Saturday, October 22, 2005 -Last Day

Last night, around 2245 hours, an alarm was sent out for a fire in Speedway in the 1900 block of High Eagle Trail. They also sent Indianapolis Ladder 30 to the scene. I was on the computer at the time, so I put the address in the DeLorme Street Atlas USA program. I was astounded to find the run was only about six blocks away. I shut down the computer and loaded it in the car just as they gave companies a report from a squad car on the scene that there was smoke in the rear of the building.

I took off for the alarm. The problem was however, that I took the wrong turn. I got lost in the fog in an area where there are no street lights, narrow roads, and poor signage. I finally found my way back to where I should have turned, drove by the address which was in a large multi-building condo complex. They must have cancelled all the companies, as I didn’t see any revolving lights at all. Oh well. I was close if there was a fire.

I took my time getting going this morning as Paige Van Vorst told me last night that he had to work until noon today. I checked out of the motel around 0900 hours and headed back north on I-65 towards Chicago.

I made pretty good time, getting on the Skyway around 1130 hours. There was a warning of delayed traffic ahead where the I-90 Skyway meets the Dan Ryan. The sign said to exit at Stony Island. I didn’t see any back up until I got near the 73rd Street exit and I could see the mass of red lights ahead. I got off on 73rd Street and drove west until I hit the freeway and got back on just north of 71st Street. It was a good decision as I then met the backed up traffic coming off the Skyway (I-90) onto I-94 (the Dan Ryan Expressway). Traffic moved great on the Dan Ryan and I expected to get backed up at the curve just south of the loop (it’s always slow moving through there). I never saw that leg of traffic running so clear. I didn’t have to slow down at all as I came through by the loop area and headed north on the Kennedy.

I got off the Kennedy at Irving Park and it was only 1210 hours. Amazing! I know a lot of people that drive around the Chicago area on I-294 and spend hours doing so. I’ve never wanted to do that and I’ve usually had pretty good luck taking the Skyway and going right by downtown. Today’s travel times were amazing.

Paige got home just after I arrived. Paige and Donna’s grandkids, Devon and Daylee were at their home. They are the cutest kids. We all sat around and talked for a while while the grandkids played. Paige and I went to the post office to pick up his mail and then took a swing through the west end of the city and drove by Tuesday nights 5-11 plus a Special Call in the Candle Factory at Ashland Avenue at 15th Street. That sure was a huge building and I can see why they had the problems they did. One entire side of the block long building is adjacent to an elevated railroad line. There was no way to access this side of the building.

We caught Engine 109 and Truck 32 at their quarters returning from a Box Alarm at 30th and California (Cook County Jail). Then on the way back to the Van Vorst home, Paige heard Engine 117 go on an ambulance assist while I was gassing up the car ($2.75/gallon). It turned out to be a good run to take in. Engine 117 has only had their 2005 Spartan/Luverne engine for two days. We both took photos of it. I was pleasingly surprised to see that Engine 117 had a green flashing strobe light facing forward (the last order of engines did not).

We had dinner at the Van Vorst home and had fun watching the White Sox win the first game of World Series. Paige’s daughter, Caroline, and her husband had tickets to the game. They stopped by on the way to the game.

That’s it for this trip. Tomorrow I head home to Minneapolis. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I don’t think I’ll be taking any photos on the way home.

(It only rained from Rockford, IL to just north of Madison. It was a beautiful drive, most of the way, with the brilliant colors of the leaves this time of year.)