¶ Kings of the Road Podcast
That beautiful intro means only one thing you are listening to the Kings of the Road podcast , probably listening on your mobile device , driving down the road , looking out at the beautiful scenery Maybe some trees if you're in Los Angeles , maybe just some more highway but you're listening to us talk about a trip 20 years ago and we are ready to spend some time
with you as we go into our trip from Iowa to Chicago and more . So , welcome to the Kings of the Road podcast and we are gonna get on the road . So , andrew , you ready ? Man , that was smooth . Scott , you liked that .
I was just waiting for WKGB , I know , and as I was speaking , a bunny rabbit jumped across the parking lot and I thought , wow , this just feels like we're recording at the right moment . I think Whatever's about to happen , yeah , probably glorious For me .
I'm pretty sure a bug just flew into my window because occasionally I hear a dink and it makes me laugh a little bit .
That's awesome . What about , I don't know . I've had a lot of experiences recently with like birds getting into the house and then they just are like little idiots flying around or like into the church , and then they're like trying to find a glass they can and they're trying to grab them , and it's so , oh man , oh , it's crazy .
So yeah , okay , so day 12 is where we are , yep .
October 9th , so 550 miles that could be .
It's more than the 500 we did on one of the episodes earlier .
Yeah , that's a lot of miles today . So 550 miles . We put all of Iowa and a very sizable chunk of Illinois behind us . Today we drove a lot . What do you want me to say ? Geez , that's a lot . We found a Walmart in Elgin , illinois , but it was no super Walmart . Before we got there , though , we ate at Applebee's in Elgin Of course we did .
Of course we did . I don't think we've ever talked about like when we did these big mileage chunks . We would break it up . Usually it was like two sections , if I remember incorrectly . You or I would start and then we kind of sit in the both passenger seat , driver seat , cruise and chatting about wormholes or whatever topic was on the day's agenda .
Then eventually the passenger would say time for a little nap , and then they would roll up into the place I always napped was my bed above the cab . Did you nap there too , or did you nap back on your bed ?
No , I'm sure .
I would have napped back in my bed . I'm not sure , because up there you had a little fan going and you had to mate out your bed . Maybe you did , but those are sort of the greatest naps in the history of napping . Yeah , it's great Driving down the road Back and forth . Yes .
Rocked gently .
Just rocked gently the little fan on you . No other response . Nothing to think about , except I wonder how far we've gone since I dozed off and going back down . I mean , that is Pete Nappage , it is so . Yeah , that's how we got 550 miles , yeah .
The miles were never hard , you know .
No , we also oh , oh , and I don't think also we've talked about like at some radio . We had at some radio oh , that's right , yes , and , and we would .
You , you have a freaky still of which I do not have , so it wasn't really a game so much because I'm bad at it where the song would come on and it be Andrew named that band and that song and you have it on the title right there on the screen , which again 2004, .
Scott and Andrew are like , wow , this is so cool , it's coming from space and there's a song title .
Yeah , yeah and that was another thing like wormholes is like .
this music is coming from space and we didn't get the same rot of the 70s station and cruising in the 80s . Yeah , that was .
I don't . I don't know if I knew that that was a superpower of mine , but what you were referring to is a song . Could come on , yeah , and I could tell you what band that was , yep .
Pretty darn well . I don't think I knew that I could do that , but that you had that skill , yeah , but I was really good at it . You were really good at it and I mean I granted like we were listening to music in our genres , like the stations we liked , so it wasn't like random classical song from 1542 .
But in general I had to be in that certain lane , but in that lane , right In that lane , you were very talented , yeah , but I like it even in my lane . I had no idea I was like , oh , this is not a fun game . It's not like who didn't go first , because it was like oh , oh , you , you did it again .
Well done , and it's funny because recently you turned me on to that song quiz game . Yeah , that's kind of like wordal but for for songs .
Yeah .
