Great Friends in Chicago

Leaving Starved Rock State Park Campground, we were excited to get to our next destination because we would be staying with two great friends in Chicago: Mike and Eric.  Tim and Mike have known each other since Tim was in law school at LSU and Mike was working in Baton Rouge in the mid 80s, so almost 40 years!  Having known each other that long, Mike holds a special place in Tim’s heart.  Tim and Mike reconnected on Facebook more than 10 years ago and we have been lucky enough to spend time with Mike and Eric on many occasions since.  We even visited and stayed with Mike and Eric nine years before to the day when they lived in Nuremburg, Germany.

Since that trip, we have seen them in both New York City and Chicago.

On our way to Chicago, we stopped to pick up a few groceries knowing that the trip from Chicago to the next destination would be a long one and we wouldn’t have time to stop at a grocery store.  We also stopped to get the RV washed at a Blue Beacon just outside of Chicago.  

We finally arrived at the location where we would be parking the RV for the next two nights: McCormick Place RV and Motorcoach Parking.  This is basically a parking lot behind the convention center where RVs and 18-wheelers can park overnight.  It has no hookups.  This is the only place to park an RV in or near to Chicago, but we wanted to visit Mike and Eric as we drove through Chicago, so we were willing to park here for a couple of evenings.  Mike and Eric graciously invited us to stay in their home while we were in Chicago, so we didn’t have to boondock in the parking lot (we had packed a suitcase the night before).  This meant that we wouldn’t be hooked up to electricity or running the generator, so we needed to come to the lot daily to run the generator for a little while so the house batteries wouldn’t die on us.  When we arrived at McCormick Place, we had some difficulty trying to figure out how to get into the area we had reserved for parking (bad signage).  It took us about 30 to 45 minutes, but we finally figured it out and parked the RV.  We also had a little difficulty getting an Uber to take us to Mike and Eric’s home, because the first Uber driver said he couldn’t locate us (try this new thing called GPS)!

We finally arrived at Mike and Eric’s home, and they had martinis and snacks waiting for us!  We met their new doggie addition to their family, Yumi, who has her own Instagram page: @yumigubert.

We ranted about our difficulties finding the entrance to the parking lot and our trouble with Uber, but our woes slowly eased away courtesy of the martinis.   

Mike and Eric ordered pizza for us for dinner, and we later went to the rooftop to chat and share stories about what we had been doing since we last saw each other.  They had also encouraged us to bring our dirty laundry to wash, so Pat started some laundry.  Additionally, they had kindly allowed us to send our mail from our mail service in Texas, to their home, along with Father’s Day gifts for Pat from the kids; so, we sorted through those as well.  Mike and Eric settle into bed a little earlier than we do, so we stayed up watching some tv downstairs.

The next day, we took an Uber to McCormick Place so Mike could tour the RV (Eric had work), which also gave us an opportunity to start the generator to charge the house batteries a bit.  All of our Uber or Lyft trips back and forth between McCormick Place and Mike and Eric’s home took about 20 minutes and cost about $25.  Other than the initial trip from McCormick Place, we didn’t wait too long for the Uber/Lyft; approximately 10 minutes.  When we arrived at McCormick Place, the house batteries were lower than we anticipated, but we started the generator and recharged the batteries.  Mike enjoyed the tour of the RV but declared that he could never do it.  

When we got back to Mike and Eric’s home, we had sandwiches for lunch.  Tim walked to the Apple Store, which was only a few blocks away, to get the lint cleaned from the charging area of his phone (he had been having trouble getting the charge cord to fit tight enough inside to get a charge).  Then, we went with Mike to his hair stylist, named Jeremiah, to get haircuts (after reading of our fiascos with haircuts on the road, Mike had made the reservations for all three of us at Jeremiah’s salon, Ulibarris Salon).  Jeremiah did a great job with our hair and was fun to chat with.  

After our haircuts, while Mike was getting his haircut, Pat and Tim went to three different places trying to get a passport picture for Tim, because he needs to update his passport; we had no luck.  Instead, we decided to go to a bar called Sidetrack for frozen drinks.

Afterward, we met Mike and Eric at a restaurant called Wood.  Tim had Korean fried chicken (which was spicy) and Pat had duck.  Mike and Eric’s friend, Jennifer, joined us for a drink (and fries) and we all had a great time!  After dinner, we returned to Mike and Eric’s home for nightcaps.  

The next morning, we had some breakfast then headed back to the rooftop to chat before we had to say our goodbyes.  We always have a great time with Mike and Eric, and this visit was no exception.  We hope to see each other again at least within the next year.

When we returned to the RV the house batteries were even more drained than they had been the evening before, but we were able to charge the house batteries by starting the RV (the batteries were too low to give the generator the spark it needed to start).  We have since been told by our friend John that the batteries can survive being low but could be damaged if the charge gets too low.  We will need to remember this for the future.

Review of McCormick Place RV and Motorcoach Parking

McCormick Place RV and Motorcoach Parking is the only place you can park an RV overnight in or near Chicago.  It is literally the parking lot behind the convention center.  There were at least two other RVs parked there when we were there, and there were hundreds of trucks (or their trailers) parked there also.  

The reviews of McCormick Place on-line were good and stated that it was a safe place to park overnight.  We saw a security guard in his car while we were there at one point, and we didn’t have any trouble while we were parked there.  Since it is a parking lot, there are no hookups.  You could stay in your RV overnight and run the generator, which we didn’t need to do.  Not ideal, but if we want to park our RV in Chicago again, we feel we could do it at McCormick Place safely.