Motel 666

Lots of fun stuff in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Iggy's duct-taped shorts, MJ's glove, Bowie outfits aplenty, "The Fly's" outfit, Joe Strummer's smashed guitar, Bjork's paper jacket...no pictures, though. Cameras not allowed inside. Don't worry,Dad--there were some Jerry Garcia guitars outside that I got some pics of, luckily.

Some local metal bands played in the lobby. Not sure if it's distressing or comforting that it was all the same middle-of-the-road stuff that one might find in Sacramento. Does that mean less competition to be original, or a sign that people want to hear conformity? On the whole, I left pretty inspired, though. Seeing interviews of Joe Strummer and Iggy Pop had a way of getting me in the mood to rock.

The next day got off on the wrong foot for me--and there's a pun in there. I was a little too eager to get on the road and just about ran over Paul's foot as he was getting into the car. Sorry, Paul. I think I at least partly redeemed myself by navigating downtown Chicago with the trailer, though. I wish we could have gotten out and walked around as it has been about 20 years since I've been here.

Oddities on the drive out of Illinois and across Iowa: A sign that Chris read as "Custard-Filled Butter Burgers" (later Googled to be clarified as "Culver's Frozen Custard & Butter Burgers"--slightly less ridiculous, but still eyebrow-raising.) Also, we passed what claimed to be the largest truckstop in the world. We weren't quite on the ball enough to get a picture of it, though. And corn. Corncorncorncorncorncorncorncorncorn.

Finally, in the wee hours of the morn, we began to look for a Motel 6 to crash at. Paul had referenced the Complete Tome of Motel 6 and directed us off the freeway, expecting to still have several minutes of surface streets to navigate before we arrived. But, lo! Just off of the exit was a Motel 6 not listed in the Grand Manual! We thought we had hit jackpot and turned off course to bring the good ship Volvo into this uncharted harbor. But, wait! Like some desert mirage, or one of Tantalus' torments, or an area in Zelda that you can see but can't get to without the grapnel, an actual entrance to this glamer-induced Motel eluded us. After several minutes of dead-end roads and construction detours, we threw our hands in the air and continued on to our original target. If I were to ask the desk clerk here about the other Motel 6 that we couldn't get into, I would expect him or her to suddenly go pale and tell me "that Motel 6 burned to the ground 40 years ago...right after those awful murders..."