And I played like the first two days I was like gosh , give me something difficult . And then the third day I knew the song . Like I could , I knew the song and I kept thinking it was this one band and I list , I went through every one of their songs to be like I know it's this band , yeah , where . And then I was wrong and I didn't play .
After that I was like nope , can't do it anymore .
Andrew , what discouragement's got to keep going , but that's a fun game , okay . So where ? Where are we at ? We're 550 miles napping
¶ Road Trip Adventures and Chicago Exploration
.
Yeah , we . We drove 550 miles , landed in an Applebee's in Elgin and our waitress was crazy . Oh yeah , we ordered drinks of what she could not advise on as she was not of legal age . So we were asking her hey , what kind of drink should we get , right ? She's like I don't know , I'm not old enough which I didn't know .
You could serve drinks if you were under age . Yeah , that's the time . I guess you can't . Yeah , apparently , she was not capable of checking ID either . She did an initial check but had to get the manager approve it .
Okay , for our California licenses probably .
Could be . We ended up having to show a second form of ID to get the stinkin' drinks .
What second form of ID would we have ?
I don't know Our , our joint bank account oh credit card .
Here's Concordia University ID card that lets me check the books out from the library from the school I just graduated from , I mean the , it's probably what you used , we didn't have our passports .
Yeah , I don't know , I don't know , but it worked . But uh , yeah .
Rad .
I don't know . So then our waitress somehow got the impression that we wanted to hear all about her problems . It was a good meal , though .
And that's all . There is today 12 folks .
Some of these days there's just when there's a lot of drive and there's not much else going on .
So it's just mileage and and conversations with waitresses . So did we sleep in that Walmart parking lot ? We must have , or ?
do we stay there ? Yeah , yeah , yeah , we stayed there , and I'm . I do remember that we chose Elgin because it was outside of Chicago , and we're going to keep on .
This episode will go into day 13 too , but I believe we chose that because it was a suburb of Chicago , so we could still find a place to sleep without trying to find a place in the middle of the city , and I believe there was a train station oh there that we could take into Chicago , because we didn't drive in Chicago .
No , we didn't . We trained them . That's right . I could have that wrong . Let's go on to day 13 and see if I got that right , all right .
So now we are day 13 , october 10th . This morning we oh , happy birthday . Gary . Happy birthday 19 years ago from then . This morning so it was a Sunday . This morning , we worshipped at Willow Creek Community Church , the biggest church in the country . Not the case anymore . Nope , it was unbelievable how big the place was .
It looked like a mall or a huge museum from the outside . There were even people directing traffic . Scott and I sat right up in the second row . I mean why ? not I was really excited to hear the band because I figured with a congregation of thousands they're bound to have a few talented people .
The band was acoustic guitar , electric guitar and mandolin , piano keyboard , bass guitar , drums and a handful of singers . They only played three or four songs that was cut off and then they did some logistical things and went into a drama . I say , save the drama for your mama . I'm not opposed to drama per se , but this one was vague and unauthentic .
Man , I'm such a critic you are . Yeah , it was supposed to paint the picture of the message which lacked Jesus , very critical . The message was part of a series titled An Elephant in the Room . Today , the room was the bedroom and it was all about married couples not being satisfied with their sex lives . This is not the this is the .
It was bizarre , this was the play .
This was the play , that was the series . Yeah , this series was called the Elephant in the Room , so I guess their idea was we're going to tackle those hard questions , put every room like the elephant in different rooms .
So the bedroom is where we showed up .
Yeah , we show up as travelers .
I have blocked this .
Oh , I have . As I relive this , I can now kind of picture that stage performance where it's like this awkwardly weird couple sitting on a bed . Like arguing about something like this , yeah . Arguing about sex Neat place , huge place , but pretty weak on this particular .
Sunday . Always the best way to have sex is to argue for sex . This is why we should have sex . Let me give you a 10 point PowerPoint presentation , right ? And then there are some charts and graphs . Oh , interesting . And that that's my spreadsheet . You should be turned on now , you should , yes , yeah , oh , no , you're asleep .
