Illinois

Year of First Visit – 1976
Point of Entry – I-70 Near Terra Haute

I’ve been to (or through) Illinois more times than I can count. You would think that it would become ordinary yet all my memories are of things that are extreme ----

-I remember stepping out on the glass and looking straight down over 100 floors to the Chicago streets below me from the observation level of the Willis (Sears) Tower.

-I remember as a child my family finding “No Vacancy” signs for miles and miles until coming to the Hull Motel, which qualifies as the worst place to stay ever!

-I remember as a high school student from a small town deplaning at the United terminal at O’Hare, at the time the world’s largest, to change planes as I traveled by myself to try to land an academic scholarship for college.

-I remember the longest, straightest, flattest, dullest stretch of freeways.

-I remember attending a seminar at Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in the country.

-I remember days with relatives in Golconda and the wonderful, extreme opposite of my hurried urban life, relaxing visits.

-I remember a descent into Midway Airport when, as the surrounding neighborhood’s rooftops grew ever closer, hearing a fellow passenger proclaim, “I sure hope there’s a runway around here!”

-I remember Peter Segal having to try over and over again at the recording of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me to say the slogan for Lending Tree (When banks compete you win), the show’s sponsor, after doing a lengthy segment on the economic collapse banks in 2008.

Yes, my times in Illinois have been extreme and there’s only so much of that kind of thing I can handle. Good thing my wife didn’t take the job in Lake Zurich.