The Wild West Part VI -- Road Trip

Navigating by GPS is great, but realistically you have no real idea of the big picture. I could plot a course to the Million Dollar Bar in downtown Jackson just fine with my GPS, but I could not plot a 4 day road trip across the prairie to Chicago that would take in the places where we wanted to stop off and visit along the way without that old style thing... the map. I love maps, I really do. I love to see where I am and where other interesting places are that I have never visited. I also like to see where I have visited in the past as that brings back some very happy memories so have bought some big area maps for home and have started to push little pins into them marking where we have been! I know, pretty anal. Whatever. So I bought some road maps and along with Google Maps started plotting our way back to Chicago. Total distance approximately 1500 miles with stops and side tracks along the way; 4 days and 3 nights; how long in each side visit....

See. People still do do back of the envelope!

It took us to some fun places too. The further east we drove, the more cars, people and towns we encountered. The stretch across Minnesota was fairly busy. It could have been the 4th July driving weekend I suppose but that bit wasn't as enjoyable as the earlier bits. For accommodation I chose wherever I could to stay at places on the Missouri River, trying to keep a Lewis and Clarke theme if I could. It didn't work after the Little Big Horn excursion as that area is almost totally devoid of towns, the nearest being a tiny town called Hardin where things closed down at 8.30 pm which came as something of a shock when we were looking for dinner. It turned out just fine in the end though but it did make us consider that we should probably look to do things earlier in the evening for the next couple of days.



We chose Wisconsin Dells because of its proximity to Chicago (less than 3 hours on our final day) and because we wanted to try some cheese! However if you want to know what we enjoyed the most on our road trip, in no particular order they are:

The Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. Viv bought a can when we came back to Penang!

The sight of Viv cleaning dead bugs off the windscreen and the amount of hand soap used afterwards

The really beautiful locations

The huge country... and of course the hat.

The ever changing roads

Most of all the company

The Wild West Part II -- Jackson

The town is called Jackson NOT Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is the entire valley in which Jackson is situated at the southern end, with Yellowstone National Park in the north. The Hole was in fact first 'discovered' by western fur trappers, actually one Mr. Jackson after which ... you get the idea.

The 'Hole'

When you look back at history from say a couple of hundred years perspective and get past the old history book notion that history was just a series of unconnected dates, you do realize that they are not and it all goes back to Napoleon.

Why does that guy keep sticking his nose in everywhere? Years ago I was reading a PG Wodehouse book where a not very deep conversation between a couple of airhead drones touched on old Boney whereupon one of the savants came up with the glorious comment... "whatever did that poor fish do other than getting hammered at Waterloo?" Quite a bit actually including this. Tangentially this time though.

So... the French Revolution in 1789 brought forth many changes, one of which was almost endless war with practically everyone in Europe until said occasion in 1815. Wars are expensive so by the time Boney took over and completed his looting of the countries nearest to him, Switzerland and Italy, he realized that the loot so acquired was nowhere near enough so he cast around looking for any other family silver that wasn't cutting it whereupon one of his aides named Junot came in with yet another horrendous report from Haiti. The revolution there was going really well but for the wrong people; the freed slaves. They had been fighting against the revolutionary government in France who was acting in a very non revolutionary manner ever since the Revolution began. Despite Junot's genocidal tactics, whenever the French looked the other way, something bad happened that usually included French soldiers getting massacred in hideous ways. In short it was a total mess. Now Boney, had a strategic desire to create a major port in New Orleans and use Haiti as a stepping stone to upseat the British in all their Caribbean locations but that required time, effort, money and resources .... none of which Boney had to hand. Just this bloody European war. But the American colonists were friends of theirs, weren't they? And that feller Franklin something was ambassador. He was always droning on about this or that. But it did offer a neat way out. Sell him (well the Americans) the huge Louisiana territory and raise some cash which Boney really did need and could put to use at once. That other strategic thing was a nice thought but really he had to take care of business at home first. And of course, you never go broke by taking the money.