Wake up , please , emily , wake up , hello , hello , wow .
Here we are .
You shouldn't have a headache until we get this point in this graph , and this is why I argue against headaches . Wow , is there a sermon ever ? Or did we ? I ?
don't know . I didn't say anything about the sermon , so I'm sure there must have been . I don't think it was just a play , but yeah there we go . I think we had pretty high hopes for this . We did .
Well , because Willow Creek is like the church you hear about . You know , this is like kind of peak Medi-Church days , right . So you have Willow Creek , you have Saddleback , and so , yeah , we went out of our way to get there , because it's not really in , it's a suburb of Chicago .
So we intentionally got there and then we went to the train station and trained in . That's right , right , OK , yep , yep .
Yep , here we go . So Willow Creek is a suburb of Chicago , and just look at that .
I just said that .
You were right . You were right and we knew trains run into and out of the city . We asked somebody in the parking lot if they knew where the train station was . The guy gave Scott a schedule and we typed the address on our GPS and it said we could make it to the train station in eight minutes . The train was scheduled to leave in nine minutes .
I feel like this is a homework problem that I struggle with my children on a nightly basis . We booked it out of there to make the train . We were on two wheels in that RV taking those turns and whatnot . We pulled up just as the train did , so I leapt out the door to try to get us on . Oh dice .
We didn't make it , did we ? I'm in a jitter anticipation . Did we make it Just ?
as I got in the terminal , that train shut its doors and took off Next train two hours .
Let's backtrack . If there's not an eight minute play about the elephant in the bedroom , we're making the train man .
I hadn't connected that .
I hadn't until this moment . Gosh that plant . We're making the train . We have two more hours in Chicago . We're probably . You know what we didn't see ? We didn't see the big shiny jellybean thing , which is like all about Chicago . You know why . I do know Elephant in the room .
So what would have been really messed up is if you made it through the doors and I'm still parking the motor home and I'm like where's that to your phone calling me . So I made it , I'm going to see the big shiny jellybean . You just sit in the motor home and wait .
But don't worry everybody , the story goes on . This was okay . Instead I got crab cakes and watched some football .
Now I'm going to explain to you . Football is the one with the brown oblong shaped ball with the white laces on it . Okay , not the white ball with the black hexagons , because I know sports aren't your forte . No , so like it's , you know , nine inches the size of a typical sprinkler head .
Okay , yeah , I appreciate the . Yeah , I know I wrote this , but I don't know what that is . I do know what a crab cake is , but football , I just I love crab cakes .
Chateau does not know for their crab cakes , though I know what a strange choice .
It was a strange choice . I feel like I can picture the restaurant that we sat in waiting for the train .
I kind of can too . Yeah , it feels like , yes , I can see it in my mind's eye too .
Yeah , but it's funny that crab cakes were on the menu one and two that I thought I will order that .
And you were very satisfied because that was like , why you're happy is okay . It was okay . We had to make two hours . Why crab cake ? Yeah , crab cake . Where's the crab from California ? Yeah , we don't .
Maybe Not Chicago , I guess in Chicago , very possible . It was from the East Coast , I would agree . Yeah , all right . So we got on our train eventually and made it into downtown Chicago . Wow , lots of buildings . We walked over to the Sears Tower , the tallest building in America , and bought some tickets for $10 to go to the top .
Yeah , 103 floors later , we were at the top . That was cool . Visibility was around 30 miles and it was pretty sweet . That was cool . That was cool .
¶ Chicago's Sears Tower, Pizza, Bad Service
I don't think it's the Sears Tower anymore . You don't think so . I think they changed the name .
It has to be the Sears Tower . No , all of our Chicago friends let us know yeah come on in Give us a comment because definitely , yeah , I'm going 80% until the Sears Tower . No , it's not . I know that for a fact 100% .
