No Rest in the Midwest

Miles: 1,120

Route: Chicago, IL - Kansas City, MO - Denver CO

You know it's been a long two days of driving when Google Maps finds it necessary to include a "United States" label on the map!

After a great visit in Chicago, we took off for the longest (and least exciting) segment of our roadtrip so far. We left early Wednesday morning, headed for Kansas City, MO.

The drive from Chicago to Kansas City is by far one of the most boring drives we have ever taken (spoiler alert: the drive from Kansas City to Denver is almost as bad). For hundreds of miles there is nothing but endless, flat land scattered with the occasional pro-life billboard and/or sign advertising free land.

At least the sun finally came out!

We tried to limit our stops along the way and made great time getting to Kansas City - we had just enough time to work out in preparation for dinner at the famous Jack Stacks.

Delicious BBQ - happy we shared! Kansas City BBQ is noted for their special beef ribs (falls off the bone like short ribs) and these were definitely our favorite!

After dinner we walked around the Country Club Plaza, which was really the extent of our sightseeing in Kansas City, unfortunately.

Thursday morning we grabbed breakfast and headed to Denver. We passed a ton of wind mills - and not much else - and really just tried to power through the 600 mile drive.

Once we arrived at our hotel we basically just dropped our things and collapsed. We were hungry enough to order Domino's (they deliver to your hotel room now?!) and plan to head to bed early; we are excited to explore Denver tomorrow!

Chicago

Miles: 300

Route: Cincinnati, OH - Chicago, IL

Monday morning was beautiful in Cincinnati - cloudless skies with that crisp it’s-about-to-be-fall air - so we went for a run before beginning the drive to Chicago. By the time we packed up and left it was about 10:30am, which meant that Indianapolis would be the perfect place to stop for lunch. And, fortunately for us, Indianapolis is home to Shapiro’s, a giant Jewish deli. I got their famous Reuben - just what I needed to power through the miserable weather (pouring rain) we had the rest of the way to Chicago.

Voted Indianapolis’ best Reuben for a reason! The latke wasn’t bad either.

Despite the rain, we made good time getting to Chicago. We arrived around 3pm (with the time change) and had coffee at Caffe Streets while we waited for our hosts, Jennifer and David, to get out of work. We met them at their apartment around 6pm and headed to Big Star for a taco dinner. It reminded me of some of the taco places we went to in Austin earlier this year – a very tasty end to the day (though there really isn’t a substitute for Tacodeli).

We spent Tuesday morning getting organized for the remainder of our road trip and for the “main leg” of our international adventure - an eight-month journey beginning in Japan in November. By mid-day we were ready to get outside and see Chicago. First stop: Lou Malnati's for traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It was delicious - especially with giardiniera on top - but very different than NY pizza. After eating it I was a little confused about the Chicago-New York pizza debate: both are great, but Chicago style just isn’t pizza. It’s more of an Italian pie made of meats and cheeses…though I suppose I’m a little biased!

Even though the individual size looks small it was still very filling!

After lunch we walked around a few shops and made our way down to Millennium Park. By this point the weather had completely cleared and we had a perfect afternoon to take in Chicago’s beautiful skyline.

Chicago’s Cloud Gate (a.k.a. "the bean"). Always a cool sight to see.

Obligatory selfie at the bean.

Jaume Plensa's giant head sculpture on display further south in the park.

We found a deserted garden with a great fountain.

Lots of bikers and joggers were out enjoying the beautiful weather too.

After several hours walking around, our other friends Matt and Emily had finished work so we walked to their apartment to see them for an hour or so. Matt, a financial advisor, gave us some important advice for the rest of our road trip: buy lotto tickets at every gas station we stop at (it always seems to be random gas stations in the Midwest that sell the winning tickets!) We’ll definitely try it out along the way - if we ditch the Avalon and start flying private from place to place you’ll know we won…

Our last stop in Chicago was Kai Zan for dinner with Jennifer and David. We got the tasting menu and were treated to 10 courses of sushi. It was definitely a little more on the adventurous side for us (we usually stick to pretty basic sushi rolls) but most of it was delicious! And the courses that weren’t delicious were interesting, bucket-list type items (can’t say I’d ever had, or even thought to order, a sea urchin and raw egg shooter)!

Really fun night to end our brief stay in Chicago.

Tomorrow we drive to Kansas City, a one-night stop-over on our way to Colorado.