The start of the route is in Chicago, specifically the Michigan Avenue, starting point of a long journey of nearly 4,000 km to the other side of the country.
In Chicago, when you arrive after 9 hour flight from Madrid on a plane with 400 people and an hour in line at immigration, you are short like going out but worth it because there are pubs with jazz music and more authentic than others.
The three things that gave us time to do (the underground works very well despite the ticket machines do not give change) on the day and a half that were there were:
Walking around the Navy Pier, which has a mall and some attractions, but the best are the views on the shores of Lake Michigan, one can see the city from the banks in the sun and looking across no less than one the Great Lakes. It also has a beautiful park nearby where you can take beautiful pictures of the skyline of the city. Besides the free WIFI there can connect with the mobile.
Beside it is the Hancock Tower which can be raised, counting on your floor 94 with a 360 º view of the city. Admission costs 15 USD but worth it. And it is also advisable to go at night and can see all the city lights.
Finally another essential visit is a walk in the Millennium Park, as big as green, and has a beautiful fountain and a sculpture especially, a curious work of art called “beans” and that reflects the city in a distorted way. Work in a British multi-million dollars and is made of stainless steel panels. It’s where more tourists saw.
And at the Hyatt give us the Lincoln Town Car, a large luxury car with us (and will) throughout the journey without incident and at great expense in gasoline (the price of gasoline in the U.S. cheapest is $ 4.30 per gallon, which is 4 quarts).
We left Chicago and Springfield, without leaving the state of Illinois, where we arrived after 3 hours by car. There the temperature was already of 30 º C and most showy we saw was the Lincoln Park, a large green extension very cared (like all gardens of this country, who are always manicured), where you can see the Memorials to veterans of wars World and Vietnam (in almost all cities there are monuments in memory of fallen heroes in the various wars).
In this park you can go to see, free, the tomb of Abraham Lincoln (president of the country in time of the American Civil War).
Then we come to downtown, but there was little atmosphere. Single family homes very American, very few people on the street and few places to buy something or have a beer. What we do is worth a visit is the Cozy Dog, historic site of the path and where you can taste the famous hot dog place.
Saint Louis, State and Missouri, and our next stop, was different. Housed next to the historic river and the famous Arch Misissipi, bustling with animation. In part because just when we arrived there was a baseball game the Cardinals home team and defending champion (the “world” called into the stadium). Met with luck, gain entry to see the last minutes of the game. And the truth is that being inside the stadium, with 52,000 people dressed in red screaming for a man-round, is a spectacle, with fireworks, music … And, as we said, baseball is a way of life in that city, and may even stop going to work to watch the game. While in Missouri we also visit the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Sedalia. Not hard to find Sedalia Missouri hotels there.
You can also climb the Arc (Gateway Arch), memorial of the American westward expansion. With 192 meters is the tallest monument in U.S. man-made. There is a lift that climbs obliquely up and let you get beautiful views of the city.
Well worth it, if time permits, reached by subway to Forest Park. Where squirrels, fountains, a lake where you take something cool on a terrace on the bank and even a zoo, a place so relaxing. When we arrived they were also celebrating the Twiligth Tuesdays, which was a stage with live music and plenty of families that have settled on the lawn chairs, food…
On the way to another Springfield (there are dozens of people with this name in the country) stopped at Seymour, a town of 1,500 inhabitants and residence of the most important community of Amish in Missouri. The Amish became known in the wake of the movie “Witness” Harrison Ford, and families are living a very simple habits, with their distinctive costumes and even they can see with families in carts and on farms of living.
Back in Springfield, Missouri, entered the shopping center there, nothing else but to see how impressive the place. A complex with huge fish tanks with bugs as the Alligator Gar, turtles… a mini movie theater and shops dedicated to great hunting, fishing, sport … unconscionable for a shop.
Is this a city with almost 20,000 students at the University so the nightlife at weekends, is warranted. Although police do not fuck stories, prohibiting even bad manners, drinking in the street.
Following the route will cross the few miles that run through Kansas. We stopped at Galena, and there, while enjoying homemade sandwiches in a little store that was both a restaurant and community center, told us the story of the terrible tornado that destroyed part of the state in 2011. And goodbye, holding hands with all the ladies that were there, we were presented with a blessing that protects us laugh the rest of the way and even the return to Spain.
It is worth mentioning the EAP discuss the huge Christian presence in the country. Multitude of Christian churches (Adventists, Baptists, Mormons, Evangelicals, Methodists, Seventh-day …) are everywhere and with great presence of people in worship. On the other hand saw only Muslims or Jews.
Following the road you come to Oklahoma City, and at night, exhausted after many hours in the car, was the only city where we went to see the dowtown.
The next day we got to see Fort Reno, historical place at the time of the Indians and where there was a site which by 1870 was surrounded by Indians.