Travel Series: U.S.A. part 1

The first time I visited America was during my world trip with Dad in 1998. We had already driven across Australia and seen much of New Zealand's north island, but next up was my very first trip into the U.S.A., about which I was extremely excited! I've got family in the U.S., but it's also the country that spawned/reared some of my all-time favourite musicians. To my teenaged self, it would be amazing just to set foot on American soil (still is to my adult self, actually!).

Dad taking a photo on the way to Chicago

- and that's our Chrysler!

We flew from Auckland to L.A., where a lot of my mum's family lives. In Mar Vista with family, I got the longest night of sleep I've ever had in my life (18.5 hours or so). Once we'd recovered from our jetlag, we set about arranging the next leg of our journey, which was where Auto Driveaway came in. We didn't know where we'd be going, but that was half the fun of relying on driveaway cars. After turning down the first car we were offered (it just wasn't fancy enough for our liking - yep, even soon-to-be homeless hobos can be auto-snobs sometimes), we wound up with a beautiful Chrysler Cirrus. This car, which went fast and smelled new (and had a CD player, man!), was bound for Chicago.

If you look closely, you can see Dad lying in the road,

taking yet another photo!

We had three days to reach Chicago. By Dad's calculations, this gave us a bit of leeway to take our time and enjoy the trip. During that trip we passed through the Death and Monument Valleys, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon National Park (stopping at the Canyon itself, on a day when it was snowing). We drove through countless towns, small and large. We paused at a lot of truck stops and slept in the car each night. Sometimes we slept parked by fields of snow, other times amidst semi-trailers. All in all, it was an amazing drive.

Crand Canyon, 1998
 - you can't tell but it was snowy 

I was still most excited to reach Chicago, though, since I'm a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan. Part of my seventeen-year-old self did daydream of bumping into Billy or D'Arcy or James or Jimmy while in Chicago, even though I knew we'd only be there a few hours before moving on (it was general policy that we wouldn't linger overlong in any one place). But I still took in the tiny part of Chicago I did see with a sense of wonder. I glimpsed Lake Michigan (which Dad pronounced "Lake Mitch-i-gan") and daydreamed of rock stars.

One of the roads Dad practised rally driving on.

On the advice of a local woman, we headed for Chicago's Green Mill bar where apparently Al Capone used to hang out. A band was playing jazz, and I think we got some Mexican food from a place next door. Outside the Green Mill, I met a homeless guy who was collecting money. I gave him a dollar and asked his name. "Lester!" he said, and I responded, "Really? My dad's name's Lester!" When Dad appeared, I introduced the two Lesters, and took a photo of them with Dad's camera. Sadly it turned out really dark and you can't see much (or anything, really).

Finally, our time in Chicago ended. We had a new driveaway car and a new destination - Philadelphia. But true to our style, we weren't exactly going to drive straight there. I'll write about the drive from Chicago to Philly next time. :)