3 days in...

I've made it to Chicago!  After finally getting on the road on Friday morning, 10AM I headed for Philly.  The only traffic I hit was in Jersey and that was only because of an accident.  I arrived at my friend Megan's beautiful apartment around 4:00 and eventually once I relaxed for a bit we hit up the city.  As historic a place as Philadelphia is we didn't exactly make our way to the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall, but that doesn't mean we skipped out on ALL of Philly's hotspots.  

After driving around for a bit we made our way downtown looking for some food.  I had only eaten a bagel all day so after my six hour drive I was famished.  We ended up going to McGillin's Old Ale House, Philadelphia's oldest continuously operating tavern.  The first beer was served in 1860 and now for the 150th anniversary they have 150 styles of beer!  I went with their own newly brewed IPA (McGillin's 1860 IPA) and it was pretty damn good.  After chowing down on a burger and some wings we jumped back in the car and headed to the one site I absolutely had to see...the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  I'm sure most of you know where this is heading because we obviously were not going there to see the thousands of beautiful collections they have inside.  No, instead we were there to see only one particular piece outside the museum. 

The Rocky Statue was originally shown in Rocky III as a tribute to the fictitious character.  It remained on the steps briefly until the museum deemed it an ugly "movie prop" and not art and it was moved to the sports arena.  It now resides at the bottom of the steps of the museum and is a huge tourist attraction.  I of course had my picture taken with it.  It is absolutely huge!  It's over 8' tall, bronze and we actually had to briefly wait in line until we could get a picture.   

After my childhood dream of seeing that statue was fulfilled we headed back to her place and relaxed for a bit until it was time to go out.  We ended up at some bar that served 40 oz Miller High Life (truly a classy establishment) but we still had a good time.  We made some new friends and eventually headed out for some late night snacks!  My first true Philly cheese steak was devoured (with way too much hot sauce I must add) at Geno's steaks and it was delicious...wizz and all.  

So that was my Philadelphia experience.  From Philadelphia I took a VERY long nine hour drive to Cincinnati.  I had to stop a couple of times, once to take a quick nap and then eat some food.  Pennsylvania gets bigger every time I drive through it and the number of cows just keeps increasing!  I got to Cincy around 6:00PM and met up with my cousin Chad and his friends at a bar where everyone was watching college football.  Of course they were 98% Buckeye fans, with a couple of Michigan and Irish fans thrown in.  Thankfully I didn't stroll in with any of my Miami or Irish stuff on because it would have made for a long night.  


Chad's friends were a bit out of control but it was a lot of fun and we had a good time.  We went out that night for a bit and sat outside hanging out, catching up and making new friends.  There was also a live band which was pretty good.  The next morning was a big deal because it was the Patriots opening week and they were playing Cincinnati!  Before the game we went to breakfast and then grabbed our cousin Alicia and her fiancé Louie and headed off to a sea of black and orange.  It was awesome!  We ended up finding a corner of the bar that had been reserved by a Pats fan for Pats fans only so that was pretty cool.  

I also got to meet up with Jessie and Zach and one of Jessie's friends who, outside of being a confused Cleveland/Cincy fan was pretty cool and we all had a blast watching the Pats destroy the Bungals!  What a great way to start the season.  Brady looked amazing (having hours in the pocket each play) and Welker looked pretty healthy.  The D looked good in the first half but evidently forgot there are four quarters in the football game...either way, great victory!  After the game Chad, Alicia, Louie and I went for ice cream and Jessie and Zach headed out.  We went to Graeter's, which according to Chad is the greatest ice cream ever.  I thought it was pretty darn good (mint chocoloate chip with jimmies of course) but I think Kimball's still has them beat.


After the ice cream it was time for everyone to head out.  Next stop, Chicago!  It was a quick five hour drive and outside of Garmin telling me to drive around in circles in Indiana just outside of Chicago there were no problems.  I actually made a quick stop in Indianapolis on my way through and got some pictures of their state house and the civil war museum, both of which were extremely impressive.  It was a very clean city and outside of Colts fans would probably be a cool place to hang out.  While driving through Indiana there were hundreds of windmills.  I had never seen so many.  They literally went on for as far as I could see.  You would just see all of these blinking red lights that went on and on for what seemed like forever, it was pretty cool.  


I got into Chicago around 10 and stayed at a hostel (where I'm typing this right now) and I am about to head off and wander around.  I'll let you know how it goes, probably once I've gotten to St. Louis tomorrow night.  I hope all is well with everyone back east, I miss you guys but I'm also having a blast on the road!  Talk soon...


Date/Days:9/13/10; Morning Day 4
States: 9
Mileage: ~ 1180
Next stop: St. Louis