I might have mentioned this once before …
About how much I hate driving in Chicago!
I got it right in the dashboard three of the last four weeks. Through or to Chicago.
Two of the trips were all the way to Green Bay, but that stretch in the middle is just so pleasant.
The other trip was destination Soldier Field, right in the middle of the worst traffic in the nation.
Or at least I think so — the folks in Atlanta, New York, DC and LA would all step up to argue.
I got relatively lucky on the two pass-through trips. I was able to pick my time, so I could wait until late at night to go through the downtown area. That always helps.
The cost is that I’m driving through Chicago at 1 or 2 in the morning, with three hours left to northern Wisconsin.
But, it is a cost worth bearing. An extra container of coffee, some sunflower seeds to munch on and some loud classic rock and roll (or sports) to keep me company.
Last Friday I left the Butler game and headed north. It was about 1 a.m. when I got into what is usually the thick stuff.
It was still thick, but was still moving at an OK pace. Lucky me.
Lucky me 10 minutes later as I saw two wrecked cars on the side of the road, with steam still coming out of one radiator. The drivers were getting out and there were some others already stopped, so I didn’t need to, but I know that 20 minutes later that accident traffic would be backed up like it was 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon.
Everything else was pretty much OK in Green Bay. I did have to get an Uber ride on game day to a second hotel to catch my ride to the stadium, and I am quite sure that only in Green Bay, Wisconsin do the Uber drivers speak English!
OK, it’s Wisconsin English, but I’m from South Dakota and can interpret Wisconsin …
The return trip last Sunday started with a long, crowded drive from Green Bay to Milwaukee.
It is just two lanes of bumper to bumper cars going about 40 miles an hour. The line of cars stretches for 20 to 30 miles. It’s impossible to pass or make any headway. I had the same semi to my right for about an hour. I’m sure that driver was most pleased also. Just a lot of Milwaukee folks going home after the Packers game.
OK, back to that other trip.
We had the Bears game, so that meant being in downtown Chicago and navigating through it during the worst time — a Bears game.
I took my rental car to the stadium, but could not get into the “escape” where a bunch of folks get a police escort through some of the worst traffic to head to the airport.
I had to wait for a couple thousand other cars to leave the lot I was in, and then crawl at a snail’s pace south.
The drive in had been just as slow Saturday, as I had gone to the Bell game and left afterwards. I was in the middle of downtown Chicago at about 7 on a Saturday night, and it was massively crowded.
The only good thing about the long wait and the longer drive away from the stadium Sunday is that I had a really good game on the radio to listen to. It was the Chiefs and Bills, so even though I was going nowhere, I had a good game to listen to.
But so slow …
Topic change here.
It was a great Tuesday to be able to start spreading the wonderful news that Daryl Warren finally got voted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Daryl played before I got here, but I have learned of his playing time at Linden, along with the careers of so many great and near-great hoops players from this area.
I’ve been blessed to be able to write some stories about the history of local basketball, and have had the honor of meeting many of these wonderful people.
Daryl is a great person in both athletics and life, but he is the first one to tell you that he is not alone with those credentials. He is surrounded by great people, and we are blessed to have them all.
But he is at the top of the scoring list, and when you have 2,083 points to your credit, well, folks that is something.
It’s the most points scored by any basketball player from this county, and he set the record from 1968-1971, when you only got two points for every field goal.
That’s 53 years and counting, and it will stretch at least three more years, because I know for sure that unless a freshman from North, South or Crawfordsville starts scoring a bunch of points and then does it for three more years, he or she will not catch that number.
Anyway, I’m just so glad for Daryl and congratulate him. Maybe we can get some more Montgomery County legends into the Hall of Fame now that he has kick the door open a little.
I will probably be to and from Dallas by the time you read these notes. We have a Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas, a city and stadium I have had plenty of time in this season.
Both teams are less than average this year, so I hope we had a close game. A broadcaster friend of mine once said that even if you had two guys running the 100-yard dash, and they took 20 seconds to run it, if the finish was close, it was an exciting race. I’m hoping for that high scoring, close finish kind of game.
And for sure, I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for.
Safe travels to Grandma’s house, or to shop, or to some faraway place.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports working with the Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts and many more professional teams.
