States Visited: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
Distance Traveled: 340 miles
Time: 6 hours, with breaks
I pulled out of the driveway of my house at 4:30 in the afternoon, headed west towards Chicago, IL. Beyond that, Portland, OR. I knew, based on multiple previous trips that it would take me about six hours to get there, with a break or two for dinner and gas. Kino was eager and restless, perched anxiously on top of the folded passenger seat beside me, eyes intent and forward. He had naturally known that something was up for weeks, and now here we were, piled together in my 2008 Jeep Patriot, bags packed and stacked in the back of the cab and heading away from home. He had gone on road trips with me before, but this was clearly different. It felt permanent. I have to give that dog credit, just by judging from his reaction, he's a lot more intuitive than most people would normally make him out to be.
I eased onto I-480 from the Brooklyn exit and 20 minutes later, onto the Ohio turnpike from there. This is where I-80 and I-90 run together almost until Chicago. There, I-80 splits west towards Denver. I-90, north into Wisconsin. I-90 and I were about to become extremely good friends. I would stay on this road until Spokane, Washington.
I'll be honest, it's a horrendously boring drive. From Cleveland, it's two hours to Toledo. For some reason, I always seem to fool myself into thinking that once I'm past Toledo, I'm at the western edge of the state. But no...it's another 90 minutes at least until Indiana. Yet, 90 minutes into Indiana and you start to wish that you were back in Ohio. It's flat, bland and completely uneventful. At one point you pass Notre Dame's campus, which you can't see from the turnpike. In the blink of an eye, it's gone with nothing but endless fields of corn and wheat in sight.
Then, there's Gary, IN. I hate driving through Gary, Indiana. Especially at night. It reminds me of two things; the first being the opening scene from Blade Runner...black, industrial, and like the inside of a furnace. Flames shoot from an endless expanse of smokestacks. Smoke and a golden haze permeate the air. The second being the wastelands from The Matrix. As fas as the eye can see, industry dominates the landscape. Every ounce of movement is mechanic and unnatural. It's unnerving, and I can't seem to get through it quick enough.
The good thing about passing through Gary, Indiana is that Chicago is only a short few miles away. As the old familiar skyline first presented itself to me on the horizon, I called my buddy Brad to let him know that I was about 30 minutes away. He was at a business dinner with his wife, but promised they would be there to greet me at their door, if not minutes after.
It was a quick stay. Once I got my things settled, I sat down in the living room with Brad and shared a bit of bourbon to toast to my move out west. We chatted for a bit, but unfortunately had to cut the conversation short due to an early wake-up call he needed to be prepared for. We finished our drinks over stories of his own adventures in Oregon about a decade earlier, the majority of which included examples of his pure, unabashed, dumb, stupid luck. As he headed upstairs, I finished setting up camp on his couch, while Kino stretched himself out on the floor beside me. With the real first leg of my journey beginning the following morning, it was almost a full hour before my nerves calmed and I was able to drift off into sleep.
Both Brad and Josie were practically on their way out the door as I came to the next morning. Following a much quicker goodbye in relation to our greetings the night before, both headed to work, leaving Kino and I in the house with their two dogs, Phantom and Tucker.
Knowing I had a full hour or so before I planned on being back on the road, I wasted no time before jumping into the shower, slipping into a comfortable change of clothes and reloading my bike back onto the back of my car. (There was no way I was going to let a vintage 1967 Schiwinn out of my sight...especially one that had as much significant meaning to me as this one.) Kino and I sat in the backyard for a few minutes while I snacked on a bit of fruit and granola from Brad & Josie's kitchen, savoring in a few moments of silence before venturing back onto the road. It was 9am. My destination goal that day was within a close proximity of the Badlands of South Dakota. Taking a deep breath, I proceeded to lock up the house and loaded Kino and I back into the car. Comfortable and relaxed, I started the engine, at which point the true first leg of our journey into the great northwest began.
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