Yeah , wow . Okay , Well , I'm believing you All right , well , fully there was a way that we could find out Five Below .
Tower . What's another shopping center ? That would be totally random . The Cryptocurrency Tower , cryptocom . That lasted 30 , 35 minutes and now they're out of business . This is the Belks Tower . Yeah , I liked the Sears Tower . That was cool to go up there and to be at the top of it , that was cool . Yeah unlike South Dakota Sears Tower . Winner , winner , winner .
We walk around the city and saw the sights and then the real reason anyone goes to Chicago the pizza , the pizza .
I was waiting for that . No , I love , I love Chicago Deep Dish pizza , so much it is not the same .
It's almost a different food . Yeah , and pizza , yeah , I agree . By normal definition it is . It's closer to a lasagna where you substitute bread for pasta .
Yeah , that's a great , I haven't thought of that . Except there's not bread in between the layers , but there's like a like a coating of bread , everything inside . Yeah , it's , you're right , it doesn't really even fit in pizza lingo .
And I think the problem when I started thinking like when you go out there as a Californian Chicago , you just in deep dish yeah right , that's been so taken over of your mind is like , oh , it's a deep dish pizza , it's not a deep dish pizza , it is a layer of cheese and toppings and tomato sauce and the spectacular thing .
So , yeah , if , yeah , I really it was really great to get to experience true Chicago style pizza . Do not get a deep dish pizza and say I've had Chicago style , you have it , you've had deep dish pizza , but Chicago style is totally different .
Yeah , and I'm sure if we were to say the name of the restaurant that we ate it at , there would be some very passionate Chicagoans who would be like that's not real deep dish pizza you got to go to just like the same thing when we go to Philly .
you have your choices you have to make on the cheese take sandwich and everyone has an opinion . That's right . So I say you say it when we go . Oh , I don't know , I'm just saying oh .
I love that I was ready .
I thought you had it all like you'd up . I'm a 10 . Domino's , domino's , that's it yeah . Domino's authentic the best deep dish pizza around . Yeah , domino's , followed by Papa John's .
Well , wherever it was that we went , scott , the pizza was so good , but not the service . Again , we had a whack waitress . Oh yeah , there were three TVs in the place and we sat between two of them . We asked our waitress if we could put on the Dodger game , but she said the guys at the table behind us were watching the TVs .
Okay , uh-huh , yeah , one TV was women's college volleyball Makes sense , okay , but the other was some 70s B movie . We asked the guys if they minded and they said go ahead , surprise , surprise , right . So Scott asked an employee if he would change the channel for us . He said why , wow ? And Scott said because it's the playoffs . The guy said I don't care .
What is that ? This is ? Yeah , I don't remember this .
That's crazy . We are aggressively getting yeah , like we're not in Dodger Town . But jeez , Louise , yeah , I don't care .
Wow , that does not service with a smile . Good thing there was no yelp back then . You know it's a good thing . What have written a strongly ?
opinionated . We should create a website just to make reviews about these places . Aha , yeah , and then we didn't do it . Turn of the billionaires , shoot , shoot . Good idea though that's a good idea .
So he finally , begrudgingly , changed the channel . It's not over . We asked our waitress , whose voice was barely audible , what beers were on tap . She didn't know . She said Bud Light , some other piss , water and bass those were her boards , probably , huh that's , I don't know .
I don't think you put piss water in there .
Piss water does sound like something I would say , though .
This is day two of bad service .
Yeah , regardless . What's up , illinois ? Have you gotten better ? Oh jeez . So we ordered two basses . She brought two bottles . Awesome , remember . I just asked what was on tap , right ? She said bass was on tap . And then bottles Brass and bottle . I said awesome . I guess she filled the bottles from the tap .
Oh , yeah , snarky , that was spicy . You definitely said that to her in person , though you said that in your journal , but not in person .
Yeah , it was in the comfort of my journal , as I was furiously writing later that evening .
