How about upside down? Who makes the best Chicago pizza?  Lou Malnati, Giordano’s or Uno’s, the chains plus the multitude of local pizzerias that claim the best “Chicago” pizza.  So you see coming to Chicago for pizza is serious business!

The beginnings of our first Pizza dinner

Chicago pizza and grinder company was our choice for Sunday after we checked into our Hotwire 4-star hotel right on Michigan Ave!  Chicago Pizza and Grinder is a local spot with a very unique pizza!  It’s more of a pizza potpie served upside down!  Awesome!  We arrived and there was a 1 hour wait,  Paul hates waits but I had been here before and insisted it was worth it.  The owner is in charge of the wait list and there is no list! You check in with him and he will find you when it’s your turn.  I’m thinking no way, the place is packed, people are everywhere but exactly 45 minutes from when we checked with he came and told us we were next!  We were seated and had our order placed in exactly 1 hour from when we arrived.

That’s the reality of having pizza in Chicago.

We don’t always get the perfect view!

My front yard!!

On the move again and heading west.  We needed just an overnight so we first looked for an Elks Lodge but couldn’t find it so being hungry we opted for the Walmart parking lot in Jackson Michigan.  Never my first choice but it works and saves having to unhook, getting off the main roads and I can pick up a few items while we are there.

As we are parking Paul notices a Winnebago View parked next to us and they have CA plates!  Dave and Joanna have been traveling in the northeast and are heading home to Los Gatos!  After talking awhile outside the rigs they announce they were walking across the street to a Mexican Restaurant do we want to come?  Sure.  What a nice chance meeting.  We had a great meal, shared lots of travel stories, talked a little about home, showed off our home, met Annie, a Portuguese Water Hound who was such a wonderful guest in our home and had a great evening.   You never know where you will meet someone new and a neighbor is even more cool!

Happy travels home Dave, Joanna and Annie!

We planned to stop and visit them and their farm on our way back to the West Coast and just spent 3 days with them enjoying northwest Illinois.  The landscape here is dry corn fields as far as you can see with the occasional soybean field.  The corn is dry because they leave it until late fall as it is feed corn and is picked dry if possible. 

Steven is a farmer of feed corn.  Well at least he was until this year!  He is retiring, sold the farm equipment, leased the five hundred acres to another farmer, sold the condo, rented the farm house and now they live in the METAL SHED!!!  They have a cabover camper that is there home inside the shed complete with an office area,  living room area, kitchen area, a patio area and a Pickleball Court!  It is so cool.  Actually this is their home until they get to Arizona next month where they stay for the winter.  When it gets too hot in Mesa they will decide if they are returning to Stockton or hitting the road like us!

Stockton is a small little town with some great neighboring towns.  We did a lot of driving seeing the country.  I spent several hours in a touristy town called Galena while Paul stayed at the farm doing guy stuff.  We visited a ski resort and had to sit at the bar while the most amazing storm passed through.  The water was coming off the roof so fast and the wind was blowing so hard it looked like we were in an aquarium and the bubbles floating on the top of the water.  We also had the most amazing Bloody Mary!!!  Tried to get the recipe but it was a bit of this, a splash of that….. 

On the steps or the winery

We also stopped in a local winery, Rocky Waters Winery.  Not my favorite but of course you always find one that is great.  The view there was amazing.  We went to the Mississippi River Museum which was also an aquarium so I really enjoyed this one until the snake exhibit!  They had this exhibit of seahorses and that was so much fun to stand and watch them swim and then attach to a plant.  We also found some locks on the Mississippi River – great for Paul!  They were moving 15 barges with coal through and of course he wanted to watch the whole thing!  It was raining and cold so Joan and I sat in the car.  The guys must have felt guilty (yeah right!) because we got to leave before they finished moving the barges.

We stopped it the town of Savanna where they have a beautiful Dutch Windmill and a pizza joint with the most wonderful taco’s that could easily compete with those we have had in Mexico! On our way home from dinner the sun was setting and after all the rain that day the sky was pretty clear but when the sun went down the whole sky was purple and red.  It was impossible to photograph so I just watched and enjoyed – some things you just have to be there.

Leaving Elkhart Indiana the route to our next stop took us right through Chicago.  We had decided that this trip we weren’t going to visit the Windy City as we had friends and family to visit and there just isn’t time for everything.  I did however locate a Costco and I needed a shopping fix!  This Costco was located right off the interstate but it was right near the heart of Chicago!  We exit the highway and are met with these streets that had two lanes but it should have been one, people wizing by like we were a convertible and could stop on a dime!  Then we have to make a right turn to get to Costco and it isn’t just a simple right, it is a right that turns back on itself!  You don’t make sharp turns in a 36′ RV towing a car behind!  It was very tricky.  Then we get into the parking lot and it looks like the lot at Costco in Almaden Plaza.  By the time we found an out of the way place to park our 50′  of vehicle Paul was ready for a cocktail not shopping!

I went into Costco and had a very nice time looking for things we had to have and enjoying all the free samples.  After shopping and getting ready to venture back out onto the streets to seek out the interstate I got another shocker!  In Chicago the sales tax is 9.75% for merchandise including alcohol, 2.25% on food items and for alcohol there is city tax and county tax for another almost 10%!  My $26 dollar of tequilla had about 12% tax or over $4 in taxes!  I think in Chicago it would be cheaper to drink in the bars!  I was very happy I didn’t pick up the bottles of Vodka, Gin and Bourbon.  California ain’t all that bad!