Days 44-52: Midwest Mini Tour (Chicago, Philadelphia, Indiana, Ohio, and more!)

After just taking a 6 week long trip around the entire country, doing an 8 day trip with my cousin Steve to the Midwest feels merely like a ten minute drive to the mall to me. However, this is the first time my cousin and I have done a trip like this together before, so I was more excited about sharing the experiences of the next week with him more than I was excited to see several new places along the way. Our first stop was to a city I have been to a handful of times but never truly had a great experience at or really appreciated at all: Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love has always left an impression on me quite the opposite of its nickname, and I visit it frequently since my brother lives only an hour away near Reading, Pennsylvania. Almost all of the major cities in the northeast (with the exception of Boston), seem to usually have a negative tone and aura to me, but I am always willing to give things another chance, so I was happy to see Philly with more optimistic eyes on this trip. On the drive there, we sadly had to drive through New Jersey, but as soon as we crossed the Delaware River into PA, we arrived into a town called New Hope, which proved to be a symbolic name for the town since we were introduced to massive amounts of “new hope” after happily leaving the “garden” state (one of the biggest misnomers I’ve ever heard). Anyways…back to topic…New Hope was a very impressive town with a “true” main street (something you don’t see too often in many towns anymore), and I definitely want to come back sometime in the near future to explore the shops, restaurants, parks, and people of this wonderful little town.

We arrived into Philly around 7 PM, and from the highway we saw some of the worst projects and ghettos our eyes have ever laid upon. A smokestack in one neighborhood had “nice town” or “nice ville” written on it, and for about 20 seconds I thought that was the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard, but then I saw the surrounding neighborhoods nearby, which made the awful looking “nice town” look like Beverly Hills. We then got off the highway and instantly were brought back about 300 years in time. Directly in front of us were the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Seeing these two landmarks right next to each other definitely makes you appreciate the heritage and history that the former capitol of our country possesses. Just a week before this trip, I was in Philly with my nephew and took him to the Chesnut Hill area of Philly, which is very pretty, as well as the famous Mutter Museum, which has a lot of anomalous things, such as skeletons with abnormalities, and so on, which was one of the most amazing museums I have ever been to. Philly is famous for its cheese steaks, so we went to the two most famous places in the city to get them: Geno's and Pats. The two are completely opposite in appearance; Geno's looks like something that belongs on the Vegas strip or in Times Square, and Pats looks like someone’s house, but they both serve generally the same thing and are both right across the street from each other, constantly staring at each other face to face. After tasting both of them, Geno's won the taste test even though the place was too gaudy for my taste and the people who work there were pretty ignorant and rude (they have signs that say “speak English or leave” right on their window). We then washed down our food with some brews at the Darkhorse Bar (that’s right, I have a bar named after me in Philly!), and took a stroll down South Street before retiring for the night. Going to Philadelphia for the night definitely made me realize that I have a love / hate relationship with the city, it’s a place I don’t particularly enjoy that much, but something about it…maybe the history…maybe the cobblestone streets…or maybe the asshole-ish “I don’t give a shit attitude the people there possess…keeps bringing me back there time and time again.

The next day we stopped in Gettysburg, PA, which was a place I have never been to but have always wanted to check out. Now that I have checked it out, I never have a need to go back there again. It’s basically just a bunch of fields with cannons and statues, something that is probably important to see once in your life to pay your dues there, but no one should ever go there more than once in a lifetime. We then drove through western Maryland and made our way to Morgantown, West Virginia, where UWV is. It was truly a beautiful college town and university, and we went to a couple bars there and walked around the campus. I was truly impressed with the area, because even though I have been to West Virginia before, it was mainly just to drive through it and I never really stopped there to do anything, so I am glad that I finally did now and can’t wait to explore more of the state again soon.

After leaving there, we briefly went through Wheeling, West Virginia, which was a nice little town right on the Ohio border and we finally ended up in Columbus, Ohio at night time. Columbus is a little known city that I’ve been eager to explore for a long time, so I wasted no time and went right out on the town. We first checked out an area called Short North, which is a street lined with restaurants and bars. After barhopping there for an hour or so, we went to the Brewery District to barhop some more, and then stumbled on over to the German Village, which was a very nice, older part of town, with brick streets and beautiful older homes. Early the next morning, we walked around the campus of THE Ohio State University, which is the biggest college in the country. I was truly impressed with this area near the campus, as well as the entire city as a whole, and I’m glad we decided to make this city a pit stop on our trip.

