After I saw the Knicks play the Bulls at Madison Square Garden, the real fun was about to begin.
I took the subway back to Queens to get my car. I proceeded to drive to LaGuardia Airport. I parked my car on the street nearby. Instead of walking to the airport, I took a bus across the highway.
I had plenty of time to catch my 5:55PM flight on Southwest Airlines to Chicago Midway Airport.
I got to Chicago with no problem. I took the CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority, train. They have a color system there as opposed to letters and/or numbers like in NYC. I took the Orange line which starts at Midway Airport to the Loop which is what they call the downtown area there. My hotel, the Travelodge, was located within a short walk of the subway.
I went to the hotel and checked in for two nights. I dropped off my bags in my room.
I arranged to meet up with my friend Jimmy Lieberfarb who was in Chicago to see the Jets play the Bears too. Jimmy is originally from New York but now he lives in Los Angeles.
He was staying at a hotel about a mile away so I decided to take a walk to go see him. After spending a few hours with him, I went back to my room to get a good night sleep.
Sunday morning I got up and I met up with Andrew Van Cleve, a fellow roadtripper, who hooked me up with a ticket for the Bear game. He has season tickets so he saved me the hassle and aggravation of having to find a ticket. He made it easy when he said months ago I could buy one of his.
For that, I was very grateful especially since the Bears are having a great season.
Earlier in December, another roadtripper, Bob DeVries, asked me if I was going to Chicago to see the Jets. I told him I was. In addition, I told him we're going to the Blackhawk game too. He said he was planning to also.
With that being said, I told Bob my game plan. We communicated back and forth to make this get together a reality.
Bob and his fiancé Charlie Cahill had tickets in the United Club for the Bear game so we had to meet them after the game which worked out well. Andrew had to run some errands after the Bear game. I wound up meeting Bob where he parked his car. He gave me a ride to the United Center aka the Madhouse on Madison, home of the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks.
We parked the car by the arena. Then we walked over to the Billy Goat Tavern which was within walking distance to have dinner between games. Andrew wound up meeting us there. They serve great burgers and fries. As for drinks, they say "No Pepsi, Coke". I said "No Bud, Old Style".
After dinner we all walked over to the game. I want to thank Bob for arranging to secure four tickets together for all of us. Since they won the Stanley Cup, Blackhawks have become a very tough ticket to get.
As a result, Charlie was able to attend her first Bear/Blackhawk doubleheader which was really cool especially since she was able to change her attire between games from her Bear winter gear to her Blackhawk jersey and hat.
After the game, we said our goodbyes and we all went on our way.
We plan to meet again at some point in 2011.
While we were eating dinner I received a text message saying that my flight home on Monday morning was cancelled due to the blizzard in the Northeast.
Now an unexpected adventure was just beginning, I had to figure out a way to get home as soon as possible.
Stay tuned as I recap how I had to resort to taking the long way home.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Happy New Year to you all.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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