So Boney got the money and the Americans a huge new territory about as big again as what they had already. How they financed it is another fascinating story! The Americans certainly didn't have that kind of ready money. But it was done. And now they also had a huge new tract of land to explore and do something with. I mean they bought it, right? So it must be theirs irrespective of who was actually there right now. Read about the full story here from Wikipedia.

You got a lot for your money back then. 3 cents per acre.

This all took place in 1803 and towards the end of that year, the then US President Thomas Jefferson hosted a couple of roughnecks who had a mad cap idea to head out in canoes and explore the new territory starting in St Louis and then heading north or wherever the Missouri River led to in the end. Presumably the western ocean somewhere. Their names were Lewis and Clarke.

Their story is one of the great pioneering stories and is all the better known by virtue of the fact that they kept sending back reports to GHQ. This must have kept reducing the number in their party over time and it was on just one of these side trips one of the guys (John Colter) took in 1804 was with this just in mind. However he took a wrong turning by mistake (this is all river bound and rivers do look pretty much alike I think, certainly then) and tripped over and into Yellowstone Park, kept on going south and well as they say the rest is history.

You can see how a wrong turn back then would get you to a whole new place

The history books report all of this with such veneration that it almost behooves me to not do that as I can just imagine Lewis & Clarke rushing back to the president gushing with the news that this new area is millions and millions of square miles of virgin land with forests, lakes and rivers and such just waiting for new settlers from the east and elsewhere. To which I presume TJ saying something along the lines of what did you think would be there, if not that? But I am sure he didn't. He congratulated them and gave them comfy sinecures somewhere miles away from both the new lands and also TJ himself in Washington, so there was no chance of them bumping into him and asking how the settlement program was coming along. He would have filed it all away for future generations to figure out just what on earth they do with this enormous new land they had acquired as there were no new settlers to spare from back east just then.

Settlement didn't start until the 1820's but only sporadically as the entire valley was snow bound for seven months a year which wasn't very encouraging with the technologies then available. Think Grizzly Adams and the Revenant movies. Then make it a lot worse. However this also meant that for large parts of the year, there were no Indian tribes around either. In fact across the plains, there were few permanent Indian settlements courtesy of both terrain/weather but also the migratory patterns of the critters that they preyed upon. Given the size of the country and the few numbers of mainly itinerant people around, I find it amazing that anyone could find anybody else. So for many years, there was relative peace. Into the 1850's anyway.

We visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield Monument -- its actually about 7 hours drive away in south eastern Montana -- and in the visitor centre there is a picture of the agreement of 1851 which set aside vast tracts of land for the Indian tribes. The land size was virtually all of South and North Dakota and more than one-third each of Montana and Wyoming. Given that at one of the peak gatherings of several tribes on the eve of the battle itself encompassed some 6 tribes and 8,000 people, this seems to me like a tiny number of people with a huge amount of land.

It was that battle and the events that followed it that spurred greater settlement in the Jackson region but what took Jackson to all new heights was Theodore Roosevelt and the sheriff of  Deadwood, Seth Bullock. They were big friends and TR stayed with the sheriff when he was out west and just loved to roam around Yellowstone to the point that the pair of them decided rather informally that the scenery and location was of such grandeur that it should be protected in virgin state forever. This was before development so the perfect time to do this, and of course miles and miles and miles away from any other development like say Chicago. And no trains. And no roads. So they got together a state wide agreement to set aside the land and then jointly took it to Washington for federal approval. This took place in 1872 and so Yellowstone became the first national park in the US.

Soon after, train tracks were built and tourists started arriving and where should they find to stay but that charming little western town of Jackson.

The Grand Tetons

150 years later it is still small but still charming and has expanded its ambitions to encompass the Grand Teton National Park in 1929 (huge mountain range) and discovered that for some insane reason, otherwise perfectly rational people had this massive desire to launch themselves off the top of mountains down impossible slopes in winter, by tying sticks to their feet, and in summer, by bike. Same paths, I kid you not.

There are roads now and also traffic jams...

... but not everywhere

Oh yes, and those economists also like it.

The Wild West Part I

Now I cannot remember whether this is Part 1 or whatever for this title but as it chronicles our visit to Wyoming and car trip back to Chicago across the prairies, that's what I will call it. More parts to follow.