Yes , I was so mad at you about my pizza and my beer .
And a letter to the Better Business Bureau . Thank you of Illinois . I don't teach them .
We should just write one now , yeah 19 years ago , october 10th yeah . I don't know if this waitress is still there , but she is , oh , she probably is , and she's really sassy now , yeah , did you imagine the sass that's built up over 19 years ? You're the Dodger people , do you remember ? You remember Flattered ? We should not have trapped her , though .
Yeah , 9pm . We headed over to the train station to get our train back out of town . We quickly found out the last train left 30 minutes prior to our arrival and the next one was scheduled to leave at 11.30 . Ah , yeah , yeah , we are .
We're California , we're Los Angeles kids . We don't do public transit , so we just walk around being like everything is fine , we'll jump in our car and go to where we have to go , and then we show up and go wait what Do you have a schedule ? Huh , hmm , huh , two hours , yeah , okay , so back to the bar with the Travel Lady . Yeah .
No , no , not back to the bar .
So what'd we do ?
Chicago shuts down on Sundays , so we had two and a half hours to kill in a train station . We met a med student named Angela . That was about it , rol . I don't think Angela was thrilled to meet us Doesn't sound that way , but I remember that we were . We have a picture of her . Actually , I found oh we do .
I just remember that we were so bored that we were like can we talk to you ? And I think she was studying . Probably Didn't seem that interesting or interested and we just continued to talk after .
Which is surprising because you have two gorgeous men stranded in the train station with you . You'd think that would be enough . It was probably the best day of her life . She probably reflects , along with that waitress .
Yeah , In her podcast she talks often of the time that she met the two travelers from California .
We should have a podcast battle one day . Oh yeah , I don't know how you do that , we'll figure it out . We will Like a dance battle , but podcasting , yeah , I don't know .
It's a deep and thought here .
I know it doesn't quite work , but somehow we could figure . So , angela , if you're out there , thank you . Please reach out to us via our common podcast blog that we all post to and talk often's podcast .
Oh , here let me clarify , Dr Angela , if you're out there Pediatrist .
Is that what she studied ? I don't know , probably . Yeah , the foot's a very underrated piece of the body . Ok , let's not get into that , all right .
So we got back to our RV at 12.30 .
A at 8 . I'll show you the elephant in that room . That's what I just did . I just dropped an elephant right there , oh yeah .
This week at Willow Creek . The room that the elephant is in is the Pediatrists .
Office . It is the office of shoes .
Oh man , let's talk about waiting room experiences in doctors' offices Shall we let's talk about the dietary . No , still , we should talk about it . No , all right . So we drove to Michigan City , indiana Parked at a Walmart .
I was just there , not that Walmart , but I was just . I just drove through . I did the Chicago to Michigan Loop on my way up to Northport . If we had been toward this episode before I could have gone back with the kiddos showed them the spot . Oh , dang it , I know .
I got to say that wasn't so great , our stop through Illinois .
It's funny because I don't . I remember it fondly . I remember the serious tower . I remember the pizza kind of . I don't remember Miss Traby waitress one or two . No , I don't either . Maybe maybe Chicago , although In general I don't like Chicago that much , oh , I mean . So I've been stranded at O'Hare Airport at least three times . Oh , okay , and then .
So this last time we just on this trip flew into Midway , turns out Midway is just in the middle of a random neighborhood , so it's like five or six miles that you're on . Just it feels like a neighborhood street with stop signs getting out of the airport .
Oh yeah , no , I totally know what you're talking about .
Yeah , and I'm like what , what is this city , what is this ? And then you're the freeways aren't great . Oh , the other thing , we're doing that loop . We didn't write about this , but Emily and I are shocked . We stop at Right away after their toll , sit 60 . Okay , that's fine toll road . One mile later , another toll , now for 10 , another .
