I mean no personal insults to any THR members who might be trapped behind enemy lines in Illinois.
But Illinois sucks. It blows. It's mind-numbingly annoying and unpleasant. I will, from now on, try to spell it "Ill-annoy" in an attempt to capture the state's essential awfulness that soaked into my very pores and that I am still trying to wash out of my hair with frequent shampooings.
How do sane people live there?????????????????????????????
This past week, I had the displeasure of driving through Ill-annoy twice during our trip to see very good friends in Michigan.
From Arkansas to Michigan, my wife and I could carry our Kimber UC II because of our Arkansas and Florida Non-Resident permits, with the People's Republic of Illl-annoy being the sole exception.
On the way up, we went from East St. Louis over to Effingham (an appropriate name for a town in such a state, especially if it were spelled
"F-ing Ham") and then the plan was to go up to Kankakee and slide over to Indiana to catch 421 North.
Only Ill-annoy was so awful, that I opted to ditch the state early on Highway 24 through Watseka and get into Indiana where I could at least take my Kimber UC II back out of the case, reload it, and put it back where I could reach it in the SUV.
During the visit, our friends took us to Chicago for a day-trip, and we had to take the Kimber out of the SUV and lock it up at the friends' house while we ventured to Chinatown, the Industrial and Science Museum, and Giardanno's pizza. I had to supress a gag when a large green sign over the I-90 toll road read that "Mayor Richard M. Daley Welcomes You to Chicago."
It was not my first visit to Chicago, either. Back in 1987, I was there for about a week for the National 4-H O'rama. Within minutes of our arrival in Chicago back in 1987, a 4-H buddy and I had composed a hard-rock mock-anthem for Chicago that had an opening line that went something like "Mud! Crud! And Streets of Blood" with huge air-guitar screams after each "ud."
Upon getting my first good whiff of downtown Chi-town, I felt that our rock-anthem still applied to the Windy City 18 years later.
During my most recent visit, we thought about going up in the Sears Tower, only the sickly-brown haze was so thick that we could barely see the Tower itself and figured it would have been pointless to try to see anything from up there. Same for Lake Michigan--it was mostly obscured by a low, thick brown haze that looked like someone had put cow turds in an atomizer and liberally applied to the city.
After our visit, on the way back to Arkanas, we took I-94 over to Joliet. At the gas station we stopped in, the words "Joliet SUCKS!" were magic-markered onto the wall, and then half-heartedly painted over with one thin coat of paint that served only to highlight the words, as the new coat of paint over the black words was still sort of white, and contrasted sharply with the old-fecal-stain beige that the original paint had aged to.
All I could do, while surveying the odiferous wonder that was the gas station restroom, was look up at the graffiti and nod in agreement about Joliet.
Getting to Joliet from Gary, Indiana, took us two hours because of the obstacle course and maze of disorganized road construction that looked more like a way for the Illinois government to keep raising taxes than any actual productive project culminating in actual identifiable progress of any sort.
Then, it was south on I-55 through the heart of Ill-annoy--Bloomington, Springfield, etc, all the way back to East St. Louis, where once we crossed the Mississippi River, we at least felt like we were back in the United States again.
The entire state of Ill-annoy, from East St. Louis to Champaign-Urbana, from Chicago, to Bloomington, looked like the most depressed areas of Eastern Arkansas. Anyone who had driven through eastern Arkansas knows exactly what Ill-annoy looks like.....flat, with a few trees, with the monotonous flatness cratered here and there with ugly, depressed towns. Only there's a lot more life and charm in Eastern Arkansas.
Combine that charming topography with having to beg the government for a Fireams Owner's Identification Card before you can even buy guns or ammo in the state, and having no CCW, and having anti-gun loons like Daley and the Governor Blow-gag-ovitch, or whatever his name is in positions of supreme power, and I think you have begun bordering on Hell itself.
The only, and I do mean only hopeful sign that I saw in what seemed to be the five weeks we spent driving the length and breadth of Ill-annoy was a set of "Burma Shave" style road signs put up by this group.
http://www.gunssavelife.com/
The one set that I remember said something like "Criminals are many. Cops are few. Crimnals can carry guns. Why can't you? GunsSaveLife.com"
Of course, in Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Ill-annoy, that group's set of signs were vandalized, as four of the five had been simply ripped out, and only the last sign reading "GunsSaveLife.com" was remaining.
But after my very long tour of the state, I can't understand why anyone would willingly live in Ill-annoy.
I especially can't understand why anyone who likes firearms would live in Ill-annoy.
I would doubt that actual, real "living" would be possible, and that mere existing might be the best outcome possible in such an ugly, disspiriting, screwed-up place.
Again, I mean nothing personal about any THR members who reside in Ill-annoy.
