Chicago(day one)

by joshuagriffin

Posted to Roadgoing on 2001-06-22 16:28:00

We set off on the road(Jason, Scott, and I) down route 68 going west to Indiana and then North to Chicago. Im visiting my uncle for a few weeks and my friends were giving me a ride. the trip it’self was fairly uneventful: usual boring mixed with good compiation CDs an d some laughs. We were making decent tme, given the amount of rain, so we decide to cut back around and go to Lafyette, Indiana to visit the gravesite of Shannon Hoon. Good times, indeedy. the detour was worth it. We decide to leave little momentos behind: Jason, an old picture; Scott, a note to Shannon; me, i left behind my beloved sandalwood bracelet on a cross marked HOON.
The last half of the trip was extremely dull. i slept most of it and struggled to maintain an interest in the conversations in the front two seats…couldn’t do it. I wake up at a rest area some place on the northwest boarder of Indiana, I think. At any rate, we’re late by an hour now. Fuckit. Being late does’n’t matter. We show up at 8pm Ohio time and 7pm Chicago time.
My uncle Dan yells to us from an appartment building across the street:
DAN: HEY! OVER HERE! –he’s up three levels and behind 4 deadbolted doors. The three of us, myself and my friends, cross the street with some reserve…..Chicago drivers.
Dan, Scott, Jason, Fitz(my uncle’s lover) and I sat down to a nice conversation at the glass coffee table. I’m worried about how Jason, being the “conservative”, will react to Fitz’s openly flamboyant nature, but Jase is cool about it. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice an ashtray with some ZigZags and a clear plastic baggy. Fuckin A! We smoke up and get nice and buzzed. Life is good and everyone is laughing it up like old poker buddies. We decide to it a liquor store and go for a walk.
Dan buys 3 six packs of beer, good shit. We drink a few and the buzz comes slowly for me. We go for a walk. Fitz is tipsy, Jason is on his way, Dan is there, Scotts with Jason, and my cousin and I are holdin our own. A mile down the road, we go to another liquor store and stiff arm a black panhandler asking for quarters. Fitz buys, at Scotts request, some great tasting Pina Colada shit and plastic cups. We each drink from the generosity and feel good. The six of us, stumbling around carrying clear cups of liquor, manage to walk to Lake Michigan. We piss on a recreation building and start our way back home.