Midwest Road Trip
Part 6
November 7 was our last day in the Chicagoland area, and we had a full day planned. It started out with an activity for Elyse: a statewide siren test. Illinois conducts a test of all of the outdoor warning sirens in the state on the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM, and it just worked out that we would be there for it. So Elyse, Kyle, and I got up with the intention of going over to Niles in order to record a Thunderbolt siren that Elyse had identified near the intersection of Golf Road and North Milwaukee Avenue.
We parked across the street from the siren. Elyse and Kyle both set up fairly close to it in order to film its operation, while I took a two-pronged strategy from a slightly further distance. I was also going to photograph it with my DSLR using the big lens, and then I also threw the Mavic Mini up in the air, with the intention of taking video footage of it rotating, as Thunderbolt sirens tend to do when they’re active. However, I quickly ran into problems with the Mini, because the SD card that I had in it was far too slow for what I was asking of it, and the Mini’s internal memory was also far too small. And that was fair enough, because the Mavic Mini was intended as a secondary drone, and had an older SD card in it. I would have used the Air 2S with its faster SD card, but that equipment was now at the bottom of Lake Michigan following the previous day’s activities.
The Thunderbolt, as viewed by the Mini.
DSLR photo of the Thunderbolt. Note the Mavic Mini’s presence in the shot.
It all turned out to be a moot point in the end, though, because when the siren test came around, we heard the scream of outdoor warning sirens fill the air, but the Thunderbolt that we were focused on did not operate. That was disappointing, but I suppose that’s the way it works sometimes. I’ve noticed that most Thunderbolt sirens that I see are disused, and have been abandoned in place rather than removed. I also admit that the Thunderbolt in particular has special meaning to me, because it reminds me of childhood, as Rogers, Arkansas had Thunderbolt sirens in various locations around town to alert people about tornadoes during the time that I lived there. I remembered seeing those, and I remember thinking at the time about how loud those must be, though I never got to hear them go off while we lived there.
With the siren test complete, we took two different tracks. We all went to the nearby Golf Mill Shopping Center. Once there, Elyse and Kyle went into the mall and explored the elevators in the office building, before taking a bus to their next destination. Meanwhile, I went to Target in order to rectify my SD card situation. If I was going to be stuck with the Mini for the remainder of the trip, I might as well have a good SD card for it. So I got a nice, speedy card with 128 GB of storage on it, similar to what the Air 2S had on it. I quickly put that card in service, and went for a flight around Golf Mill.
I was also quickly reminded about the operational differences between the Mini and the Air 2S. The Mini is a lot slower in flight, it is more frequently subject to radio interference, it is very lightweight and therefore more subject to the wind, and it has no object detection capabilities. In other words, plan your flight carefully, because it will take a while to attain operating altitude and then reach your subject, you will have more loss-of-signal issues, it will get kicked around in windy conditions, and it won’t stop you from flying into something. On that last point, that means that if you fly it straight towards an object, it will absolutely make contact with it and go down. Fly with all of that in mind, though, and you will be fine.
After I brought the drone back in, I headed over to a Gordon Food Service store located nearby. I had two reasons for this. First, we frequently see Gordon Food Service products at Sharp Shopper, which is a grocery outlet-type chain with locations in Virginia and Pennsylvania. So it’s nice to see the brand in its proper context. Second, I wanted to see how this foodservice store compared to a similar store near me that is operated by Sysco. While the Sysco store near me sells only foodservice products, i.e. the big sizes for commercial applications, the Gordon store not only sells foodservice products, but also mixes in consumer-sized products and fresh produce, making it more of a grocery store with a heavy focus on foodservice products, and not just a foodservice outlet store. All in all, I was impressed with this store, and wish that they had some of those near me (the nearest one to me is in the Pittsburgh area). Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I got no photos, and due to space constraints with the HR-V, I couldn’t buy anything here.
I also took a few minutes to check out a nearby TJ Maxx store that we had driven past a few times. This was the largest TJ Maxx store that I had ever been to, and it was clear that this store had been expanded a few times, as it appeared to take up at least three different storefronts.
TJ Maxx in Skokie, in what appeared to have originally been a multi-tenant shopping center, now a single large TJ Maxx store.
The store wasn’t much different from a regular TJ Maxx inside – just bigger and irregularly shaped. One section was lower than the rest of the store, and the different tenant spaces that comprised this big store were clearly evident, with a roll door between the upper and lower sections.
Then I headed back to the hotel and parked the HR-V. I was going to do a quick photo offload from the siren test, and then I was meeting Sis and Chris.
Sis and Chris picked me up outside in their Prius, and we drove down to the “international” McDonald’s in Chicago, so named because it sells various items that McDonald’s offers in other countries as well as standard McDonald’s fare. This was located in the same building as Hamburger University, which is McDonald’s corporate training facility. The ride down was pretty good. I had not seen these parts of Chicago before, and so this was all new to me. However, in the car, I was riding in the back, and definitely felt like something of a fifth wheel. With Sis and Chris in their usual positions in the car, they were just chatting away about whatever, and I got the sense that they had slipped right into their usual routine and forgotten that I was there, as I couldn’t get a word in edgewise between them. Next time I ride with them, I believe that I want to ride in front to ensure that I remain visible, and therefore stay in the conversation. The experience was akin to being a fly on the wall. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t preferred.
Hamburger University. I remember reading about its existence in some kiddie books about Ray Kroc that I had borrowed from the school library in elementary school, but I never thought I would see it in person.
