My Chicago Trip
where to start...well
first off, the trip was done solo. my best friend was not able to make it, and on such short notice, its hard to find someone to go 7 hours away for 3 days. but since i have been waiting for at least 6 months, i was not going to miss this. left work @ 12 noon on friday, went home, got some change (tolls) my suitcase, and left. went to see mom, say bye, and hit the freeway
got to indianapolis, mapquest directions off a little, set me back about 1/2 hour. got back on track, get into chicago about 7 (chicago time, hour behind me) wait through traffic for about 1.5 hour, finally get to the hotel. go in, cool down (didnt run a/c for all but 10 min of a 7 hour trip to optimize gas mileage) go to the front desk to check on a 5/3 bank and a best buy. woman said best buy was about 15 min away, and closed in 20 min. make it down there in 10 min to find out they dont carry the camera battery i need (i have 3, i wanted an extra for insurance). leave, go to bank, go to dinner, go to hotel, wake up next morning, and go to a camera shop. guy sells me wrong battery, so i stopped at 3 different places on the way to return it, to not find the battery ANYWHERE. (funny caus i can find it at BB here). so i go back, hang out for an hour, and leave for HIN
get to downtown about 2 hours before show, thinking i will shop for some souveniers. well, i thought id be around a bunch of shops really centralized, i was wrong. and since i dont know chicago for ****, i decided to stick around mccormick place. waited for the show for a couple hours, got in finally, at 5:10
the show was OFF THE HOOK. there was a GT XD (rims, neons) and an evo 3 kitted XD GLS. i got pics, ill post em later. saw about 9 tibs, got to meet mona (see COTM on NT.com) and another tib guy from michigan who i met last year at a columbus meet. hes got an alpine supercharged tib, but it wasnt in the show. i cant believe he remembered me, caus i was takin pics, and he came up like "you were at the meet last year, right?" talked to him, went saw the show, bleh bleh bleh. im not gonna elaborate on the show too much, caus theres too much to tell about...its somethin you just gotta go to.
now...heres where my vacation started to turn ****ty. leave the parking garage, and im drivin down one of the streets right downtown, go to look for my directions, look up, BAM!. i rearended this guy. probably 15-20 mph. pushed him forward...im like, ****@[email protected][email protected] i get out, he gets out (older toyota or somethin...a lil old beater car) he looks @ his bumper, says "i see no damage to mine, youre VERY LUCKY." i apologized my *** off, told him it was my own stupid mistake, was lookin for directions caus i wasnt from here, apologized again, and he told me how lucky i was again. i look @ my front end expecting to see a lot of damage to my bumper and probably a cracked headlights, broken grille, and i bent [email protected]! license plate was bent, but thats it. so im like whew. get back to the hotel where i can look at it closer, no cracked headlight, not a scratch in the paint, not a dent, crack, nothing! hood was fine, grille got bent in a tad, but i just pulled it back out. look @ it from the side, looks like the bumper got pushed back some, like, the headlights dont line up, and the hood is off a little, but its so unnoticeable, im not gonna claim it or anything.
next morning (today) leave at about 11. had to stop downtown to pick up some popcorn for someone @ work (shes from chicago and hasnt had it in a long time...garrett? i think is the name. i tried some...its good) park to go down and get it (parking prices are somethin else...6$ for 20min) come back to my car, of course, clutch and brake, turn the key, brake pedal goes to the floor. i know exactly what it is too...i snapped a brake line when i was doing the springs a while back, got an americanized size line from autozone, overtightened it, f'ed up the threads, and just put some nylon tape on it to seal it, tightened it again to the point where it was tight, but didnt go far enough to mess up the threads. been working fine for 3+ months now. decided to **** out on me in chicago. if i push the brake all the way down, it starts to slow me down, but not much. so i figure, ill see how i can do downshifting (glad i got a 5-speed) and usin the 3-brake...if its not working, ill stop somewhere before i leave chicago and see if a shop can help me out. i get thru chicago traffic at 2pm (again, ridiculous) and get to the point where i can use CC and not have to brake. get into a bit of a traffic jam about 30 mi before ohio in indiana, get thru it, again go to CC. get home safely. about to go out and see what i cant do about the line
now...for the good part. columbus to my hotel in chicago (remember, 1.5 hours of about 5mph traffic) to best buy and back, i hit 36.6 mpg. i probably hit 40mpg freeway, but city time killed me. left chicago w/ about 140 miles, and about 2-3 needles above 1/2 tank, filled up @ 375 miles, and filled up 11.3xx gallons. didnt calculate it yet. car wasnt too bad to be in for 7 hours...im not to tense from sitting for 7 hours like i did when i was a kid (you know, you sit for a while, and get out and about fall over caus your legs are asleep)
now for a few pics of the XDs i saw at HIN and a pic of the custom EXD winshield logo i had made at the show (its not 100% correct, but its damn close for them doin it at HIN)
ill put pics in another post if itll let me
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