I don't know if I've mentioned before in this blog that Viv and I have the notion to visit every one of the 50 states in the USA, so we do and this trip ticked off a lot of new ones for us. But of course that isn't the reason for wanting to do this trip, it's that Viv and I enjoy road trips and the US is so big and so diverse that it makes it really interesting, fun and easy to do. This time... and it really never occurred to me before in this way ... I really do see why the Americans love their driving, their big cars (bikes and trucks too) and not that infrequently do not feel the need to get a passport as their country is both big enough and accessible enough for anyone.

We were in Toronto after our Bermuda trip and whilst not exactly wondering what to do with ourselves, had a couple of notions of things to do whilst we were in North America. My first thought was to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is one of them so the start and end point wasn't too far away and as the lakes spread out across the continent, they take in a mass of both US states and Canadian provinces.

The Great Lakes

Then we remembered we'd have to hire a car and cross the international border at least a couple of times, if not more. And we've heard about the increased delays with all the Homeland Security stuff so thought it may be simpler to just stay in one country which meant looking for a flight west somewhere and then onwards. So Plan B (again mine) was to hire a car in Chicago and then drive out to the Rockies... and back. In a week or so. Viv said isn't that quite a distance so I looked on Google Maps and discovered that yes indeed it was a long way. About 3,000 miles there and back actually.

So onto Plan C.

Viv suggested flying out to the Rockies and then hiring a car and drive back. Now this was a better idea and of course the driving distance back would be just about half of Plan B, so much more manageable. And we'd get to spend some time way out west too instead of just driving there and turning right around.

Next question was where? Then I remembered about Jackson Hole which is in Wyoming.

Being a nerd, all I knew about Jackson Hole was that it was the home of the annual Fed jamboree, sort of like a Davos but in the USA. It takes place in August each year. This is what the Kansas City Fed website (the sponsors) say about it:

'The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is an annual symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City since 1978, and held in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1981. Every year, the symposium focuses on an important economic issue that faces world economies. Participants include prominent central bankers and finance ministers, as well as academic luminaries and leading financial market players from around the world.'

Pull the other one, I say. What a load of nonsense. They could do this symposium in Cleveland or Dodge City even if they wanted to stay in Kansas, but by chance selected the most picturesque little town on the edge of the Rockies with plush resorts and 5 star dining everywhere you looked. Does the 7,000 feet high mountain air really clear the boffins' minds or is this just a total bean feast? Yeah, right.

... which of course was great for us as (a) the great and the good would not be there and (b) it sounds like a really spectacular place.

It was.

Booking flights, car, accommodation and tours was of course a breeze but before we left we went for dinner to a friend's house in Toronto and he told us that Jackson Hole was THE Mecca for skiing in North America. We didn't know this but then again he and his family are big skiers so they do know even though they've never visited. He backtracked later that same evening and said that Jackson Hole was A Mecca, rather then THE but still its reputation was pretty darned good.

So much to look forward to then. One thing that was a pain was the flight leaving Toronto to make the connection to Jackson Hole. It was at 6.30 am which meant a ridiculously early start. Why couldn't those important people complain about the ungodly hours? Oh yes, forgot. They use their private jets.

Cool airport!

Watershed

Its been a week or so since Viv and I went to see the next band on our summer to do list in Toronto and that time has provided food for thought. I cannot say that it has been great thought or even very deep, just rambling thought.

Unlike the other shows, this day it rained. Poured in fact and all the way down to the concert as we trolled from the trolley stop to the venue at the Budweiser Amphitheatre on the lake shore, I was trying to remember when Viv started quizzing whether I had bought tickets under the roof or not. I couldn't remember so kept my fingers crossed and tried to keep changing the subject.

I had also forgotten there were two bands that night: REO Speedwagon being the other. Now I'd never really had any opinion of them. They were just another 2nd or 3rd tier American rock band of the the 1970's when I was listening to 2nd or 3rd or 4th or 5th tier rock bands in England, so I never heard any of their songs. Tonight though they may have played a lot of them because the audience was very responsive. And of course truth be told they were very, very professional and very, very accomplished. Like every other band from that era.

