Impressions from the Road: Bumps in the road.

When it rains, it pours. Last night in Chicago, it was pouring, literally. That and many other factors provided for an extremely stressful night. Since my last post, I traveled to Tulsa in Oklahoma and St. Louis in Missouri, where I locked my keys in my car, but thanks to my wonderful hostel host, was able to get them out). From Missouri, I had a late start because of how much St. Louis has to offer, but once I hit the road, I was headed for Chicago, Illinois.
I reached the downtown area at about 10pm to find awful weather, which makes it impossible to see the divider lines of the 3-lane downtown streets where there is constantly someone honking, trains roaring above the streets on multiple overpasses (so strange to have them above downtown streets), pedestrians EVERYWHERE, randomly parked cars throughout the streets and aggressive taxis attempting, or so it seemed, to run every other car off the road. My main goal was simply to find my hostel and get a good nights rest so that I could explore the next morning. Finally, I found my hostel and a nearby parking garage, but they informed me that for overnight, it would be $35 cash, which I did not have. The next garages I somehow found charged the same. The entire time I felt extremely unsafe, so I made a quick decision to get out of the city ASAP. The problem was that I couldn’t find a place to pull over to re-route.
After about an hour had past, most of which I believe was spent in sketchy neighborhoods, I found a gas station where I could stop to plan my next move. I decided to get on highway 20, an old bi-way, headed west. It was dark and besides a couple of truck divers I passed, desserted. This was perfect and exactly what I wanted. At that moment, I wanted to be as far from civilization as possible. Two and a half hours of driving brought me to Rockford, Illinois, where I have decided to stay an extra night for some rest before I begin my journey westward.
After having traveled through and San Francisco, I though that I could handle any of our great big cities. I was; however, so completely and utterly wrong. At least under the circumstances of last night, Chicago was unbearable for me. I do hope to one day be able to travel through in a daylight so that I can redeem my opinion of the city.Even with the chaotic night, I am still extremely thankful to have decided to travel north instead of further east because the horrible tornados they are having in that direction. After it pours, the sun comes out, right? I have a good feeling about the rest of my trip!

Highlights:

Gilcrease Museum: The Museum of the Americas, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Perfect place to spend Easter. The place has an amazing assortment of art and artifacts of the American West. My favorite piece "Soul mates" by Jason Stone is pictured in the first image. The third picture is of their children's center, which has a huge light table, which I though was neat.

The indoor exhibits are great, but the most amazing part of the museum, which is located on a huge piece of property, are the five themed gardens: Pre-Columbian, Pioneer, Colonial, Victorian and Rock. I finally found color after the dark environments of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas! Very peaceful.

Huckleberry Finn Hostel, St Louis, Missouri. After Tulsa, I was, of course, running late for check in to the St Louis hostel, but the kind host let me in late. Once I finally arrive, I locked my keys in the door and the hostel host allowed me to use his AAA to get them out. WHEW!

Park Avenue Cafe, St Louis, Missouri. The key incident had not affect on my stay in St. Louis, which was nothing less than awesome. A nice bartista in this cafe suggested some ways to spend my limited time in the city. I love all of the brick buildings in the city!

The Gateway Arch or the "Gateway to the West," St. Louis, MO. The tallest monument of the United States. I definitely felt small standing below the building, but after riding an elevator to the top, I felt gigantic.

From the top of the Gateway Arch. Inside the tiny door in the first picture is the elevator car that I rode to the top of the arch. The cars to the top are extremely small, but luckily the ride is only 4 minutes long. Going up, since I was by myself, I had a park ranger ride up with me. He gave me some tips for Chicago. If only he had told me it was complete insanity...

Museum of Westward Expansion (part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial), St Louis, IL. Located near the beginning point of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The lifelike individuals that I photographed are so extremely realistic in person as they both move and talk. They were the better part of the museum, but unfortunately most of the information throughout was oversimplified and focused primarily on glorifying westward expansion instead of presenting the difficulties that most faced (especially Native Americans).