Tuesday, June 16, 2009
My First Trip to Chicago
Tyler had been looking at a diesel jetta online for awhile and he decided that he wanted to go test drive it. The dealership was in Aurora, IL which is about 30 minutes outside of Chicago. So we decided to make a trip of it and go test drive the car and stop in to let me see Chicago.
Unfortunately, the day we decided to go, I had to work. I worked from 9 to 4 at Blockbuster, then I got back to my apartment as quickly as possibly where Tyler was waiting for us to leave from there. The GPS took us on a different route than I knew (althrough I really only know how to go north as far as Indy at this point so it wasn't too big a bother to me.) We made up some time with Tyler's driving on the small roads, but when we reached the flying J about 30 minutes outside of Chicago, we were running about an hour behind when we wanted to be there- we were worried that the dealership was going to close before we could get there. Then my phone asked me if I wanted to update the date and time. I asked Tyler if there was a time zone change. He remembered that there was! We would have enough time!
The trip up there was fun. I always enjoy seeing really flat land. Its so different from what I grew up with. You can just see for miles. In the distance I saw some wind energy generators that looked really cool to me. I would like to see one up close- they look so big and impressive from a distance, I bet they would be pretty cool from up close.
We arrived in Aurora and found the dealership. It was bigger than we expected, but we were actually glad because it looked like a reputable dealer. Tyler asked one of the salesmen about the jetta tdi there and said that he had talked to someone who said he could test drive it, and they led us inside. I immediately felt on guard - I am just mistrustful of car salesman. We sat at a desk and Tyler filled out some information about himself. Then the guy went and talked to his supervisor and came back with some more skepticism. He reminded Tyler that he didn't have any credit and said that his supervisor didn't even want to let him test drive the jetta, but he got him to let him. He also asked "Who he talked to on the phone". The whole thing just struck me as pretentious. Anyway.... we went outside to wait for the guy to bring the tdi around.
We drove it and I could tell right away that Tyler didn't like it. He just kept saying how 'laggy' the engine was. We got back and left for the city. Tyler was disappointed that the 03 tdi wasn't what he thought it would be, but it made the decision of whether or not to get a loan easier.
When we finally came into the city it was night. I love cities at night, so it was great. Chicago is the physically biggest city I have been to, and I couldn't forget it. As soon as we entered the city, As I looked left and right it was layers and layers of buildings. I am used to Louisville, where the blocks are well defined and easily seen through. But Chicago is dense. And TALL. Really tall. We found a parking garage and parked and started walking to look for a place to get pizza.
There were a lot of things I noticed about Chicago, walking downtown. There were a lot of young people, which made me feel good. There were also a lot of homeless people. I am not adept at dealing with homeless people. I feel bad. And I look at them. Basically everything you're not supposed to do in the situation. So I clung to Tyler and let him handle it with his 'Sorry I can't help you, man'. We walked around until we came to a big street. Across the street was this crazy looking parking garage way up in the air. It was a circular building and halfway up it turned into apartments. I can only imagine how expensive those apartments are. We finally spotted Giordano's and had pizza there.
On the way back it was dark. And a little creepy. Chicago was empty. I have this image of cities never being empty. Of always being packed full of people rushing around to places. But Tyler and I were basically alone, save for the homeless people who were more vocal than I was used to. By the time we reached the street that our parking garage was on, I was really scared and glad to have Tyler next to me.
We started back and realized how late it was. It was about 12:3o by the time we started out of the city. Then there was a string of seemingly never ending tollroads. We went across the Skyway, which was just an expensive bridge. You had to pay to get both on and off of it. Then it was just driving. It was late too... at about 2:30 Tyler was getting tired so we pulled off into a rest area and napped for about 20 minutes. I was trying to stay awake for his benefit, but after that I was so tired I fell asleep. I woke up when we were past indy, with about a half hour left to get to Bloomington. We didn't get back to his apartment until about 5:00am.
Though it was a rushed trip, I had a great time. I really enjoyed seeing Chicago and I'm excited to see it again sometime.
Unfortunately, the day we decided to go, I had to work. I worked from 9 to 4 at Blockbuster, then I got back to my apartment as quickly as possibly where Tyler was waiting for us to leave from there. The GPS took us on a different route than I knew (althrough I really only know how to go north as far as Indy at this point so it wasn't too big a bother to me.) We made up some time with Tyler's driving on the small roads, but when we reached the flying J about 30 minutes outside of Chicago, we were running about an hour behind when we wanted to be there- we were worried that the dealership was going to close before we could get there. Then my phone asked me if I wanted to update the date and time. I asked Tyler if there was a time zone change. He remembered that there was! We would have enough time!
The trip up there was fun. I always enjoy seeing really flat land. Its so different from what I grew up with. You can just see for miles. In the distance I saw some wind energy generators that looked really cool to me. I would like to see one up close- they look so big and impressive from a distance, I bet they would be pretty cool from up close.
We arrived in Aurora and found the dealership. It was bigger than we expected, but we were actually glad because it looked like a reputable dealer. Tyler asked one of the salesmen about the jetta tdi there and said that he had talked to someone who said he could test drive it, and they led us inside. I immediately felt on guard - I am just mistrustful of car salesman. We sat at a desk and Tyler filled out some information about himself. Then the guy went and talked to his supervisor and came back with some more skepticism. He reminded Tyler that he didn't have any credit and said that his supervisor didn't even want to let him test drive the jetta, but he got him to let him. He also asked "Who he talked to on the phone". The whole thing just struck me as pretentious. Anyway.... we went outside to wait for the guy to bring the tdi around.We drove it and I could tell right away that Tyler didn't like it. He just kept saying how 'laggy' the engine was. We got back and left for the city. Tyler was disappointed that the 03 tdi wasn't what he thought it would be, but it made the decision of whether or not to get a loan easier.
When we finally came into the city it was night. I love cities at night, so it was great. Chicago is the physically biggest city I have been to, and I couldn't forget it. As soon as we entered the city, As I looked left and right it was layers and layers of buildings. I am used to Louisville, where the blocks are well defined and easily seen through. But Chicago is dense. And TALL. Really tall. We found a parking garage and parked and started walking to look for a place to get pizza.
There were a lot of things I noticed about Chicago, walking downtown. There were a lot of young people, which made me feel good. There were also a lot of homeless people. I am not adept at dealing with homeless people. I feel bad. And I look at them. Basically everything you're not supposed to do in the situation. So I clung to Tyler and let him handle it with his 'Sorry I can't help you, man'. We walked around until we came to a big street. Across the street was this crazy looking parking garage way up in the air. It was a circular building and halfway up it turned into apartments. I can only imagine how expensive those apartments are. We finally spotted Giordano's and had pizza there.
On the way back it was dark. And a little creepy. Chicago was empty. I have this image of cities never being empty. Of always being packed full of people rushing around to places. But Tyler and I were basically alone, save for the homeless people who were more vocal than I was used to. By the time we reached the street that our parking garage was on, I was really scared and glad to have Tyler next to me.We started back and realized how late it was. It was about 12:3o by the time we started out of the city. Then there was a string of seemingly never ending tollroads. We went across the Skyway, which was just an expensive bridge. You had to pay to get both on and off of it. Then it was just driving. It was late too... at about 2:30 Tyler was getting tired so we pulled off into a rest area and napped for about 20 minutes. I was trying to stay awake for his benefit, but after that I was so tired I fell asleep. I woke up when we were past indy, with about a half hour left to get to Bloomington. We didn't get back to his apartment until about 5:00am.
Though it was a rushed trip, I had a great time. I really enjoyed seeing Chicago and I'm excited to see it again sometime.
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