Listening to them actually made me feel a little guilty. How had I missed them? Why would I have missed them? They were good. Distance of course made that happen but I'd heard of a host of other American bands, some of whom were pretty obscure, so why not them? I think it was because they released a single that was cloyingly sickly and put me off from day 1. Don't ask me what that song was as I don't remember but they probably played it.

Blame singles then. But that would be unfair as the headliner was one that I'd 'discovered' as a result of a single they released back in 1968 or 1969 that was a total killer in England. The song was 'I'm a Man' and the band was either 'Chicago Transit Authority' or just plain 'Chicago', the name of their first album as well and confusingly in the liner notes they referred to this as well. Subsequently they became just Chicago so lets stay with them there.

I had watched a documentary/biopic on the band a few days earlier on You Tube (and don't you just love You Tube for stuff like this) and the band had said that their earliest singles had flopped until... and then they named something else (forget which tune). But that was wrong I thought for they were unheard of in England until their I'm a Man single went into the Top 10 in January 1970 (I thought it was earlier than this). Anyway on the basis of this single I, or rather my brother Jan and I, went out and bought their first album. He has it now regrettably but in my view this is their best album.

The show was a replicant of their second album, Chicago II, and was just great. They played their music and it wasn't just songs. It was their album. The second section was in their words "the songs you hear on the radio all the time". Their greatest hits collection in fact and my goodness it made me wonder just when they had become a ballad band. That wasn't what I heard on their first album and again to get clarity on this we must return to the biopic.

Basically it happened all of a sudden without them noticing either. The first inkling they had was when their bass player departed for a solo career. He was the cute one with the voice that sang all those ballads. However, they are stuck with an amazing back catalog and that is what the punters want to hear. Hence the greatest hits.

I so wanted to hear their first album greats again but I suppose they have released 20 or so later albums so shouldn't be surprised. But for those longing to hear them in their pomp go back to You Tube and listen to their concert at Tanglewood in 1970. Here it is!! Anyway the audience went wild and Viv sang along to their ballads.

And if you want to know what it was that took England by storm back in 1969 or 1970 well here that is too!!

They were really good.

And if you've made it this far in the blog and want to know whether I had actually bought tickets under cover or not, well I'll tell you. You know the bit of the roof when it comes to the edge and sort of turns down? Well when it rains the drips keep on coming because of that design.

Sadly our seats were directly underneath this....

Happy Trails

Just back home to Bermuda and the hot, sticky weather my first thought after 2 months away was how old Bermuda looks.  Not surprising I suppose seeing as it was discovered in 1609 and being small has been built over for years now, so there's precious little leeway to build big, new things.  Or money at the moment anyway although I do hope that changes soon.

Looking back on our time away though, here are some thoughts:

Chicago

What a great City!

That's it.  Nothing else.  OK, one thing someone told me about was the Architectural Society's city tours and how good they were.  He was right.  And this really leads onto a theme running through the trip which is that exploring somewhere through history brings perspective and so much more enjoyment than simply rolling up and trying to get going.  My son, Ali, recently went to Paris for a friend's wedding and visited some of the museums there which he said he really enjoyed.  I found this pleasantly surprising as I thought the young today don't read that much (if its not on a digital device) and don't care much for history beyond the first 20 second sound byte.

Chicago Board of Trade's throne style art deco building

Museums

Many of the museums we visited had guided tours of displays, events and such like.  Do them.  These tours are provided for a reason.  They are interesting and informative.  If the guides are enthusiastic (and ours were), this translates into a wonderful experience which brings so much more to what you are looking at.

Warning: You are in danger of learning something…

In Montreal, for example, at the Pointe a Calliere Museum -- the museum of the city -- a temporary exhibit was of one district in the City just outside downtown.  I couldn't for the life of me understand why I'd care about some suburb but the tour convinced me otherwise and reminded me that everyone and everywhere has a story.  All you have to do is listen.

