Sweet home, Chicago!

I'm still on the train so thought I'd make a start on today's blog a little earlier than usual. It's about eight o'clock in the morning here and the train has just coasted past Gary, Indiana, which is the town where Michael Jackson was born (knew that off the top of my own head you know!) I've been up a while in the lounge where you can get a better view of things: these trains really are massive, and I'm on the top deck.

We've passed a pretty good mix of America. There have been pretty shabby small towns that are littered with fast food places. It probably explains the fact that by far the highest concentration of fat people I've seen on my travels have been on this train. Still, they're making me look good. I've seen yellow school buses driving around typically American neighbourhoods. I've seen trailer parks with tattered flags and old speed boats on the lawn. I saw wild deer running through the woods but in a blink of an eye gigantic industrial estates, steel factories and yards filled with thousands of scrapped vehicles take over.

The sights on the train are just as interesting, though it hasn't been too social; probably due to the fact that most of the journey has been at night. I've seen quite a few Amish on here and one bumped into me while I was writing last night. That doesn't happen on my usual Chesterfield to Leeds commute! There have been typical American tourists, guys with "Jesus loves you" on their hats, and the only snore I heard was from a giant black girl sat close to me.

Anyways, after all that I reached the city and, after the fairly small-scale Washington, I was back into true skyscraper territory. Chicago is a BIG city. There're tall buildings but it's also very spread out. I got a feeling for that as I did my best hobo impression, cornering people on the street with a giant bag and asking for where the nearest shelter was. Well I found it, after a moment of panic where I thought I had been ripped off and been given the address for an abandoned building. And I'm here now on the Friday night, loving this city. Like Philly it has definitely been a case of coming in with low expectations and then being blown away.

I'm grabbing a shower before going out and doing an all nighter so I can watch the Everton game at half six in the morning. So I will cover all my Chicago adventures in one super blog tomorrow (hangover permitting). For now here's a picture of what the city has to offer.