Union Station Portland, OR - Sunday May 6th 3:16 PM

Pasco, Spokane, Whitefish, Shelby, Fargo, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago. 

The English have Wordsworth, but that's American Poetry. It reads like a list of influential people--you recognize about half, but you don't second guess the few you don't. Newton, Galileo, Kerfluffle, Boer, Einstein. You don't think, who's Kerfluffle?

I haven't been to any of the eight cities we're stopping through. Pasco sounds podunk, Spokane sounds like a city which, like the tree my Dad planted right underneath the power line, had a lot of potential but a horrible location. Whitefish was founded and named by a man who put a lot of thought into the perfect name for his rustic little town. He probably had Daddie issues. Fargo was home to Chuck Klosterman for a time; St. Paul, like pork to chicken, is the other twin city; Milwaukee has beer, and lately a damn good baseball club, and that leaves Chicago. Chicago's baseball teams suck, I've never heard of their beer, it's certainly not podunk and their location is pretty decent. I wonder where the name comes from. 

I'll have around four hours in Chicago, 3:55 to 9:30 PM. Travel books can tell you what you can do in a day, but Amazon didn't have one called How to See Chicago in Four Hours and 35 Minutes with Luggage in Tow. I wanted to do a stand up set, but all the ones listed online weren't in the area, or weren't at the right time. A friend of mine who spent the last semester in London gets back to Chicago the day before we show up. I'll try to convince him to grab coffee. 

If it weren't for my laptop and people crouched over their cell phones, Union Station - Portland would truly look like a different era. The benches are wooden, the grumpy clerks wear ties. The obnoxious neon signs directing travelers to BAGGAGE DEPT, TELEPHONES, METROPOLITAN LOUNGE, look out of place. Too modern. Looking at the pay-phone bank I think, when did pay-phones start taking credit cards? 

My friend and I are two checked bags (not exceeding 50 lbs no exceptions) lighter. Operation Get Booze went about as well as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Albeit with less planning. We get on the train in an hour. We'll get off in 50-odd hours.