Moving to Chicago

“'Cause my company is going through a merger. You may have heard that Kmart bought Sears. Busy times at work and with training 15+ hours a week there's not much left over right now.

But...on Tuesday morning I got the raise, the job offer and the final news. I'll be moving to the Chicago area and working in Hoffman Estates. The company will be moving me so most of my responsibility is in getting my house ready to sell and finding a place to live.

It's going to be hard to find a town like the one I live in now with trails and State
Rec areas so very close and my horse stabled really nearby. Thanks everyone for the "Lunch in Chicago" thread for the suggestions so far.

I'm looking at Sycamore, Aurora, Carpenter, St Charles, South Elgin.....that area. Any further suggestions would be welcome.

Oh, and I'll be making a house hunting trip in the near future but most likely in June after the big race. Hope to meet some of you Chi Town folks!

Woo Hoo! just what my life needs, more adventure. :-)”

“Hubcap lives out there Dhutch1, and he should have some good suggestions. This state is going to rock when you move here.

I would offer to train with you, but I could never hope to keep up. Glad you are coming.”

“Cool! :D”

“Sweet! St. Charles is a nice area. Sycamore is nice too! Small town feel.”

“dhutch, you have a horse? I love horses and rode all my life growing up. It's my real passion, except for my chihuahua I have now.

It can be really expensive to board a horse if you live near a city. It's like an apt. rent.

I had this great stables near where I grew up that was on a beach and made of cinderblock, so it couldn't burn down with an indoor ring and a small cafeteria that you could sit in and watch the indoor arena riders. It had beach trails and water for swimming with your horse.”

“good goin', dhutch!”

“Good Luck dhutch!”

“Good luck, I hope you are able to get the house and everything else taken care of with no problems!”

“Thanks all. Prosecutor, my hiking plans are pretty much squashed for the summer due to this move but we'll be "neighbors". I'll look forward to hiking in the new area with you.

Now to go look up books on great hikes, paddling and mountainbiking in Illinois.

I'll miss my friends in the Detroit area but at least it's not so far that a visit is prohibitive. Plus my daughter will stay back to finish school and live with her dad for a year. She's so excited to visit mom. Chicago is her favorite city.”

“dhutch, you had anticipated a move for sometime. At least it wont be prohibitively far to visit. It'll be nice to have a tour guide in chicago, plus it'll be fun to race outside of Mi and Oh. You'll be missed though. Its funny how meeting someone on a message board can grow into such a good friend. We will help you any way we can.”

“birch - I'll still be able to race in MI but it has been a relief to find the Chicago Area Adventure Racing Association on the web. There are actually quite a few races there as well. And there is the ferry at Ludington so Northern MI is pretty accessible. :-)

You and Sass are the best of friends. Once settled, I will look forward to a visit! Of course I'll probably be back and forth quite a bit in order to see Adrienne and attend some of her events.

Lipstick - There's nothing better for the inside of a woman than the outside of a horse! (I think it goes something like that)”

“If you can afford it move to Naperville. Its east of Aurora and not too far from Hoffman Estates.

I live there and I love it. The place is beautiful, there's lots to do, its close to the trains and the expressways, too.”

“Hey don't forget about the hiking folk up here in Wisconsin.

You are just down the road”

“Dhutch, I think you are moving to Illinois just so you can "do lunch"

Congrats, sounds like a great opportunity”

“Congratulations...if that's the right word for it. It's got to be better than twisting in the wind up in Troy.

I used to live in Aurora and I think that the best thing are the paved biking trails. There are so many trails to ride. I never found much dirt, though. Michigan is/was much better for that.

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day, too.

You'll always be a Michigander at heart.

Last one with a job turn off the lights, eh?”

“dhutch, I never heard that phrase before. I guess I've been away from horses too long. When I was 11-18 and rode every day, those were some of the best years of my life.

Then I started working at 18 and the stables closed before I got home except for one or two night a week, so I stopped taking care of horses and riding.

My mom didn't want me down there anyway, because the stables had some kind of bad reputation for some reason. I was the only kid there, so I just kept to myself anyway.”

“I'm here broadcasting from St. Charles. It's a nice place to live. I may have mentioned it before, but one trail I run on near my house goes right by a horse stable and grounds where they run them around, compete, etc.

Sycamore would be a long commute to Hoffman Estates, but it has a small town feel and is beyond the fringe of "Chicagoland". There are some nice areas around South Elgin too.

Give me a shout if there is anything for which I might be able to provide a local perspective.”

