogging, running or walking fast in a determined way. Some were old, some were a bit overweight and most were pretty fit but all were serious.

The city combines the aesthetic with the functional everywhere you go. I’ve described something of the skylines and the beauty of the modern and old architecture but then there is the sizeable park area in between the buildings and the lake. This is not just lovely, green and well maintained, it is full of sculptures and fountains without a speck of graffiti to be seen nor discarded sweet wrapper of fag end.

At night one of the fountains is lit up and that is a spectacular sight with what looks like coloured water spurting up into the air. I took some pictures but to be honest they couldn’t quite get the magnificence of this art.

After breakfast we got on one of those tour busses where you hop on and off. After a little while we got off at Navy Pier and Grant Park. It was a bit cold but very sunny and we had art all round us.

There was a huge sculpture made of canoes and in front of it were a group of young musicians playing cellos, violins and double bass. Orchestral Busking in the Park you might say. There were other young people chalk drawing on the pavement and one of them was lying on a skateboard with his legs in the air so that he could get to the middle of his work without disturbing it.

It was so nice to be surrounded by so many nice people being both creative and entertaining but the best was yet to come.

We took a little walk to the Legends club and paid just ten dollars each to see a guy called Michael Coleman and his band play. We got some lovely Cajun food and lots of wine and got ready for one of the best nights ever.

Michael Coleman is an older guy who plays a mean blues guitar. His backing band is really tight and the entertainment flowed. The place was rocking and the interaction between Michael and the audience was like old mates having fun.

Then I noticed a young man go up to Michael as he was playing and Michael bent down to hear what was being said. Still playing he walked over to the other musicians and spoke to them. Something was going on.

When the song finished Michael went to the mic and said that they had a treat for us all and then went on to tell us that coming on stage was Buddy Guy himself. The place went crazy and a security man walked past my table with Buddy Guy following.

I have to say that it was like something magic had just occurred and Buddy went to the mic to talk for a while before singing. I tell you now that this man could read a menu out loud and it would sound like sex. He has such a deep voice that rises to a scream in the pace of a heartbeat and that is mixed with one of the most cheeky laughs you ever heard.

He slipped in and out of song and conversation and you could hardly notice the gaps. Some people shouted for him to get his guitar but he didn’t. Michael Coleman and his band did more than well enough and just to be there at that moment was like a privilege.

As soon as the session finished it was time for a break for the band and we went to buy Buddy’s latest CD for him to autograph. We got our picture taken with him as well as the CD and I was made up for the night.

May 6th

We are on the Mother Road again with the intention of driving to Springfield today. We want to spend some time in Springfield to see the things we missed last year. We also want to take in as much of Route 66 as we can and so try to spend more time on the route and less on the I-55 than I think we did last year.

Having got on the Mother Road as soon as we got out of Chicago having decided that the I-55 was quite close to our hotel and easy to get to, we drove some familiar miles before getting lost. I think I took a right turn too soon and we ended up on a disused road for miles before ending up on a country road that just went on and on through miles of farmland.

I don’t worry too much about this kind of thing. As far as I’m concerned we are just driving through some scenery that we would never have seen if we stayed on the right road.

Eventually we got back on the 66 and stopped here and there for some photos of some of the roadside attractions as they are known. All good fun but half the places are closed for some reason.

We’d been driving for most of the day without a real break and we decided to stop off for something to eat before looking for a motel. We ended up at a small town with a population of 8000 and an Italian restaurant in the centre. In we went and had one of the nicest lasagnes (other than Glen’s) ever.

We talked for a while with the owner of the place and by now I’m remembering what I really like about Route 66. What I like is that it is like a community, a family even, of people who are interested in you and you with them.

This guy was an Italian American who had recently been to Rome for the first time and thought the food was bland. I cannot imagine where he ate because when we were there the majority of the food was fantastic. Then again there was one place that we would never, ever be seen near, let alone in.

The 66 ends at this town for a while and we had to go a few miles on the I-55. Not a problem since it was getting late and we needed to find a motel. We’ve got one just a couple of miles from Abe Lincoln’s place and are going to stay a couple of nights here so that we can take in Springfield in a more relaxed way than last year’s rush.