"How are we going to find our way across America, when we can't find our way out of the airport?" - James Jacobs

After what can only be described as a ridiculously early start, we were disappointed with the knowledge of our flight being delayed by 4 hours. There's only one thing to do when this sort of information is handed to you upon arrival - head to the pub for a full english and a cheeky pint!

Naturally, Chris slept from the moment we settled in the departure lounge, and continued this lengthy spell throughout the entire flight - very sociable as always; however, he did make a friend. That's one friend more than he had before he started this trip - good ole Jackie!

We landed and eventually got to our car pick-up point; we were convinced to upgrade to what we can only describe as 'the beast' and now feel like we are driving a tank, rather than a standard SUV. In a heated coin toss between Nick and James as to who would sit behind the wheel to our hotel, James lost and took the plunge; however, he did earn himself another point towards the LAD trophy in the process.

The holiday T-shirts were revealed, to which everyone was pleased with their selected nicknames, apart from Marc and we can't work out why. The names are as follows:

Nick - Gay Simon
James - S*** Excuse
Chris - Vagina
Marc - Mc Paedo

Within 5 minutes of entering the hotel, Chris broke off the the bath handle mid way through running a bath; the lady behind the reception was not impressed. Chris is no longer allowed to touch anything.

Dinner at Chili's was followed by a lengthy train journey into the main area of Chicago; we learnt a number of things: Lake Michigan was not impressive, Chris takes too many pictures of the same buildings and no one drinks in Chicago on a Monday.
With all that in mind, we grabbed another beer, watched some baseball and kindly declined drugs from a lone drinker, who looked very similar to Jay Z. If you've ever experienced the classic game Crazy Taxi, you've got half an idea of the journey home we had after flagging down what looked like a standard Chicago cab. Giving us tips for the road and trying to convince us to be bedroom bank traders, we can safely say that he'll be long forgotten and we'll work out the laws of the road ourselves. Chicago is a lovely city and full of architecture, but the locals can only be described as 'dodgy' and that's an understatement.

The road trip is only hours away; and if today's driving is anything to go by, we'll not reach Las Vegas until 2017.

Boom!