Day 9: Grand Rapids
Welcome
Yesterday we drove to Grand Rapids and played our first show with Girl Friday, the band who will be supporting us for the rest of our US tour.
Tristan gave us a superb breakfast recommendation which was Chicago Bagel Authority. I had an Eggosaurus which contained bacon, egg, onions, avocado, Swiss cheese, American cheese, beef, chipotle mayo, on a biyali bagel.
We had an uneventful drive to Grand Rapids and played a nice gig at a venue called The Pyramid Scheme. Tristan invested seven dollars on the Indiana Jones Pinball machine but did not receive a financial return for his efforts.
Girl Friday played a thrasher of a set and sounded amazing. We are so excited to spend the next four weeks with them.
My bridge of the day is the Chicago Skyway Bridge.
Early on in the development of the Chicago expressway system city planners tried to build a toll road but found they lacked the authority to do so. They did however find that they were allowed to build a toll bridge and that there was no limitation on the length of the approaches. The result of this is the Chicago Skyway, a 12.5km elevated expressway that is classified as a toll bridge with approaches totalling 11.7km in length. The overall length of the bridge itself is 749m and it has a longest span of 198m. It is a Metal Cantilever Rivet-Connected Warren Through Truss design by the JE Greiner company and was built between 1957-58. In 2003 the city of Chicago spent $250 million rehabilitating the Skyway. Engineers constructed temporary piers to bear the load of the bridge while new piers were built, and the bridge was lifted onto these piers using 600 ton hydraulic jacks. All of the bridge's structural steel members were replaced one at a time, using a process that involved installing hydraulic saddles around the component to be replaced. The whole restoration took place without any cessation of traffic on the bridge. If you are interested in learning more have a look at this page.
My faucet of the day is the Dianoga, named after it's resemblance to the trash compactor monster from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. I never figured out how to properly operate the Dianoga, I just relied on other members of the Beths to set the temperature for me.
Tristan gets Beth of the day for a great breakfast recommendation and for spending 28 quarters playing pinball. Congratulations Tristan. You may have lost a lot of money to your gaming addiction but you have gained our respect.