I just hope you all can somehow escape before someone mercifully turns out all the lights in Ill-annoy.
hillbilly
But Illinois sucks. It blows. It's mind-numbingly annoying and unpleasant. I will, from now on, try to spell it "Ill-annoy" in an attempt to capture the state's essential awfulness that soaked into my very pores and that I am still trying to wash out of my hair with frequent shampooings.
How do sane people live there?????????????????????????????
This past week, I had the displeasure of driving through Ill-annoy twice during our trip to see very good friends in Michigan.
From Arkansas to Michigan, my wife and I could carry our Kimber UC II because of our Arkansas and Florida Non-Resident permits, with the People's Republic of Illl-annoy being the sole exception.
On the way up, we went from East St. Louis over to Effingham (an appropriate name for a town in such a state, especially if it were spelled
"F-ing Ham") and then the plan was to go up to Kankakee and slide over to Indiana to catch 421 North.
Only Ill-annoy was so awful, that I opted to ditch the state early on Highway 24 through Watseka and get into Indiana where I could at least take my Kimber UC II back out of the case, reload it, and put it back where I could reach it in the SUV.
During the visit, our friends took us to Chicago for a day-trip, and we had to take the Kimber out of the SUV and lock it up at the friends' house while we ventured to Chinatown, the Industrial and Science Museum, and Giardanno's pizza. I had to supress a gag when a large green sign over the I-90 toll road read that "Mayor Richard M. Daley Welcomes You to Chicago."
It was not my first visit to Chicago, either. Back in 1987, I was there for about a week for the National 4-H O'rama. Within minutes of our arrival in Chicago back in 1987, a 4-H buddy and I had composed a hard-rock mock-anthem for Chicago that had an opening line that went something like "Mud! Crud! And Streets of Blood" with huge air-guitar screams after each "ud."
Upon getting my first good whiff of downtown Chi-town, I felt that our rock-anthem still applied to the Windy City 18 years later.
During my most recent visit, we thought about going up in the Sears Tower, only the sickly-brown haze was so thick that we could barely see the Tower itself and figured it would have been pointless to try to see anything from up there. Same for Lake Michigan--it was mostly obscured by a low, thick brown haze that looked like someone had put cow turds in an atomizer and liberally applied to the city.
After our visit, on the way back to Arkanas, we took I-94 over to Joliet. At the gas station we stopped in, the words "Joliet SUCKS!" were magic-markered onto the wall, and then half-heartedly painted over with one thin coat of paint that served only to highlight the words, as the new coat of paint over the black words was still sort of white, and contrasted sharply with the old-fecal-stain beige that the original paint had aged to.
All I could do, while surveying the odiferous wonder that was the gas station restroom, was look up at the graffiti and nod in agreement about Joliet.
Getting to Joliet from Gary, Indiana, took us two hours because of the obstacle course and maze of disorganized road construction that looked more like a way for the Illinois government to keep raising taxes than any actual productive project culminating in actual identifiable progress of any sort.
Then, it was south on I-55 through the heart of Ill-annoy--Bloomington, Springfield, etc, all the way back to East St. Louis, where once we crossed the Mississippi River, we at least felt like we were back in the United States again.
The entire state of Ill-annoy, from East St. Louis to Champaign-Urbana, from Chicago, to Bloomington, looked like the most depressed areas of Eastern Arkansas. Anyone who had driven through eastern Arkansas knows exactly what Ill-annoy looks like.....flat, with a few trees, with the monotonous flatness cratered here and there with ugly, depressed towns. Only there's a lot more life and charm in Eastern Arkansas.
Combine that charming topography with having to beg the government for a Fireams Owner's Identification Card before you can even buy guns or ammo in the state, and having no CCW, and having anti-gun loons like Daley and the Governor Blow-gag-ovitch, or whatever his name is in positions of supreme power, and I think you have begun bordering on Hell itself.
The only, and I do mean only hopeful sign that I saw in what seemed to be the five weeks we spent driving the length and breadth of Ill-annoy was a set of "Burma Shave" style road signs put up by this group.
http://www.gunssavelife.com/
The one set that I remember said something like "Criminals are many. Cops are few. Crimnals can carry guns. Why can't you? GunsSaveLife.com"
Of course, in Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Ill-annoy, that group's set of signs were vandalized, as four of the five had been simply ripped out, and only the last sign reading "GunsSaveLife.com" was remaining.
But after my very long tour of the state, I can't understand why anyone would willingly live in Ill-annoy.
I especially can't understand why anyone who likes firearms would live in Ill-annoy.
I would doubt that actual, real "living" would be possible, and that mere existing might be the best outcome possible in such an ugly, disspiriting, screwed-up place.
Again, I mean nothing personal about any THR members who reside in Ill-annoy.
I just hope you all can somehow escape before someone mercifully turns out all the lights in Ill-annoy.
hillbilly
