I got back from Chicago a while ago but haven’t made time to post some of the many, many pictures I took during my trip. I took so many pics I have to divide my Chicago pictures into sections, with this part — part one — covering my adventures going to Chicago. Well it wasn’t that adventurous – not the going part. That was pretty boring as far as riding the Greyhound goes, and I slept for a lot of the 20 something hour ride.

outside the Dayton bus station

I left North Carolina headed for Chicago with two transfers – one in Columbus, Ohio and another in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’d never been to either state.

folks inside the Dayton bus station

Here we had just arrived at the Dayton, Ohio bus station for a bathroom break, I think right before we arrived at the Columbus bus station. I took the above photo standing right outside of the ladies room, before I got back on the bus.

man just released from prison, Columbus bus station

…and in just a little while I’m at the Columbus, Ohio bus station, where I’m sitting across from a man who just got out of prison. He looks tired, even though it’s like 6:30 in the morning. I have a two hour layover, so I settle down with this:

20th anniversary edition ms. pac-man/galaga combo

You know how I feel about Ms. Pac-Man! And a few hours pass of playing Ms. Pac-Man and waiting in the long ass bus line…and this is the guy I’m sitting beside when I get on the bus:

why’s this b*#$! taking my picture?

Ha! He was cool though. I told him before I took the photo I had a blog and I was taking pictures for it. He told me his name and why he was going to Indianapolis, which is where my next transfer was. He was going for a good job. He told me all about his family, his kids, what kind of music he liked – a whole bunch of stuff!  And these are the people sitting across from me…

my co-ridaz

…who I was also in line with before we boarded. The guy on the left, he’s a gamer and he was telling me all about how his granddad invented some kind of technology that made Pac-Man possible! I was like holy shit! I’ve got to be the biggest Pac head out there. He emailed me after I got back and I have to get back at him soon. The girl beside him, she’s in the military and was really nice.

Here’s the view down the aisle:

lotsa gray ladies on the bus that day

And I saw that parts of Indiana look just as country and bumf*ck as my great home state of North Carolina!

After what seemed like a never-ending succession of cornfields in Indiana we stop at McDonalds. Damn I’m so tired of Micky D’s I just dunno what to do. Poor people’s fast food choices in America are ridiculous. Anyway here’s the driver:

He was fascinated by the fact that my camera is also an mp3 player. He was super cool. You can barely see his gold crown in this picture – my grandma has one of those! Ol’ skool bling!

After we get to Indianapolis and I transfer for the final leg of the trip to Chicago, the only seats left on the bus where I could sit by myself were way in the back by the bathrooms – and they were stinking like I dunno what! I was sitting right across from this girl who introduced herself to me as “Candy”.

Candy’s a really pretty young girl, tho this is a bad pic of her. She was telling me all about her being from Tennessee, yet growing up part of her life in Chicago because her father lives there. She told me the “thing to do” in Tennessee is go to the strip club. Errbody. Guys, girls. That’s just what they do for fun there, to listen to music, trip out and have a good time. And she’s like 17.

She kept passing around some fruity body spray to everyone…we were spraying it on our clothes and smelling ourselves so we wouldn’t have to smell the shitty bathroom. It was God awful!

For cleanliness of bathrooms, Greyhound definitely gets a negative.

Anyway Candy is also an emcee. She was coming to Chicago to film a video, and she was telling me all about the time Yung Joc flew her up to New York for a few days, as he is considering putting her on at Block Entertainment. Wherever you are girl, I hope you go far!

As we’re coming into Chicago, we passed a lot of beautiful architecture, and some projects too. We passed by some Candy said are called “the Ickies”.

I was really surprised to see this as the bus got into Chicago:

a view of Lake Michigan

Ok I know Illinois is right on the shore of Lake Michigan, but when I think of Chicago I always think “cold”, “snow”, “freezing”, “blizzard”. Things like that. So I was pleasantly surprised to see how warm it was in Chicago. It was really sunny while I was there too, even though it was cloudy when I took this picture, and I saw a lot of people out on the beach.

And here we are, at the Greyhound in Chicago. The end of my journey and the start of my four day National Hip Hop Political Convention trip.

blurry a** chicago greyhound station sign

A really blurry pic of the Greyhound bus station sign in Chicago, but I was in a hurry! The convention basically started about an hour before I got off the bus. As soon as I got off the bus La’Keisha from the Chicago LOC (local organizing committee) for the NHHPC came to pick me up to take me to the Carruthers Center where the first day of convention events was…and I’ll be posting more pictures and blogging more about the convention soon!

These are just the digital photos – I have more pics being developed.

Learn more about the National Hip Hop Political Convention! Read this article I wrote about the convention at HipHopDX, and please be sure to read the comment at the end from the legendary DJ Paradise – the man behind X-Clan!