November 3-14, 2008 - Obama Chicago, New Orleans

November 3. Ericka and Sarah looking like Frisbee professionals at a park in Blue Island, Chicago.	Good weather for November in Chicago.	Ever wonder how they load those things on trains? November 4th, Blue Island.	Sarah waiting for a train downtown, where Obama is about to declare victory.
				The Obama event won't start for 9 more hours, but people are already lined up at Grant Park downtown.
Metropolitan Correctional Facility. Notice the top deck of the brown building.	Nice prison view.		Under the El.
Park underneath the Sears Tower, full of fall colors and businesspeople eating lunch.				Sarah took some of these pics.
	Massive new addition to the Chicago skyline.	The next morning's papers were dominated by just one face. There were reports of people paying up to $100 for Obama's victory papers.
Millenium Park.		Nobody's first trip to Chicago would be complete without seeing the giant jelly bean looking thingy in Millenium Park.	Our reflection appears in the surface dozens of times, but only a couple are easy to see in this photo.
		Her reflection actually doesn't show up in mirrors. I photoshoped this one in so as not to arrouse suspicions.		Media from all over the world, thousands of reporters. We were photographed 100 times.
The creation of some very unique entrepeneur. Touch & Go Chess Party. Put your money down and start playing.	After lunch, the crowd waiting to get into Grant Park grows.
	"No blankets, no chairs, no water". No water?		The gates open, then everybody rushes in to sit in front of this screen and watch CNN.
		Areas that will soon be full, with 250,000 people.	249,999 left to go.	Sarah really likes taking pictures of street lamps. If you see a street lamp in a picture, then she probably took it.
	After seeing the "no water" rule, I'm starting to agree.	Mountains of trash grew throughout the evening.
	This huge painting of Obama stood inexplicably on a stage overlooking the crowds.		Areas waiting to fill.	A thousand people a minute flock in.
		Sarah rests with Abe, soon to be torn down and replaced with an Obama statue.	A lone guitarist sings to himself in the shadows.
		Sarah finds a ball and releases it into the crowds.
	It was just a huge TV watching party.	???	Sarah wearing her mic.	11:30PM, Obama declares victory from another area of the park. We didn't have tickets for that area, so had to watch it on the screens.
Downtown is taken over after the victory.			Traffic over dozens of blocks comes to a standstill for an hour.
Sarah on the train ride out of downtown at 1AM	We missed our stop, but luckily a guy named Marquez picked us up on the street and took us back to Blue Island.	November 6. Summit, Chicago. We leave the city, getting stuck hanging out in this abandoned warehouse during 4 hours of rain.
Actually nicer than some of the couches my family had when I was growing up.				Boiler room, mostly stripped my metal scavengers.
			According to the most recent calendar in the office, the warehouse was last used in 2000.	Inside the comment box by the office, "The women here have nice tits"
Sarah on the sacrificial alter.	Waiting on the rain.	I affix Sarah with the proper labeling required by law. This hazardous materials tag describes her as a "minimal eye hazard, safety goggles required"	Her inspection report, which she is still wearing as of November 14
		November 7. Sandwiches at Lee's house in Godfrey, Illinois, which he described as "A Thanksgiving feast for tramps"	Lee at McCauly's house.
		McCauly shows off his most prized possession, a battery powered "As Seen on TV" sweeper.	Lee with his little basket of fairydust.	November 8th. People are evil, we must all start pouring sugar into gas station storage tanks. I saw it for $1.82 a couple days later.
November 9. We had walked all afternoon the previous day, sleeping in this barn near the town of Brightton, Illinois.		Turns out that this used to be Lee's grandmother's house. Small town.	Horses wearing coats. McCauly happened to drive by and pick us up a few minutes later.	McCauly just so happened to drop us off next to the Busch brewery in St. Louis.
Sarah shows her enthusiasm for the brewery tour.	One of our tour guides talks about the 16 tanks in this building that each hold 200,000 bottles of beer. That's a six pack per day for over 150 years, or so she says.	They wash Clydesdales in this building. My shower was never that nice, but then again, I'm not a giant ugly horse.	Cold cold air.	Sarah gets more enthusiastic as the free beer and pretzels get nearer.
		Control room.		Bottling plant. 1200 bottles per minute on each line.
Crash scene on I-55. Outer portion of car door stuck in ground, blood all over the ground. A can of Pine Sol looks like it has brains on it.			Our campsite in some unknown St. Louis community. We walked south through the city for 2 days.
The cement highway barriers made the perfect place for a secret fire.	The other side of the highway barriers, barely showing our fire.	November 10. We awoke to several foxes.	Missouri workers are worth $10,000. That much? I thought the cost of living in Missouri was less.
Our hilltop campsite on the second night of our St. Louis walk.	Sarah gathers firewood. It started raining in the middle of the night. We got wet but were luckily able to restart our fire from the coals.	Deer brains. November 11.	Still damp, and very cold, Bobby and Diane had picked us up on the interstate and dropped us off at this gas station, handing us $10 before driving off. Here Sarah enjoys the Chester's Chicken we bought with that money.	Southern Missouri is really really weird. A flyer at the gas station.
Sarah wins the game, in which we each try to be the first to find a roadside object. It took over 24 hours to find a CD case. The current object is a glove.	One of many roadkill armidillos.	November 12. Me with Ed, the truck driver who had picked us up the previous afternoon. He drove us to within 30 miles of New Orleans.	Sarah's jeans.
New Orleans!	Riverboat blur.	We camped here at the base of a tower between two fences. November 13.	Sarah after a surprisingly good nights sleep. New Orleans air is great this time of year.	This graffiti image is everywhere in New Orleans.
And people aren't happy with the artist.	Sarah resting by a statue of Sophie Bell Wright, whoever that is.		Old couple with natural hair color out enjoying the beautiful day.

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