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ILLIOISTROOPERS.CO.UK ON TOUR 2009
Phil Kerr, UK
So, we left a warm and dry UK at 10:30 AM and set off for the sunny state of Illinois. Or so we thought. On arrival, it was pouring down and of course we rented a convertible. We could not get a Camaro convertible, no rental firms had one, so we had to settle for a second (third, or fourth) best, Mustang convertible. Not very stylish for a Camaro club member. So, it was off down the I90 to Hoffman Estates to our hotel where we stayed last year so, we knew the way. We had our sat nav just, which was a help when we discovered what we were doing wrong (more about that in a bit).
We spoke to Allen and knew about the car show on Monday eves on Higgins Road. Hoped it may clear up and we could go and take a look after we settled in at the hotel. Well, it didn’t clear up but we went anyway. There wasn’t a soul to be seen, just some traveling fair ground taking up half the car park. I thought, cheek, don’t they know it’s for ICC use on Monday nights? I traveled 4,000 miles and they put this on. Not Happy, I’ll tell you. So we went back to the hotel, had some dinner, and a case of Bud to finish the evening.
The next day I got in touch with Al and we arranged for him and Judy to pick us up on Wednesday, teatime, and take us to another car meet. Well, they turned up in their Camaros. I heard them b4 I saw them and, off we went. Met a few more club members had a bite to eat and all in all a great evening and arranged to meet up on Friday evening.
We did our usual trip out to Lockport to meet up with the Illinois State Police and spend the day with them. That was one of the best days of my life. We got to go into the Joliet Prison as used in the famous, original, Blues Brothers Prison break. (By the way, The Blues Brothers is being rerun here so I’m able to say to the wife “I’ve stood there, etc. She’s goin’ mad with me, but that’s not new) During the week, Al had put me in touch with Rory and Linda and we arranged to meet up with them at Volo Motor Museum. Well we got lost, but in the end we did find it. We had a really nice time looking around the Museum with them. I couldn’t believe how much had changed since we were there in 08. Loads of new exhibits and Rory said that He’s there at least once a month and it’s always changing. All in all, a brilliant day, Thanks, Rory and Linda. Hope to see you next year. As Arnie says, we’ll be back. Got to come back and renew my membership and rob Rory’s cap, LOL.
We got to do a lot more the 2nd week. The weather was good and loads of people turned out to the car shows. And with that, I’d like to say a big Thank You to all for making us feel so welcome. You guys couldn’t have done more if you’d tried.
Well, we decided to go into Chicago and meet up with another friend who chauffeured us around in his Blues Brothers replica Dodge Monaco. Brilliant fun! All went well until we decided to set off back and the freeways were jammed packed. So, we set the Sat Nav to not use freeways. It told us to go this way and that way only to end up where we started from. Steve had the Sat Nav in the center console but instead of it facing front to rear, he had it facing left to right so, it thought we were going right way which if we’d been driving sideways, would have been fine. After laughing and rearranging the thing , we finally got goin’ in the right direction and got back to the hotel. Could only be us to do that. Steve kept sayin’ “ the sat nav’s gone mental”. Wot a pair we are and, we were even sober. That makes it worse!
We are planning on coming over the last week of June and the first week of July next year and hope to meet up with you all and more again. I will get ‘round to sorting thru pics we took and send some over. We did put some of the prison up on www.bluesbrotherscentral.com just to wind some people up, but that’s as far as we got.
Anyway, I’d just like to say again a big, big thank you to Allen, Judy, Rory and Linda and everybody else who’s names I cant remember for the fantastic time you gave us.
See ya all next year.
Phil