“LOL @ wintersolstice - he11 yeah I wanna do lunch!

rl - thanks and I may contact you about Aurora. What IS that accelerator laboratory I see on the maps????
Hubcap - I'll be in touch.
Chills - I'll be looking at Naperville as well.”

“Fermi national accelerator lab. Secret hush hush stuff goes on there. Most of the structures are underground. including a 4 mile track where they race subatomic particles around at light speed and blast them into things. You know, trying to find out the secrets of the universe and all.”

“They've got a big ole' buffalo herd on top of the particle accelerator. The land on top is pretty much unused. You can walk around on top of some of it.

There is also the Argonne National Labs nearby. The brain power in that area is really high.

BTW, there is also an elk herd in one of the forest preserves near Arlington Heights. It's kind of cool.”

“Are we having a moving party for you D? Plenty of us here that will lend a hand.

Let us know.”

“So RL - Do the buffalo have 5 legs?

Tossing around the idea of making a trip this weekend if I get all my chores done during the week. I'll have to combine with workouts (Sat 4 hour bike, 1 hour run; Sun 3 hour hike, 1.5 hour paddle) Big question, where to do the workouts. I figure it's a good way to check out the area, no? Who wants to meet for dinner? Say Saturday evening?

WK - The company is paying to have my stuff moved, packed and unpacked so, how bout just a party or bbq? :-) I still don't have a solid time frame but it will be "this summer".”

“Sweet deal! We should have a BBQ! We can have it at my house too.”

“Dhutch, congrats on the promotion/raise and move.


bar-b-cue in the north...aaaaarrrrggghhhh”

“Good luck with the move Dhutch! There is no good hiking up in them flatlands, so you will just have to come south to hike with us again!”

“Okee Dokee Indiana John! You guys do have some good hills. The nice thing is that CHI is pretty centrally located so you can hike west, north, south. East is a little wet but if you go around there's the beauty of MI.

Thanks Ewker - At least to me the term bar-b-cue means something different to us northerners. Basically, it's "cooking outside". lol”

“dhutch, I'm probably going to be out of town this weekend, but I would love to meet up with you sometime.

Here is info on some of the trails in the area. There are others, but I use these most regularly.

http://www.dupageforest.com/RECREATION/trails.html

http://www.dupageco.org/bikeways/trailGuide.pdf

http://www.ipp.org/ippflyer.html

http://www.co.kane.il.us/Forest/gwtrail.htm

You can run and bike on them. So you know, they are flat flat flat. As is everything else around here.

As far as paddling, your best bet may be the Fox River. A quick search brought up these:

http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/fox.html

http://members.aol.com/CMorHiker2/backpack/FoxRivKayak.html”

“Thanks hubcap!

So hill training is not really an option unless I head out of town, eh? OK - I hate hills. This may be the perfect place for me :-P”

“Well I hummed and hawwed enough. Booked a room and I'm headed to Naperville for a neighborhood scouting trip around St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia. Bringing the Shanedoggy cause I procrastinated too long to get the kennel set up.

Anyone wanna meet up Sat evening?”

“Guess I'm on my own.”

“dhutch!
I just met you-- how can you move?!

:-(

Well, Michigan isn't too terribly far from Chicago-- only a couple of hours...My brother lives in the downtown area with a nice sunrise view of Lake Michigan... :-)

I hope we can get together again BEFORE you move!!! I'm off for the summer after Memorial Day, so I'd love to get together if you're still around!

(Maybe another round of Karoake? LOL)”

“I'll be around for a while Pink

Hopefully I can host a visit. I can see it now:
Michigan Mountaineers do the Windy City - karaoke world turned upside down!”

“Diane, who came out on top in this merger?
Kmart or Sears?
Kinda hard for us not involved to tell.
Every dang Kmart around me has already closed.”

“Unfortunately it's still looking like I will be out of town this weekend. Do you have a set agenda, or are you going to cruise around checking stuff out?
last edited: 5/13/05 12:50:28 PM”

“Hubcap - Cruise around and checkout stuff, watch for e-mail. Weather is looking sorta poor but better than this side of the lake.

StoveStomper - The majority stock owner of Kmart bought majority stock of Sears. I believe this is the way it's worked. I just buy toasters.”

“LOL, but YOU ended up in Sears Tower?”

“Hoffman Estates. :-)
Nicer than our building. Chicago is also more culturally exciting than Detroit.

No offense MMers”

“How long are you staying D? I won't return to Mokena, Illinois until shortly after lunchtime on Monday, May 15, 2005.”

“Sorry, Dhutch, Saturday is bad for me. Wife is taking our oldest neice out for her birthday so I am home with the child.”