Almost there

Day 33, Chicago, IL (98.1 Miles)

So much for showing you the beauty of Lake Shore Drive. I zipped right past it with the 5.3 miles I walked yesterday. I supposed I could have stayed on it longer and to be honest, after I walk past what I want to go by, I may head back to Lake Shore Drive before I head downtown. A lot of the hot spots in Chicago are by the lake anyways. Since I promised you a lake shot, I stopped to take this at least.

I'm actually going to fly right past where I wanted go to tomorrow because I'm within a mile of it now and I had another good day today. Don't worry though, I'll stop by and take some pics for ya'll.

It's My Kind of Town

I didn't get around to posting yesterday because I got busy logging in my cards. So today, I'm posting first so I don't forget.

My forklift is still down, although yesterday, I still drove it without brakes when I needed it. Today, I got to work and their was floor dry all over the place. Apparently the 3rd shift girl was loading a truck and it just started leaking all over the place. So needless to say, I had no forklift today. I use the 2nd shifts forklift until 9 when he gets there so I get a few hours before I'm on my feet. I was doing pretty good on steps, but then we had a plant meeting the last hour of the day so I sat on my ass until it was time to go. They are supposed to be in to fix it tomorrow but we'll see what time they actually make it in.

I met Cheri at our insurance agent for a meeting. They had sent us a letter saying that we didn't have mortgage protection and we were pretty sure we did but we went ahead and made an appointment to talk to him. When he starts going into his spiel, we figured out, he didn't mean mortgage insurance like what we have on our homeowners insurance, it was more or less, a life insurance, only they charged more. We let him finish his pitch then bowed out and headed home.

Since we were out, and I needed some more steps, we ran to the grocery store and got this weeks groceries so Cheri doesn't have to go tomorrow morning. That helped out, I'm still not at 10k for the day but I'm close.

Day 32, Chicago, IL (93.4 miles)

I'm on Lake Shore Dr which, if you know Chicago, follows the lake. Of course, the spot I stopped at doesn't have any lake views, it's obstructed by trees. I have a few places that I'm going to go by but I figured while I'm heading into town, I might as well take the scenic route. Maybe tomorrow you'll get to see a lake view.

See, no lake view. I'm still South of town, working my way North so you'll probably get Chicago for a couple of days.

A good day

I got to work this morning and climbed on my forklift to go to work. As I went to pick up the first skid, I realized, I had no brakes. I quickly pumped them to no avail. Luckily, I wasn't driving fast and just kind of bumped into the skid. I proceeded to check them and couldn't get anything. I figured out it was out of brake fluid so I added some, pumped them until I had brakes and went about my business. I parked my forklift for a little bit to do whatever and when I got on it and started to back up, I realized I had a huge puddle under the lift. I'm guessing there is an issue with one of the brake lines. The forklift guy came in but I didn't talk to him after he inspected it. I'm hoping it will be fixed in the morning.

Why did I tell you all that? Well, since I didn't have my forklift, I did a lot of walking. Normally, on a work day, I average between 6k to 8k steps depending on how much forklift driving I do. Today, however, I did a little more than that. I posted this on my Instagram when I got home after work.

We'll see how many more I get by the time I go to bed. Probably not a whole lot more, I'm being lazy tonight. Well, pretty much every night. I'd like to say I'll get 11k but you never know. I kid though, I'm pretty sure I've probably gotten that since I've walked to the bathroom a couple of times.

Day 30 - Whiting, IN (84.2 miles)

As you can see, I'm now in Whiting, IN. The only reason I know where that is, is because I Google map the trip. Normally, if I was going to Chicago I would take the toll road but since we're hoofing it, I figured I'd take a different route because otherwise, I wouldn't have anything to show but the side of the road. Which would be why I'm in a city I've never heard of. I should be crossing into Illinois in the next couple of days. Maybe even tomorrow since I had such a good step day.

This is where I'm at in Whiting. You can see a Little Ceasers up there to the left and a barber shop on the right. I'm not sure what's going on with the building next to it. It doesn't look to good.

Little bit of randomness

As per my usual, I disappeared through the weekend. Mainly because I haven't done anything all weekend. Like most weekends. Trevor is at his mom's and Samantha stayed with a friend all weekend so it's just been the wife and I and we've pretty much vegged out in front of the TV. We've been watching lots of new stuff as well as catching up with the old. I started and finished Westworld and today, we're probably going to watch come movies today. We're in the middle of Sully at the moment, I don't know what we'll watch next.