I now know for example why Montreal housing is built the way it is -- outside staircases because property tax at the time was calculated on living space, staircases being considered dead space were therefore built outside.  Made no sense of course as with the city being snowed in for 6 months of the year, these staircases were death traps!

Not many people know that.

Baseball

The 2 games we went to were brilliant but make me wonder why there are so many games in a season. 162 regular season games is a lot so teams have to have large rotating squads and make sure they win 52% of their games to make it to the play-offs.  (Watch the movie Moneyball to see what I mean). This means the game can be managed statistically; beat that team, rest the good guys for this other team…

Takes some of the immediacy out of things.  Had we realised the St. Louis game was the final one in a 3-game series against LA and they'd already won the first 2 games, we may not have spent the $100 per ticket to watch a game that was fairly low energy (and importance to St. Louis anyway).

I think this is likely the case with NBA and NHL too.

Bourbon

I was hoping I'd like Bourbon but even the smoothest drink felt like a dagger in the throat to me (just like Scotch too).  But when incorporated into a cocktail such as an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan… whoo-hoo!

Draw daggers…

Old Fashioned and Mint Julep… that's what I'm talking about!

Interestingly as a side comment the barman at our cocktail course said that Canadian Rye whisky is the most popular US drink so that now many US distillers make rye too.  This is permeating into Bourbon making as well where the area in which it was originally distilled (Bourbon county in Kentucky) was expanded to the point where it could be made anywhere in Kentucky and still be called bourbon, and then again further still so that bourbon can be made anywhere… and still be called bourbon.

This would never happen in the EU who make sure that you can only legally get Yorkshire Pudding in Yorkshire.  Mind you the French are highly guarded over Champagne and Cognac so maybe the EU learned it from them.

Movies

We like movies and when away take the chance of spending lengthy periods in the local Cineplex 24 or whatever the local name is.  If you plan properly, you could spend an entire day in one of these places moving from screening room to screening room -- our record was 4 in a day.  The challenge is to find movies you like in the right order.

The biggest irritant is going out to buy multiple tickets and makes me wonder why these multiplexes don't just sell a day pass, or a week pass for that matter.  Double or triple a single ticket and enable movie goers to stay and go as much as they want.  They'd buy stuff at the concessions and probably generate more revenue for the cinema and at the same time obviate the need to hire people to check for those who hop from screen to screen without buying new tickets.

Make the experience better for moviegoers in fact.

Service

We went out a lot in the last 2 months.  Pretty much across the board we found that service in bars, restaurants and hotels was excellent but stand out moment goes to the Toque Restaurant in Montreal (see link here).

We were recommended this as being one of the best restaurants in Montreal and expecting it would be French-ish, we went.  Montreal isn't as French as I thought it would be nor was Toque.  It was new, elegant and had some French components to it but it was new American… and very nice too.  I'd ordered a bottle of red wine I thought would be nice and while drinkable it wasn't great and for some reason I mentioned this to the sommelier when he asked.

He apologised and asked if he could change it for us.

I hadn't expected this as it was my poor choice in the first place that I was happy to live with.  I certainly didn't ask him to change it.  He offered.

He also said let him choose a wine he thought we'd like… and he did.  And we did.  And it turned out to be a Serbian cabernet.  Very nice it was too.  The sommelier said he didn't want to tell us first as we'd never have agreed to try it.  He was right, we wouldn't.  I wish I'd made a note of the name as it actually was lovely.

As was dinner and the stunningly unexpected service level.

Luggage

We made some very poor choices regarding luggage in our trip earlier in the year and had cut things down to just the 3 bags … from 6.  Progress certainly but still not perfection.

What were we thinking?

Travelling these days with luggage is a real pain.  Virtually all airlines now charge for luggage -- AA I think was the hold out in the US but they gave up in April when they merged with US Airlines.  Yet another added cost on top of the quoted fare.  Security and Immigration controls are also a pain.  If the US ever increases its Amtrak routing, I'd consider trains more.  No immigration, no travel to/from the airport, no security… sounds wonderful.

