So, as I said last week, I’m planning to head to Chicago to see Rob Lowe. The plan is simple…drive my car to O’Hare airport, park it, and have a good couple of days in Chicago. There’s a lot planned, and the time is nigh.

Except there’s some problems…on Wednesday, my car decided to not start, so I wound up getting a free loaner car from the dealership, which I drove for the weekend. It’s not a problem since it’s a hybrid and it has some really cool features :)

To get to Chicago from where I live is dead simple – follow the freeway until the Illinois border, then follow the tollway – a task that would be slightly less expensive had I had my car, but it’s still worth the convenience to pay full price for the tolls (in Illinois, you pay full price if you pay cash, but if you use their electronic tolling, it’s half price).

However, I’m a bit of an odd duck when it comes to driving from here to there – detours are not uncommon for me; the first detour is to drop off a package, which is just a quick stop, and I’m back on the road again.

One thing about the loaner car is that it ties into my phone, and all I have to do is press the voice button, say “IKEA” and it immediately suggests that I go to the one that just opened the other day, no faffing about choosing one down a list.

It was no surprise that when I arrived at IKEA, the parking lot was nearly full, but there is attention to detail, even down to signs made up by IKEA telling you not to park alongside the road.

Getting closer to the parking lot, there are marshals directing you to your parking spot – you didn’t get a chance to choose your spot. I get parked, and notice something strange…an RV in the parking lot – as in someone actually came to IKEA in an RV…not a huge Breaking Bad style one, but one nonetheless.

Picking up the map, I realize that it’s in the design of the more recent IKEA maps in that it is the transit map, designed to make you spend more time in the store browsing through the showroom and marketplace, maximizing revenue for the store. One handy feature of the map, though, is that it does have the shortcut lines in it, showing how to jump to the restaurant from the entrance. The restaurant line was crazy long, and I think that they don’t have the restaurant as well planned as it could be – in the other restaurants that I’ve been at, you just queue up at the item that you want, say the meatballs, and then you get it.

I waited patiently in the line, perusing the choices for lunch, and I come across the Daim cake on the screens, so I picked that along with the Swedish meatballs and a Latte to drink while sat comfortably on one of their couches in the restaurant.

Some IKEAs have great views out of the restaurant while some others have no windows at all. This IKEA has this view out of the restaurant.

It’s definitely no IKEA Tempe…

After lunch, I took a quick trip through the rest of the store, picking up some things that I needed like plastic bags and a new kitchen brush before taking the second shortcut to the collection area, and the Swedish Food Market, now before the checkouts, a move likely designed to increase sales just that little bit more.

After checking out and grabbing a coffee at the Bistro, I went back out to the car, and noticed something else in the parking lot – U-Hauls…people actually rented U-Hauls to go to IKEA. Not just one, but five of them were in the lot! Crazy time! I will grant that if you are buying a lot of furniture, as I did last year, it may just be easier to fit it into a U-Haul instead of trying to cram it all, plus two other people, into your hatchback ;)

Now, to keep everyone sane, and to avoid having a never-ending post, we will stop here momentarily and pick things up next time. We’re only at 2 PM on Friday, and there’s still 80 miles ahead of me :)

Similar Posts:

• The Chicago Trip, Part 2
• The Chicago Masterplan
• The Chicago Trip – Part 4
• The Chicago Trip, Part 3
• Sephy Out of His Niche – My World In Pictures