Day 28, East Chicago, IN (79.2 miles)

I haven't posted much on my trek because there hasn't been to much to see. I am in East Chicago, I've worked my way through Gary, IN so I'm slowly making progress. Obviously I'm heading for Chicago, it's my kind of town after all.

Stuff I've posted on my Random Thoughts FB page.

Bad start

So I decided to start off my day with a little McDonald's breakfast. As I've stated here before, I pretty much only go to McDonald's for their breakfast (and the McRib when it's there). I always get the same thing, I actually get cravings for the sandwich.

I ordered, Sausage and Egg McMuffin meal with a large sweet tea. Pulled up and paid, pulled up to the last window. She handed me a meduim drink so I told her I asked for a large. Mainly because I want the styrofome cup because my tea would stay colder longer while I was at work. She switched it out for me and I was on my way. As soon as I pulled out and got going, I reached into my bag and grabbed the hash brown, ate it, and then reached for my sandwich. Only my sandwich wasn't there, it was 2 freaking breakfast burritos. I was extremely annoyed, all I wanted was that sandwich. I ate the burritos anyways and when I got to work I poked my straw in to take a drink of my tea. Only it wasn't sweet tea and what was worse, it was freaking Dr. Pepper, one of my least favorite drinks.

So on my way in to the building, I threw away my trash and a full, large cup of pop.

Sadly, the Joe Pesci quote from the Lethal Weapon movies always runs through my head when someone screws up.

My day didn't get much better but I'm ignoring all that and starting my weekend. Hopefully, I'll see you soon.

Dog Sitting

I don't know if I mentioned this or not but we are dog sitting again, although, it sounds like it's going to be for 5 months so I don't know if that's considered dog sitting or getting a dog. Our daughter, who is in college and works a part time job, got a chance at a paid internship on her off days from school. She was thinking about turning it down because the dog would be home alone all the time so we offered to take him in because it was a good opportunity for her.

We've watched him a few times. Sometimes for a weekend, sometimes a week or more so he's used to the house. We think he loves it here for 2 main reasons. We have a good sized fenced in back yard (our daughter has an apartment) and there is almost always someone home (he doesn't like being left alone). We watched him for a couple of weeks at Christmas and the only time he had to go to his kennel was on Christmas day for a few hours.

He kept coming in from outside yesterday and he would be filthy. It looked like dirt all over his feet and nose and sometimes on his fur. We figured he must be digging somewhere so Cheri watched him for a bit and he wasn't digging, or at least we don't think he was, but it was where he was going. He was jumping in the firepit so it wasn't dirt we were washing off, it was ash. Like I said, he's been here a number of times and had never gotten in it but apparently this time he decided he was going to. We grabbed a piece of wood that was in the garage when we moved in and laid it over the pit to keep him out.

He also likes to sleep between us in bed so what we had to learn to do last time he was here is we both sleep with separate quilts because when we use one, he plops down in the middle and it pulls up on the sides so we end up with body parts sticking out which isn't good because we turn the heat down at night and those body parts get chilly.

Day 24, Portage, IN (66 miles)

I had a good day at work yesterday so I ended up with over 10,000 steps which equals out to a little more than 5.1 miles. It got me all the way to portage but once again, there isn't really anything around, unless you count the train tracks from the South Shore that travels from South Bend to Chicago. That's all it is though, is the tracks. I did however, see this while I was plotting the route.

What the hell is that? I Googled it and apparently it's listed as one of the scariest haunted place in Indiana. The write-ups I see about it make it seem really scary but they also sound like they were written to be scary so I don't know if it's real or not.

Better than average

I actually crashed last night just after 10. The 4 hours sleep the night before caught up with me. I was still tired when I got to work. I had a pretty boring day at work, there isn't a whole lot to do, We are about a week ahead so everything I do, I try to do slowly to make it stretch. It tends to make for a longer day but even if I'm moving slower, at least I'm moving otherwise the day would be really bad.

The good news, for me at least, the big customer that we have, cancelled their order today. All of their parts come down to shipping already boxed so it ends up being a lot of forklift driving. So instead, I did a lot on my own 2 feet, which means, I got more steps than I usually do. Of course, you won't know until tomorrow.

Day 23 - Burns Harbor, IN (60.7 total miles)

I walked 6,863 steps yesterday which is over my average during work. According to Fitbit, I average around 5,700 on work days. That put me in Burns Harbor, IN. Again, there wasn't much to look at where I finished but what I love about using my steps on Google Maps is that I end up playing around on it when I'm done.

