Ghostman is headed to ChiTown!

[Ghostbluesman (Ghostsoldier)]

My yearly vacation is here, so the wife and I are headed to the Windy City to take in all of the Blues Brothers movie locations (plus, a few from some other favorite movies filmed in Chicago)! It will be our first time there, so we're super-excited; I've been studying Google Earth and Maps all week to familiarize myself, and have figured out some type of linear driving itinerary to see everything. When we leave there, we're going to Iowa, and then back down Highway 61 to Louisiana...12 states, in all...and it's going to be a Super Road Trip.

The one thing I'm not sure about is going downtown ChiTown via our car...from what I've been told, there's not much parking; at least, not on the sides of the roads. I'm assuming I can get a parking garage spot for all day, and ride the el anywhere we need to go, or even walk, as the Loop area doesn't look to be all that large.

Anyhoo, if anyone has any tips on navigating the city that Billy Sunday could not shut down (and staying out of the South Side, I've been told), I sure would be appreciative; we won't be there until Sunday or Monday, so I'll check back in, and keep you posted on how the trip goes!

Rob

[cynot]

Spothero is a website and an app that you can find and reserve parking spots in the city. My wife has used it and it works well. There is a lot of parking downtown, but another option is to park at Midway airport and take the 'L' orange line into the city and walk around from there. Hope this helps, have a great trip!

[tk826]

If it helps, I made this tour map some time ago.

www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zZ4JUYlHBcEo.kwvac58GqSPE


This tour start at "Lloyds Service Station" through various filming locations and finally ending at the Mt. Prospect Blues Bar.

Page #1:
Starts at "Lloyds Service Station" and ends at [48 S Wells St.] - (Where the Bluesmobile reaches 100mph.)

Page #2:
Picks up at [48 S Wells St.] and ends at the "Mt.Prospect Blues Bar".

* Including the starting and ending points, there are 29 locations posted on this map.
(You may need to zoom in to see them all)

[Steam McQueen]

[Bismo]

You'll have a blast, what a cool town! (Been too long since we've made it there.) And f you can make it work on the return trip down Hwy 61, stop in for a beer at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, and tell 'em Bismo sent ya! B-)

[Ghostbluesman (Ghostsoldier)]

You guys are the best...thanks for all the help!

We just got back yesterday, after 11 states and 3,630 miles on the odometer, ol' Ghost is dead tired! Sorry I couldn't check in earlier; internet was iffy, and we had a tight schedule for our itinerary.

However, I did manage to use TK's map (I re-arranged it a bit), plus Cy's advice on parking at Midway and riding the Orange line L into the Loop...we had a blast! I've got over a thousand photos to cull through, but I'll post them up here later in the week, when I get them sorted out.

I'll definitely go back again...it was a lot of fun.

Also, Bis...I did make it to Clarksdale to see the blues museum and the other historic sights, but GZ was closed; we snapped a few pictures of the landmarks, ate at Abe's BBQ and moved on down Highway 61 to visit all the other blues sites and graveyards! Clarksdale is another place I'm going back to some day, but maybe on a blues event weekend; the place was dead last Saturday, and we seemed to be the only tourists in town.

Rob

[cynot]

Glad all went well, look forward to some pics

[Bismo]

Too kewl man! re: C'dale, yeah, non-festival weekends are quiet but those are when I made all my friends down there... but festivals are when it's really hopping of course.