Our day in Chicago started out REALLY bad. The whole way to Chicago it rained and it rained. We drove until we got to Chicago. Our first taste of really bad traffic. They have a saying in Chicago, it goes like this: "The traffic on Monday started on Friday"... or something.

Now, in most North American cities, there is a sad lack of payphones . I am a born-again cell phone user. I refuse to have one. I don't like the person that I am when I have one. I see myself as an annoying little teenager with too much time on her hands as soon as I turn it on.

It's pouring rain and none of us have a cellphone, so we stop and pull over to try and use a payphone. The stupid thing steals my money, AGAIN AND AGAIN. So I'm standing there in the pouring rain, without a jacket on, getting angrier and angrier every time I try and hear the operator on the other end of the phone. The line is staticky and I can't understand a word she's saying.

I try calling our host Matt. We finally get through, and his girlfriend Stephanie tells us to come over, she's waiting for us in the apartment.

We get there, and no one is waiting in the lobby, so we dial up. A lady answers and says she has no idea what we are talking about. She is Matt's sister and she hangs up.

Oh my god! What do we do? Well, call Stephanie again I guess. So off into the rain we go. We find a ripoff payphone in a McDonald's down the street and realize we should use a calling card from now on. Yes, calling cards, they rip you off less than the payphones in Chicago, who knew?

By the time we did that, Stephanie had come downstairs, and we had to walk back and meet her . We went up to their apartment, planned out our evening, and then went for lunch.

We had to buy a "funpass" for the bus. Because just a regular day pass is not going to cut it, not in Chicago, oh no.

Right. So, I was about to be late for my meetup, I walked on down Broadway to find Kuma's Korner. The bad news is that it was full. The good news is that there was a Mexican bar down the street with a cool looking mariachi band in the process of setting up. I told the waitress lady at Kuma's that we'd be meeting there instead, so if anyone came looking for TravelPod, they should go down the street.

"Oh, OK. I'll try." She rolled her eyes. Right.

I waited out in front for a while and Suzanne and her friends Carol and Bryan came to meet us. They were hungry, and there was no food being served at the Mexican bar. That sucks. So, they went in search of food at an Irish pub. I said I'd wait a while and then meet them there later.

I did that, and then Carol and Bryan dropped Suzanne and I off at the Mexican bar where we danced the night away with our hosts.