I'm assuming all that is one company, that place is freaking huge. It's a metal place, you can see the name down there at the entrance on the bottom right. Where the name crosses the road down there, that's where I'm at. I also learned that Burns Harbor has an International Harbor. It's to the left of where the photo ends so you can't see it. Why there is an International Harbor on Lake Michigan is beyond me but what do I know about shipping via boats?

This past weekend

Nothing to exciting going on here. I had my usual weekend of barely over 1,000 steps for Saturday and Sunday combined. I did a couple of things around the house on Sunday, but nothing that really gets me a whole lot of steps.

It was a productive weekend as far as getting stuff done. I worked on my cards most of the weekend and made some good headway so there is that. I told my son on Friday night to think of something we could do on Saturday, a guys day. He came up with nothing so we did nothing. He said he forgot. He didn't forget, he just couldn't take his eyes off his games and YouTube.

My daughter stayed at a friends house over the weekend. They were supposed to go dress shopping for a formal that's coming up but they never did. I thought I was going to get out of dress shopping but maybe not. I still have nightmares from prom dress shopping with my oldest daughter. I'm pretty sure I was the only guy in the whole area of that store.

Went back to work this morning. I normally get up on work days at 5:15 am but I woke up this morning at 4:30 and my gut was hurting. It eventually went away but now with enough time to get some more sleep. So between going to bed just after midnight, and getting up that early. I'm fighting sleep while I sit here. I got the Michigan/Illinois basketball game on but it's not helping much.

Day 20, 21 and 22 - 57 miles

I did walk another 4.9 miles between Friday thru Sunday. Sadly, most of that was Friday, and I even worked overtime. I really should have gotten out and walked this weekend, but I have a serious problem with motivation. I always have.

I didn't screen shot where I was on the street because I'm just in a wooded area. As a matter of fact, I'm at the Indiana Dunes, which is where I go camping a couple of times a year.

See the little balloon type marker at the bottom right? That's where I am. See the campground in the middle of the screenshot? That's where we stay 2 weekends a year. It's nice right now because I know spots, a little more further West and I'll be lost and won't know what to show.

Going Nuclear?

It's been a long week at work. Our insurance changed with our buy out and all the smokers had so many days to quit or their insurance was going to go up. So everybody waited until just before the deadline to quit. So they are all quitting this week. Between all the crankiness and all the conversations about them quitting, I think I might take up smoking to relieve my stress.

Day 18 - Michigan City, IN - (49.2 Miles)

Now that I'm not staying on the most direct route and am traveling around, it's becoming harder to keep track of my full route. I found a way on Google maps to track where I walked that day, I just can't go back and look at how I got there. Oh well.

It's supposed to be in the 50's this weekend, maybe I'll go for a walk. Don't hold me to that though. Milo is coming back on Sunday as well, maybe he'll get me to take him for a walk. Don't hold me to that either.

I did finally make it to the destination in Michigan City that I was heading for. It's really the only place I go to there but it really isn't very often that I do.

No, not Eddie Bauer, that is the outlet mall to the left of this picture. There are a ton of stores there, including a Nike outlet. We've done our before school shopping there before. I took this screenshot because of what's on the right side. I always find it odd when I'm at this nice outlet mall and I look over and see that in the background. It just seems really odd to me.

You can see above how huge the outlet mall is on the right and also the Nuclear tower on the left. I'm kidding of course, I Googled, it's actually a coal burning power plant but it just looks odd in the background at the mall. See W 4th st there just below the cooling tower? That's where I would have ended up walking the 2.8 miles that I did yesterday.

This is where I ended up, I was sure to get the tower in the background.

We made it to Long Beach. Indiana that is

I had some thoughts on some extra thoughts for today but I ended up fighting sleep for to long, that I didn't get started early enough so you get nothing.

Yesterday and today were both busy forklift days so I didn't get to far on my steps. Thursday and Friday should be better.

Day 17, Long Beach, IN - 46.37 Miles

Yeah, I didn't know there was a Long Beach, IN either. Remember when I said I was taking a back road to get to the lake because I found a road that follows it a bit? Well, apparently that road is in Long Beach, which it just barely out of Michigan City.

Notice the beach drive, should have great views, right? I should have zoomed in closer, because this is the view of the lake that you get.

You can see it, kinda, back there in the back.