9/16/2006

Scenic Tour Saturday

Today was a crazy but fun day. This morning I had to go and pick it my car from the shop, and so my scenic tour began.

First I boarded a bus that took me to Chinatown. Interestingly enough, I haven't ever been there, and its mere minutes away from me. Next, I boarded another bus that took me to the repair shop, in Pilsen (Famous Spanish neighborhood.) I picked up my car and headed back home.

I didn't really know the fastest way to where I was going, so I called Josiah. "Hey, hun, can you look up real quick how I can get back to Hyde Park the fastest?" This phone conversation was very non-productive. For some reason, I continued driving south. Why? I saw signs pointing towards highway 90 and for some reason, that interested me.

"Take 51st street east," Josiah told me.
"I already passed 51st... I'm at 57th."
"Well go back and take it."
"Are you sure I can actually get onto the highway from 51st?"
"No, but try it!"

This is the point, about 5-10 minutes into the conversation, that Josiah was in fact using a paper map. And it was frustrating him that I was continuing to drive so my location was constantly changing. So I took 51st, and it did in fact lead me to the highway.

Let me just explain right now that the Dan Ryan Expressway is under intense construction right now, and the highway was a bad idea on my part. It was so packed, I ended up heading straight south on 94, which goes to Indiana, because I couldn't get off on the right exit. I normally take pride in my navigation skills. Really, I usually find my way out of situations pretty easily. But today, I don't know.

Next stop on my tour? 75th street. Eastbound. The "thank goodness it's daylight" part of the city. While traveling on 75th, I randomly decided to turn north, because the part of Hyde Park that I park my car in is on 55th St. Somehow, this unmarked street that I turned onto magically turned in to Lake Shore Drive. Fun, huh? Problem was that I missed the exit I was supposed to take, and ended up having to backtrack.

I finally arrived, having seen a great deal of the city of Chicago. Parking my car has never felt so good.

I Topped off the evening with 3 hours shooting pictures of Josiah in Columbia's main studio, followed by a trip to the beach, followed by a nap, followed by a cheeseburger from the cafeteria.



I searched google maps to see how far off track I really was - I'm including a personal illustration of my trek below. I'm ready to sleep now.

2 comments:

Natalie Joy said...

You guys are too cute. Aren't you supposed to be a better navigator than Bill?

hannahjoy said...

Like I said, I am usually a very good navigator. This day was a huge exception.