kitchtrips

In every town, in every place
There’s a boy who’s trying to take a chance
And dance and find a way to run away with her heart
In the back of an old Ford truck
In the bar, just looking for love
In a pair of—oh my—blue eyes, let them fireworks start
That American country love song
Ain’t ever gonna quit playing on and on, and on

– Jake Owen

Wednesday 31 May, 2023

Home by 7:30pm. Haven’t been able to say that for a while.

We had a busy day, but it was front-loaded, and it’s nice to be home early. Woke up a little dusty this morning – those $5 Modelo beers, man – but felt a lot better after a slower-than-usual walk along the Prairie Path, this time heading towards downtown Glen Ellyn.

Got a message from my friend Rob Howden up in Canada whilst I was out, letting me know that he had mentioned me in his latest USF Pro Insider podcast series. He is interviewing a young Australian driver named Quinn Armstrong and after the obligatory racing talk, Rob always asks his guests about what foods they do and don’t like, as a way to get to know them better. Quinn being Australian, Rob mentioned that I had brought over some Tim Tams for him (Rob) and how good they are. As many folks here know as cold-hard fact.

After breakfast, we drove over to the Rovik’s house (comparing how we all pulled up from the night before with Allan) and from there went to downtown Wheaton where we met up with Allan and Mackenzie’s friends Natalie and Randy. We all took a Metra train downtown to Ogilvie – imagine Sydney’s Central Station, just bigger and with more Americans – which is right in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Our destination was Wrigley Field, the iconic baseball stadium that has been home of the Chicago Cubs for more than a century now. To get there from downtown, we got on a highly-unofficial shuttle van driven by a real character called Manny, who had a thick Chicago accident and loved to talk, when he wasn’t blaring music from the stereo on the way there or trying to overheat us to death with no air-con on the way back. Thankfully, Allan was up front both times, taking care of those issues. There was also a cooler of beer there for us to enjoy some beverages.

We headed north up Lake Shore Drive, with brilliant views of Lake Michigan to one side and the Chicago skyline to the other. Manny parked about a block away from the entrance to Wrigley that we needed – our seats were along the third base line, closer to third base than home. Well worth the $20 each it cost, and we didn’t have to tangle with the El train system.

Whilst I am not a fan of the Cubs – in Chicago, you’re either a Sox fan or a Cubs fan and there is no middle ground – it’s hard not to enjoy the old world charm of Wrigley, which has stood largely untouched for more than a century over on the north side of the city. Everything looks small, and it isn’t the easiest place in the world to get to, but Cubs fans, even when their team is not good (which has happened a lot over the years – they’ve only won one World Series title since 1908) the atmosphere is spectacular.

Unfortunately for those long-suffering Cubs fans, they were playing the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon, who are the best team in the Major Leagues at the moment. Despite the game going right down to the last out of the ninth inning, the Cubs fell 4-3. Nonetheless, we had a fun afternoon.

Twin Peaks for dinner. Basically, it is Hooters with flannelette and though I am sure you’re going to scoff at the notion I’m about to put forward, the food is actually good, unlike Hooters which is abjectly terrible. That said, I won’t lie and say that the Twin Peaks food is the only reason we went there tonight. Early home tonight, another big sleep coming up. Been wonderfully relaxing so far, which is just what we wanted after the hectic week in Indianapolis.