Ian Rambles
Chicago was less intimidating to drive through than I expected. Traffic density is a fraction of that in European cities and the roads are soooo wide - though lack of traffic is partly due to high gas prices. The owner of last nights motel said that the number of vehicles passing his establishment had definitely dropped.

We came through the eastern suburbs of Chicago on lesser roads - in defiance of the "safe driving advice" paranoia we had been offered. At one point we went round in circles for half an hour, trapped between the floats of a parade setting up and the freeway.

Mororing out to Joliet I expected to have to make a search for the old jail but, suddenly, there it was - and apart from a cage over the doorway, Jake could have walked out at any moment.

Fiona's Journal
This was our Blues Brothers day – “The Blues Brothers” is our favourite family film. We got very lost in the Eastern suburbs of Chicago where lots of roads were closed off as they prepared for a big parade of floats but eventually we found our way into the centre of the city. Downtown Chicago did not disappoint us. The skyscrapers and narrow streets and the El trains crossing at third floor height were just as we remembered them from the film and, guess what, we could hear blues music being played in the distance, over the noise of the traffic. I would have loved to have stopped and explored but parking looked impossible and we really needed to cover some miles today so we pressed on through. We got ourselves onto “Historic Route 66” more or less by accident as we left Chicago heading South West and our next stop was in Joliet, site of the penitentiary from which Jake was released at the start of the film. This prison is no longer in use but it has not been demolished or used for anything else – since it looks like a modern attempt at a turreted English castle, complete with crenelations and arrow-slit windows, it is difficult to know what else it could be used for except perhaps a theme park!

From here we followed Route 66 through numerous small towns, in one of which I turned left into the wrong side of a four lane road but got away with it! We ended the day in the town of Dwight, Illinois in another cheapish motel of the “beach hut” variety behind a gas station. We flicked on the TV to be confronted by a newsflash warning of an imminent tornado expected to cross this area within the next 40 minutes. Forty minutes passed and nothing happened so we took ourselves off to the “Route 66 Family Restaurant” for tea. One of the waitresses showed us a brilliant photo of the tornado which she had taken from her car less than 10 miles from us – we feel slightly cheated rather than lucky to have been missed by such a small margin. Another of the waitresses is entranced by our English accents and keeps getting us to say things like “cheeseburger” and then bursting into giggles. I presume English visitors are not common in these small backroad towns as we do seem to attract notice. Anyway it was very friendly and the food was the best we have had yet. Eating out is really cheap in this country too.

We have, unknowingly, crossed another time zone in the course of the day so we get an extra hour's sleep tonight. We are in the Central American Time Zone now.

Arthur's Log:
I really want to drive. The Cadillac is rather pathetic for a big V8 but makes a nice noise! It uses almost twice as much gas as our car at home but feels less powerful.

We stopped off at the prison where Jake starts out in "Blues Brothers" - which is one of the best movies of all time.

The Harry Report
The prison was huge, on both sides of the road, but I recognised it immediately.

George's Musings
Chicago was impressive but I don't understand how people live in so many flats.
The waitress thought our accents were really funny.