fathers day weekend

So my dad met me at my house Friday morning and after packing all my gear into his bike luggage we hit the road for Wrigley Field at 9:30 am. Our first stop was to gas up, just outside of Red Wing MN. From there we make it to La Crosse and broke for lunch just after 12. From there we jumped onto highway 14 (which goes from Yellowstone to Chicago) and headed towards, destination unknown. We got to Madison and stopped again for gas, and checking the map, tried to figure out where we were going to stop next. Just into Illinois was a small town called Harvard which looked to be a good 80 miles and a good spot to try to decide where we were going to crash. An hour and a half later we arrived and filled up once again on petrol. After a short discussion, we decided we would stay in McHenry and drive into Chicago Saturday from there. We got to McHenry, checked in at the Hampton Inn and headed next door to eat to a steak/shrimp/seafood place. The restaurant was awesome and I picked up the tab as my fathers day gift. After that we crashed for the night. Miles so far: 420

We woke up the next morning at 8am with intentions of departing by 9. However, we had forgotten about one small detail. What are we going to a) do with all are gear and b) where are we spending the night? Long story short, the Hampton was able to find us a room for the night on the same floor, but we'd have to change rooms. So, 9:30 rolls around and we are moved into our new room and we are ready to ride. A little side note, we decided to ride the 40 miles to 1060 W Addison without helmets due to the fact we don't know where we'd be parking and since Wrigley isn't in the best neighborhoods, we didn't want our helmets to get stolen. So we left the hotel and the temperature was in the low 60s and partly cloudy. Highway 14 as it turns out heading into Chicago is riddled full of stop lights, traffic and chaos which turned our 40 mile one hour ride into a solid 2 hours with us arriving a few blocks away with 15 minutes to spare. We ended up parking of all places in a lot, DIRECTLY across the street from the main entrance, paying $10 each to park (cars were $30+!!!). What a steal! So we parked and headed in. Our seats were great, section 115 (3rd base line, even with the pitcher), seats 1 and 2, row 4! WOW. Our seat were about 10 rows off the field, but still more than close enough to feel like you were on the field. So the game, which the Cubs ended up winning 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth with a game winning two run double finishing with a play at the plate, was awesome! Once all the hoopla was over, crossed back over the street and got back on the bikes to head back. The ride back was great once all the traffic cleared and thinned out. Once back at the hotel we got in and I headed for the bathroom and turned on the lights. To my surprise, my face was BRIGHT red. No good. I say to my dad through the doorway, “Geez dad, I’m really red! I can’t believe it.” He pauses a second and starts laughing. I walk out of the bathroom to see what’s so funny and begin laughing uncontrollably. See, my dad is short some hair and has a nice horseshoe around his head. So, to prevent burning he wore a baseball hat, backwards. As you can imagine, his face was red… up until the point where the hat was, and then he had another red spot where the hole in the back of the hat is. Hill-arious! After the laughing subsided, we decided we will order in some pizza and save ourselves embarrassment in the public’s eye. Miles so far: 500

Sunday we woke up, packed at headed out the door around 9am. We gassed up and had lunch in Madison, stopped for gas in La Crosse and made the final stop in Red Wing. I got home around 6:15, just in time to miss my soccer game. Total miles for the trip, 896.6. What a haul… but defiantly worthwhile.