Quint and I went to Chicago over Labor Day weekend to visit his mother. We took time to go downtown to do the touristy thing. Of course we couldn't pass up a trip to wht was formerly the Sears Tower. As the now named Willis (as in "What cha doing, Willis?" ) Tower, glass sky decks were installed. Here we are, floating over the city of Chicago!

Whenever we are in different towns we always take note of the biking-how much, what kind of facilities and whether we think we would like to be riding our bikes.

Chicago on a holiday weekend would have been a great ride. We did visit the McDonald Bike Station where there were bike rentals, bike repair shop, and an elaborate indoor bike parking facility for the bike commuters.

Downtown Chicago showed signs of putting in additional bike parking. Quint, who is up in Chicago fairly often says the bike racks we saw were fairly new. The picture left is of a bike rack. Yes, those are the bike racks, not the bikes! It looked rather cool.

But we found they were rather impractical, the bike rack handle bars prevented the bikes's handle bars from sliding through. Bummer.

Quint is on a campaign for more bike parking in Chattanooga, preferably of the artistic type. Might as well combine art with function. But hopefully the art won't interfere with the function.

The most fun bike thing we saw was the puppet bike. This puppet theatre is set up on the back of a bike trike for street entertainment. What fun! Quint had to pull me away. I could have stood there for a hours! Actually, I was wanting to get a glilmpse of the operator inside but he never came out. I heard he could go hours inside, giving non stop shows. I quess he waits until nobody is on the street to jump out and pedal away. It did lend mystery to the set up.

We didn't get a chance to ride while we were there but we will have to at one point. I know it could be great riding-it was flat!