acilando

With an aim of seeing Incubus in concert, Kayhan and I decided to take a road trip from New York to Chicago. It is a 700-mile drive and with pit stops it took around 15 hours to reach. To undertake this drive in one day can be wearisome and I would advice breaking the journey into smaller chunks. We rented a car from Newark International Airport and once we left Jersey, it was a straight drive on I-80 west with us traversing through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and finally, Illinois.

 

The drive through Pennsylvania is a meander of roads merging with each other, with forests and water all around. It’s a hilly terrain and P State is green and lush. The State of Ohio in comparison is flat and barren. There are of course, several places to eat on the freeway, and Exit 59 in particular while crossing Ohio State has numerous options. (http://roadnow.com/i80/restaurant-food). We ate at a classic diner Iron skillet, which is available at regular exit intervals, and after multiple coffee and desert breaks only made it to Chicago by 12:00 AM CST. Since, we crossed into the Central Time Zone, it was an hour earlier than anticipated.  

 

We were staying with my buddies from college and it is unbelievable how one merely picks up from where we left, the last time round we had all met. My friend was staying close to the University of Chicago and the city center was 20 minutes away. We took a bus and spent the next day exploring the Millennium Park, Awilda at the entrance and the cloud gate sculpture more famously known as the Bean. We experienced the Deep Dish Pizza at Gino East, which was epic. Gino East itself is an interesting place, famous for mobsters enjoying Deep Dish there as well. Seriously, I mean who can resist it. With the aroma driving us crazy, the wait seemed unbearably long and finally, an hour and a half later, we got to devour the meaty legend and chitallian stallion :)   

 

Incubus was performing at First Midwest Park Amphitheatre Tinley Park, with Deftones opening for them. Incubus was formed in Calabasas, California, in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger and drummer Jose Pasillas. Deftones is an alternative American metal band from California as well and was founded earlier on, in 1988. It is a huge amphitheater with a capacity of 12,000 people. During this tour, Incubus was promoting their new album, Trust Fall. While I was in school, I grew up listening mostly to Morning View. Concerts simply transport me to a whole different happy world, all together!  

 

Through the brink of the entire city is Lake Michigan, which could easily be mistaken to be an ocean because of its vastness. We visited the 57th beach and seagulls gave us company as we walked through the water across the beach. There are beaches in the midst of the city and summers in Chicago are optimized, by spending every minute outdoors. Moreover, especially during sunsets, the Navy Pier allures you even more to the city. Towards the North part, there’s an endearing tapas bar called Ba-ba Reeba. Suggestions for the place include grilled octopus, pork belly and the chorizo sausage. The cocktails and desserts are as good as the food.

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For our road trip back, we left extremely early in the morning and made steady progress through the day. Rising and shining early resulted in us being able to catch the spectacular sunrise. For hours, the rays amalgamated into orange, yellow, auburn, grey colors spread across the sky, resembling the core of a volcano. We focused on making good time and managed to make it back to NYC by 9:00 PM. It was still a long and tiresome drive back, but I have to say road trips are insane fun.

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- Kamiya Kumar