Or we could just go tubing…

Sports Day

Looking back on the last couple of months that we've been away, there's been some really good sporting events dotting the time.  Its not that we've been out constantly but rather there were some anchors that were pretty good to reflect on.  Here they are in no particular order.

Rogers Cup Tennis, Toronto, August 5-10

Both of us love tennis, playing or watching.  I'd prefer to play over watch but if thats not available, I'm happy to watch.  The Toronto event attracts the top players but is one of the few ATP 1000 events that has only men -- they are increasingly becoming co-ed tournaments I think because of the relative lower popularity of the women's game and their need to generate more money on the back of the highly popular men's tour.  The event has a twin women's tournament in Montreal at the same time and they switch back and forth so the men's event is every other year --- we went last time it was in town too.

We had another good crowd from our friends in Bermuda and elsewhere joining us which of course made it even better.  The weather behaved too, unlike last time.

And an underdog won, Tsonga!  What could be better?  Trouble for him is that he was knocked out of the subsequent event in the 1st round!

Chicago Cubs vs Atlanta Braves, Baseball, Chicago, July 12

This was the start of our road trip from Chicago so we just had to take in a Cubs game at one of the oldest baseball grounds still remaining.  The weather was a little drizzly and the team were yet again in a period of transition not having won anything of note since 1908.  The ground was packed which says something for the die hard supporters going back year after year hoping against hope that somehow this year would be different.

In England with the FA Cup there's a remote chance that an underdog may get a favorable draw and avoid the top teams and somehow make it all the way.  It happened a couple of years ago in fact.  But in that competition teams play only 7 rounds.  In the US baseball league, they play 162 so any failings will ultimately out.  The underdog has no chance really.

So it was here too with a moment of madness when a new pitcher threw only a couple of pitches, but both were hammered into the next state and in baseball that's all it takes sometime.

Oh well next year, maybe.

St. Louis Cardinals vs LA Dodgers, Baseball, St. Louis, July 20

We arrived in St. Louis as part of the northerly swing of our road trip to find there was a baseball game on the day we arrived and as it was only just along the road, we thought why not.  The Cardinals have been serial winners of late so the expectation was for a straight forward victory, quite different from the Cubs game.  So was the stadium.  Brand new and jam packed full of bars, restaurants and other places where 45,000 or so could spend their time and money when not watching the game.

Our seats were pretty much identical to the Cubs game too and the ground was packed out.  Same result though as another green pitcher threw away the match in one innings of madness when he gave away 6 runs in 3 mighty hits and again that was it.

I couldn't understand why the crowd weren't more unhappy until someone told us that this was a series of 3 against LA and they'd won the other 2 matches so didn't care much about this one.  In a 162 game season, you just need to win 55% or so of your games.  Which they have.

Took some of the fun out of it somehow.

Ticket prices were more expensive than the Cubs -- $89 versus $63.  That's not a cheap day or night out when you factor in everything else too.

World Cup, June-July 

We didn't go but it seemed like we did as coverage of the event was everywhere particularly whilst the US was involved, but even after it was very well supported in the US.

What an event though.  We got to share the US's agony in Charlottesville (and Brazil's humiliation) as well as Germany's triumph in Chicago.

And it was free too!  Well, apart from the beers in the sports bars...

Truly sport is one of the defining global activities.

Home of the Lip

I hadn't realised Louisville, Kentucky was so far away from Chicago.  When I checked on Google Maps, it was only 4.5 hours away but according to our GPS it was more like a 6 or 7 hour journey.  We did discover in the middle that these states had different time zones but that only explained part of our confusion.

It was a 300+ mile boring as hell trip along the interstates, mainly I65. The bits of Illinois that we saw after leaving Chicago were exceptionally industrial and dull and Indiana was (a) far nearer than we thought and (b) depressingly dull in the same way that Illinois was.  Once we got through the industrial north and reached the farming southern parts, even the farming parts were dull.  And as that was virtually the entire trip, well to say the least it was not that memorable.  Thankfully.

