This continues the letter dated 8th April 1965, which began:
Dear Family,
Friday 9th April.
I am now in Chicago having driven here this afternoon. We left Ohio at about 3:30 pm and drove solidly and got here at 11 p.m. In actual fact it was really 12 pm. (midnight) – but we gained an hour when we crossed into Central Standard Time.
Actually we made a mistake, when we crossed the line, I was under the impression that we had to put my watch forward an hour, and this I did, and when at 11 o’clock we decided to look for somewhere to stay, we discovered it wasn’t 11 o’clock at all, but 9 o’clock – so we pressed on and did another 100 miles.
We drove right through Chicago and on up the side of the lake to a place called Kenosha, which is in the state of Wisconsin. We are staying the night here and tomorrow plan to drive down the lakeside to Chicago and have a good look around.
Our drive through was fantastic – the roads here are the greatest yet.
As we approached Chicago from the east, we went up on to the Chicago Skyline, which is a very high elevated road which takes you high over the suburbs, which stretch for miles, and then gradually drops you right into the heart of Chicago.
All the time other roads are feeding in, and as you are passing through the centre of the city you are on a road 14 lanes wide, all chock-a-block full of traffic, and moving fast.
Some of the intersections, where they all join and split are frightening, and on the map there is one that looks just like a piece of knitting!!
Chicago is very big and in fact looks like the biggest city we have seen outside New York. It has lots of skyscrapers which form quite an impressive skyline.
To be continued…
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Note: Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway in rush hour today looks like hell on earth!!!
I can only imagine what it would have been like to experience roads like that in the 1960s. I remember the M1 being built and the excitement of being on a motorway which was probably a country road by US standards!
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