When we got to the international McDonald’s, we soon found Kyle and Elyse, and we went in to order. At the international McDonald’s, I ordered the Big Tasty Mushroom, which the company describes as “A 100% beef patty, Mushroom, Emmental cheese, juicy tomatoes and a unique smoky flavored sauce all nested in a freshly toasted bun,” that was normally served in Saudi Arabia. Basically, it was a hamburger with mushrooms as a topping, with a special cheese. It was pretty good. Elyse got the Ebi Filet-O-Shrimp, which is essentially a shrimp-based burger, and is sold in Japan. We also each got sweet potato fries, which are not a regular offering at McDonald’s. They were quite good, especially when compared alongside their relatively flavorless standard fries. When it comes to standard McDonald’s fries, there’s a reason that we don’t enjoy them on their own merits, and simply treat them as a ketchup delivery system. The ketchup has far more flavor than those bland standard fries. But the sweet potato fries were enjoyable on their own, without any ketchup.
After lunch, Sis and Chris had to go back to Evanston in order to pick Juni up from her first day of doggie day care, while the three of us went out and each did our own thing. Elyse went out to ride buses around, while Kyle and I found a parking garage with an excellent vantage point for photographing a major CTA rail junction, Tower 18. The junction is a level crossing over the intersection of West Lake Street and North Wells Street, and all of the lines that go around the Loop go through it in one direction or another, and trains can go any direction through this junction except from north to west (and vice versa). Kyle went up to photograph the junction, while I attempted to do so by drone.
I tried launching right next to the parking garage, but unfortunately, being in something of a canyon of tall buildings, which block a lot of signals, my drone couldn’t get a firm lock on GPS, which limited its range. I suspected that this was a combination of the relatively low-end nature of the Mavic Mini, plus the buildings’ mass making it more difficult to get a signal. I sometimes have similar signal issues with GPS on my phone in cities as well, so it’s not unique to the Mini by any means.
This is the highest that I was able to go in this location with the Mini due to the lack of GPS signal. Clearly, this would not do.
Kyle photographs from the parking garage, as seen by the drone.
I ended up walking a block or so north to the Chicago River, which was a much more open space, and my drone was able to successfully lock on there. That area was better for flying because, being more open, I could get a reliable lock on GPS, but I felt limited in that location. While I could simply fly back to my original location from there and capture that junction, I didn’t feel comfortable doing that, because there were lots of people, lots of vehicles, and lots of infrastructure, plus with the Mini’s lack of collision sensors, it meant that if I started flying towards an obstruction and didn’t realize it, there was going to be a collision. I had already destroyed one drone on this trip, and I was not about to kill a second one. So I made do with the line on North Wells Street as it crossed the river.
A Purple Line train crosses the Chicago River.
The same Purple Line train approaches the big interlocking at Lake and Wells, as a Brown Line train passes on the other track.
Two Brown Line trains cross the bridge over the river.
Trains cross the Chicago River, viewed from closer by (though the drone was still a very safe distance away).
The bridge viewed from higher up and further out.
I wasn’t exactly pleased with the quality of what I got, but again, this was a rather low-end drone that I was flying with, and one that I had not used in some time, plus the sky was gray. I then joined Kyle at the parking garage, where I got some more shots of the Tower 18 junction with my real camera.
The photos that I got from the parking garage weren’t amazing, but at least they’re something. We stayed here until the person working the garage asked us to please move on. We then took the train to State/Lake, and walked east, with a goal of ending up at a Mariano’s store that Elyse had ended up at earlier. Kyle photographed some buses, while I tried the drone again in the vicinity of the Chicago Theatre.
The Chicago Theatre, viewed from the air. The clouds made my photos appear gray, and I felt uninspired, but you know, it was something.
Drone selfie just before landing.
We then made our way to the Mariano’s via East Lake Street, photographing things along the way.
Gillig Low Floor operated by Aries Charter. Neither of us had ever seen a bus do a scrolling effect on the sign before, nor had we ever seen a side sign that large before.
Stop sign with graffiti on it. Admittedly, that “stop and kiss” graffiti was kind of cute.
The Aon Center. I have always enjoyed photographing the Aon Center, as it is a very clean-looking building.
At Mariano’s, we met up with Elyse, who was sitting at the bar there (yes, the grocery store had a bar!). We spent a little while there because it was out of the cold, and then we headed back to the train and rode from State/Lake to Morgan, which was near where we were meeting Sis and Chris for dinner.
Our train departs Morgan station, heading towards Harlem/Lake.
Dinner would be at a favorite of Elyse’s and mine from our trips to Toronto: Kinton Ramen. Kinton is largely a Canadian chain, but they do have two US locations, with one in Chicago and one in upstate New York.
Elyse had traveled to Kinton separately from us, and she beat us there. Surprisingly, rather than wait for us, Elyse had them seat her and got started. When we got there, we had to put a stop to that, because not everyone was present yet. Sis and Chris were on their way back down, and I didn’t want to start without them. After some discussion with Elyse and the server, we put her orders on hold, and we left to go do something else to kill time for about 40 minutes. We ended up going to a Mariano’s a few blocks away from Kinton for a while, and then came back. Elyse was not happy about this, but this is what you have to do sometimes.
Kinton, meanwhile, had a different menu than the Toronto locations that we had been to in the past, but it was in the same spirit of things, so all was well.
My meal at Kinton Ramen. It was quite good, as was to be expected from Kinton Ramen.
Overall, we had a pretty good time, and I had leftovers to bring home. After dinner, I rode home with Sis and Chris in their car, while Elyse and Kyle took the train back. Getting back to Evanston, we parked at their house, and then walked over to the hotel with Juni. There, Sis and Chris and I parted company for the last time on this trip, getting big hugs all around, and a photo of the three of them.
Sis, Chris, and Juni. It was good to see all of them again.
And that was our last day in Chicago. The next day would be a big one, as we would begin our journey home.