Friday, January 02, 2009

Tuesday 26 August 2008

08/26/2008 18:36:18

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Northwest Illinois cornfield. We traveled across Illinois after having a bad time in Chicago. I can't understand how people can live there with such a low quality of life. This part of Illinois is ok, but the rest of the state I feel is one of the worst parts of the union I've been in. There is constant road destruction eveywhere, the city of Chicago sucks all the taxes out of the state so everything is in poor repair, and many of the cities in the state are rust belt bible belt towns. I like to joke that Illinois motto really is Ill Noise, land of stinkin. I lived in Decatur for 9 months, and it was pretty depressing. I enjoyed Springfield and Champaign/Urbana, but Decayed turd sucked. Suyen and I had to go to Chicago so she could get her Philippine passport at the consulate in Chicago. She had to go in person unfortunately....

www.chicagopcg.com/

We were hoping to be able to go to a suburb of Chicago and take the Metra in and maybe enjoy some sightseeing after Suyen got her business done -- NOPE!!!! There is NO parking at any of the Metra stops. The Metra website I found to be very confusing....

www.metrarail.com/

We were driving around confused, and the one paid attendant at the Naperville station didn't seem to care -- he just sat in his car and read a paper. So we gave up on that idea and drove in cussing Chicago all the way. At the consulate, I dropped Suyen off and drove around the block for and hour and a half. I still wonder why people would live in or around Chicago. After Suyen got her passport done miraculously in and hour and a half, we decided to give Chicago one last chance to give us at least something other than stress and a headache. We went to Smoque barbeque after watching a segment of "Diners, Drive-ins and dives....

www.smoquebbq.com/



www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu-oobRhesU

The experience there was almost ruined yet again by the rediculous parking situation -- you have to have a permit to park almost everywhere. Fortunately a "rock star" spot opened up on the street in front of the restaurant. We got to go in and enjoy some of the best bbq we have ever had. We talked to the owners about places in Kansas City, and we complimented them on their restaurant. They and everyone at the place were really nice. I'm glad we found a parking spot and that we took the extra effort to come up here.



08/26/2008 18:37:04

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Northwest Illlinois



08/26/2008 18:37:45

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balloon over Galena Illinois



08/26/2008 18:37:51

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Northwest Illinois



08/26/2008 18:40:41

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Galena Illinois



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08/26/2008 18:41:43

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08/26/2008 18:41:50

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08/26/2008 18:42:01

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Downtown Galena Illinois



08/26/2008 18:46:17

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Hot air balloon over Galena Illinois



08/26/2008 18:46:27

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Hot air balloon over Galena Illinois



08/26/2008 19:13:30

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08/26/2008 19:14:20

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08/26/2008 19:15:20

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08/26/2008 19:15:38

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08/26/2008 19:20:11

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08/26/2008 19:20:23

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08/26/2008 19:21:04

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08/26/2008 19:21:52

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08/26/2008 19:22:09

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08/26/2008 19:24:35

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08/26/2008 19:24:54

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08/26/2008 19:25:14

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08/26/2008 19:25:27

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08/26/2008 19:25:55

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08/26/2008 19:26:10

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08/26/2008 19:26:36

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08/26/2008 19:26:52

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08/26/2008 19:27:34

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08/26/2008 19:29:23

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08/26/2008 19:30:09

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Dubuque Iowa



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubuque,_Iowa



08/26/2008 19:30:29

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08/26/2008 19:30:47

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08/26/2008  19:33:08

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08/26/2008 19:37:28

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08/26/2008 19:37:51

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08/26/2008 19:39:08

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08/26/2008 19:39:14

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08/26/2008 19:39:20

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08/26/2008 19:39:41

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08/26/2008 19:39:52

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08/26/2008 19:39:52

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08/26/2008 19:40:05

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08/26/2008 19:40:22

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08/26/2008 19:40:22

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08/26/2008 19:40:51

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08/26/2008 20:00:51

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08/26/2008 20:01:05

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08/26/2008 20:05:27

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The Mississippi River in Dubuque Iowa



08/26/2008 20:05:44

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Driving across the Wisconsin Bridge over the Mississippi River in Dubuque Iowa



08/26/2008 21:06:12

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Our view of the Mississippi at night



08/26/2008 21:06:39

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It was a great cool evening for camping



08/26/2008 21:07:10

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We used our headlights to see what we were doing



08/26/2008 21:07:52

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We had to set up our tent in the dark



08/26/2008 21:12:37

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inside our tent at night



08/26/2008 21:14:19

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Our tent illuminated by our headlights



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD-WlixZK40





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLfapQwMXQM




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