I suspect it was something to do with only driving on the interstates for today we drove on side roads through smaller towns and saw stuff, way better than waiting for the next exit sign showing the usual chain lodging, food and petrol alternatives.  I'd like to think there's more to Indiana than just lousy roads (and the interstate was more pot holey in Indiana than in both Illinois and Kentucky) and an almost flat topography.  Indy 500 and now what...?

The southernmost border of Indiana is the Ohio River, now part of the huge waterway system connecting to the Mississippi and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico to the far south.  Huge river with loads of bridges over it.  Immediately on the other side was Louisville, Kentucky.

My immediate thought was big bridges closely followed my second which was how on earth did they stay apart in the Civil War?  Indiana was a split state -- union in the north, sympathies with the confederacy to the south.  This means they had no chance as there wasn't a huge river between the sympathetic bunch and the Yankees.  It would have helped that Kentucky had that huge natural border to keep the union at bay.  At least a bit more anyway.

Strange this was an early thought but the civil war is still a very active thought in many people's minds so curiously relevant still.

The city itself is home to the KFC YUM Brands stadium.  Now YUM is the parent company that owns the KFC, Taco Belle and Pizza Hut franchises so has a real right to call the stadium they sponsor what they want.  If I was from Kentucky though I'd be pretty ticked off about a company called Kentucky Fried Chicken.  This means there's no other valid fried chicken from Kentucky other than KFC which is total nonsense.  Nobody now can therefore call what they do Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Someone must have been sleeping when that name was trade marked!

 Weird buildings with identical lighthouses on their roofs some 30 stories high.  They were working lighthouses. Louisville is hundreds of miles inland.

The hotel we stayed called the Galt House Hotel is a monster with 1300 rooms making it one of the biggest non-Las Vegas hotels in the USA.  It and the town houses lots of conferences so the restaurant scene there is pretty good.

What they are famous for though is bourbon and the Urban Bourbon Trail as well as the Distilleries Trail.

I don't much care for bourbon but was determined to try (as was Viv).  However I saw that the hotel had a rotating restaurant with views over the city and river so that got in the way but not all was lost as we found they served bourbon too (and the hotel's bourbon bar stocked 151 different types if we ran short later on).

It was an ugly idea as we decided to have bourbon based cocktails before the go it alone premium bourbons that came later.

The cocktails were very strong indeed.

Old Fashioned and Mint Julep

The individual bourbons were very strong indeed too... and quite large.

We'd been advised to try neat, then add ice cubes and if all else fails water.  However plans A through C were all disastrous so I added the bourbon into the remnants of my Old Fashioned cocktail to try to make it more palatable.  Viv later did the same except her cocktail was a mint julep.

This was depressing as I've always wanted to be able to drink scotch (in fact any whisky, bourbon or stuff like that) but always have the same gag reflex kicking in.  Pushing it all back swiftly moved from a pleasure to something far less pleasant.

We finished up an otherwise fine meal promising never to drink bourbon again.

It also meant we were in no position to go out to examine what else Louisville has to offer for which apologies must be rendered.  Leaving this morning, it looked quite nice.  But I don't know that for sure.

Sorry Kentucky. We'll try better next time.

Chicago, Chicago what a wonderful town...

Good old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra, sang this song memorably and he is right.  It is a great city.  We only spent 4 days there but we're sorry to be leaving.  We had so much fun.

The architecture tours were terrific as was the free zoo, the baseball game, the public transport, the cocktails and the meals and...

Deep dish pizza at Giordano's was sensational...

The oldest German bierhaus in Chicago was a great haven from the torrential rain...

The elevated railway is truly iconic... the system works too...

I found the beginning of Route 66... just need to do the rest!

Traditional baseball at Wrigley Field...

Some fine blues at Blue Chicago...

Fantastic architecture...

The first MacDonald's drive thru ... and incidentally buzzing at 3 am after the clubs start winding down.  Highly recommended are the chicken nuggets..

Really good free zoo...

Awesome breakfasts!

Terrific cocktails and filme noire at the Drake Hotel... it was a Vincent Price horror movie from the 1950's ...

Great digs too... the Godfrey Hotel is all of 4 months old and still has that new hotel smell...

Thanks Chicago, we'll be back.