Then we're in Indiana , another my Third toll , at least they were going down . That was like 225 . I'm like Emily , how many more toll we're through ? Like 30 bucks of tolls in the first man you see , yeah , that's not friendly . What that's not friendly . The pizza is good . The sears tower is good . I'm , I'm ah Chicago I .
Also hear they get a lot of wind . Oh , I've heard that too Was cheers filmed in Chicago .
No , I think it was Boston . Oh Boston , that's right , I think . But now you're coming to Sears Tower . It's not the Sears Tower anymore . So now my , my whole Self , my sense of self , has been distorted . It's .
Yeah , like Chicago's got some real cool stuff .
But Sears Tower , the , the , the bean , the lakefront I think I feel like I've just listed them off .
Yeah , the architecture . I've been on one of those architecture tours before I in Chicago and that that's cool . Oh yeah , you go up the Chicago River and they point out all the buildings . I mean it's world famous for architecture .
Why were you doing that without her work thing ?
Yeah , it's a work thing we have . I work for a company and we have a office right in the Wrigley building which is Incredible . So I've been to Chicago a few times .
So Chicago ends are gonna be listed this episode after my my rant on the toll , yeah .
Chicago hates all of you Chicago people . They do , andrew , but Andrew me , I , I like you all , did you say ?
you said Chicago hates all of you should auto people . You meant Scott . I did mean Scott I mean , they might hate themselves . Well , I thought you were doing like meta metaphysical somehow , like the city doesn't like the people . But then you turned into Andrew . So I'm like , oh , he meant to say me .
Yeah , and then I confused myself , and then you can yeah .
And we thank you , our advertiser for Cal Poly Pomona , for this episode oh .
Oh , come on .
Ha hey , you know where I'm also an alumni of Scott yeah concordia university . I know . That's you know maybe looking bad for both of us . Yeah . I guess our high I guess my high school is what made me so stuck . Oh wait , we share that too . Yeah , we should that too .
I guess the point here is kids .
Well , the point there is is that the one outliers . The college isn't . The point is Below average pool guys joined them . That's the point . Yeah , they're always hiring , they're always . They're always what ? If you're too attractive though that would be a bummer you get rejected . Sorry , we saw your mind being rejected from that job . It'd be like sweet .
That's true . It says something .
Yeah , like well , I didn't get the job , but at least I'm not , at least I'm not below really ugly .
At least I'm not really ugly .
Yeah , that's what matters .
So we done . Can we get home safely ?
Yeah , so that's it . Uh , Michigan City , indiana park at a Walmart and got to bed by 3 am . Good freaking night .
Yeah , I'm gonna say injure not so thrilled at 3 am . No , you , yeah , made sense why the the story about the waitress comes off a little crabby . Maybe she was very friendly , but you were just in a bad place when you were writing it possible .
It is possible . Uh , you know it . Yeah , it's funny because it's my memory of our time in Illinois and Chicago
¶ Excitement for Michigan Vacation
. I was like that was a great day . I remember that that was fun . There was the train rides , there was the we missed both of them . Yeah , we missed both the train . We didn't see the bean . The bean is cool , that's another thing , I know go see the bean ?
I will . I haven't seen it yet . Still , oh , you've never seen the bean . I don't think so . Maybe this has to be a thing I don't ever see now . You don't ever see the bean . You only mean , like you say , yeah , I've been so tired of a bunch , I've never seen the bean . And then becomes like a point of pride oh , I'll do that to yourself , okay .
Don't live like that I won't okay . Yeah , I'll go see it . Yeah Well , all right , good day , good day . See you On the flip side .
Yeah , guess where we're going next . You should be excited .
We are going to the cottage .
The cottage Michigan . What's what's michigan's ? Uh , what's their tourism slogan ?
Asked to be like the great light state . Now Pure , pure michigan . Oh , that is Kind of like pure avidab about pure michigan . So pure michigan , next stop Michigan . Pure michigan , michigan .
All right everyone .
See ya , bye .