After leaving Ohio, we were on our way to Chicago, the one big city in America that I have yet to investigate. My first impressions of the Windy City were very good; the night we got there, we walked around the Navy Pier, which is an area right on Lake Michigan that is very similar to Coney Island or Santa Monica, California. Usually I avoid tourist traps as much as possible when I go places, but since this was my first time in Chicago, I wanted to do and see the things here you’re “supposed” to see and do, just as a first timer in NYC would have to see the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and Times Square. So, we decided to go the original Pizzeria Uno’s for some famous deep dish pizza for lunch, which was amazing, and then we went to Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs game, because I’ve always wanted to see their stadium. It is truly a beautiful and historic stadium and I was in awe to see it in person, and was shocked that it is practically in a neighborhood surrounded by apartments and bars. It was a hot day outside, so my cousin and I pounded down 6 beers a piece at the game, which probably cost over 100 bucks, and then went to a bar after the game to celebrate the Cubs 4-2 victory over the Pirates. At the bar, a random couple started talking to us and bought us drinks and shots, which of course we accepted, and when we told them we were from Connecticut, the girl had no idea where our home state even was, which was funny yet sad at the same time. After talking to them for about an hour, we all stumbled out of the bar and said goodbye to our new friends. At this moment, my cousin and I both got extremely sick and puked out our approximately 200 dollars worth of alcohol we had consumed in the past few hours. I passed out under someone’s staircase to the front of their apartment on a street, and my cousin passed out in an alley way nearby. We blacked out for about 3 hours before picking ourselves up off the ground and finding a random sketchy motel to randomly pass out in for the night. I was extremely thankful that the citizens of Wrigleyville just let us rest there in our own regret in peace, and we weren’t taken away in an ambulance or cop car instead. Of course, there was only one bed that we had to share at the motel, but it was still one of the most comfortable night’s sleeps I’ve ever had since I was so happy to be in a bed after a sloppy, embarrassing moment such as that. The next day we tried to get rid of our massive hangovers by walking along a couple beaches and Millennium Park and getting some fresh air. We capped off our time in Chicago by going to the Sky Deck of the Sears Tower (which is now called the Willis Tower), which is the tallest building in the country. The view from the top of the tower was breathtaking, and we watched the sunset 103 stories up from the ground, as well as walked on the glass floor where you can look straight down to the city streets, which was a great ending to a very interesting time in the city.

After leaving Chicago, we went to Indiana for 2 days, which is one of my favorite states in the entire country. We first went to West Lafayette to check out Purdue University, and then went to Indianapolis and walked around for a couple hours, which was a city I have never been to and was really impressed with. Lastly, we went to Bloomington, which is a town I fell in love with last year on my summer tour in 2008. I performed a show there the first night in town, at the same place I performed last year, and then we went to a couple of my favorite bars in town for an after party with some of my friends from the town, because apparently we hadn’t learned our lesson about booze in Chicago just a couple days earlier. The next day we walked around the campus of Indiana University, which is a place I might consider going to for my masters in Creative Writing / Poetry in the future, because I love the town and campus so much. We then spent the night with more friends at the local bars and restaurants that I wish I had the opportunity to go to every week instead of just once a year. Sadly the next morning, we left Bloomington and headed up to South Bend to check out the University of Notre Dame, which was a very beautiful campus that reminded me of an Ivy League school somewhat, and then spent the night in Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit a long time friend. Unfortunately, it rained out while we were there, so we couldn’t go check out my favorite beaches along the lake, but I did have time to visit the Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, which is pretty much an outdoor art museum in a park, and it was very beautiful. We made our way to Cleveland, Ohio at night to watch an Indians game versus my favorite team, the Angels, which was fun since my cousin is a Tribe fan. We had great seats right behind the Halo’s dugout and I caught a foul ball, but sadly the Angels lost 11-3. Not to worry though, because my team is still in first place and his is in last place, so I didn’t mind that he got to enjoy a rare Indians win. That game concluded our trip, because we decided to just drive the 9 hours straight home instead of getting a hotel for the night, so we arrived back in Connecticut around 8 AM.

Even though this trip was really short compared to my previous one, we still managed to do and see a lot in a short period of time. I saw a lot of new places that I enjoyed and want to explore again soon, and if nothing else, it was a great bonding experience with someone who is both a family member and one of my best friends. Even though we literally managed to be both in the clouds and hit rock bottom within a 24 hour span in Chicago, they are experiences we will be able to look back on, laugh about, cherish, and tell our kids someday. With the conclusion of this trip though, comes the realization that my summer tour has also come to an end now, and my travel bug will have to be tamed for awhile until the open road calls my name again.