Saturday, October 8, 2005

It was still cold and overcast Saturday- not a good day to take apparatus photos. Paige and I took a long drive through town to the south side to see how new CFD Station 84 was progressing. It looked like it could open any time. We stopped by nearby (five blocks north) Station 61 and dropped in to ask the crew if they knew when the station would open.

We were told that originally October 1st was to be the opening date. Then it was going to be October 10th, but there are more delays. So, who knows when it will open. We asked the crew at 61’s what was going to happen to them. Originally the crew was going to become new Truck 43 at Station 110. It seems the local alderman has found out about those intentions and is pretty upset. So who knows what will happen there.

We took a slow cruise right up busy State Street and then Clark Street on the way back. It was a very dead day for the CFD. We went by many CFD fire houses on the way out and back. The only rigs we saw out on the street were some well-worn reserve pieces. Traffic however, was unbelievable. There are way too many cars for Chicago’s streets today and traffic is almost always a nightmare. It is hard to make good time going any direction in the city anymore. It makes street buffing almost impossible.

Paige and Donna took me out for dinner and we had a very enjoyable night going through some on Paige’s old slides. Paige came up with some photos we need for the St. Paul Stations/Apparatus section on the Extra Alarm Association web site. There were no fires that whole night.

There are NO photos for Day 2