I once read a book by Chicago author Saul Bellow where a key character’s favorite line about our beloved air terminal was “without O’Hare there is only despair.” On my way to a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah from O’Hare I clearly understood what Saul Bellow meant when he had this character utter these words.
Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the nation and in the world in my opinion, so it is difficult to say that despair can be found by staying here, but with the melt of the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011 those that love to adventure travel are in despair. Or at least I am as I wait for a bus underneath freezing rain and grey dark skies.
The beautiful snow drifts where we could play to our hearts delight on snowshoes and cross-country skis are gone and all that is left is ugly black remnants in parking lots and on street side curbs. The billowing snows from the heavens have been replaced by freezing rain.
Saul Bellow is not the only great writer to opine about the ugliness of a Chicago spring. In the poem the Wasteland T.S. Eliot wrote “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” Ok, I know he did not write this about Chicago, but the wasteland is a perfect description of the outdoor scene in Chicago on many days in March and April and even May.
We cannot rely on good weather until June, but there is hope. For those in despair this is where O’Hare comes in. March and April are the best times to get out of Chicago. Chicago and the Midwest will be stuck in a frustrating weather pattern until May that will one day tease with a 70 degree spring like day only to follow with a chilly, windy, rainy, 40 degree day.
One can either fly south to Florida to experience some sun, or they can turn back the clock and return to winter. Salt Lake City, Utah is a great place to go for spring skiing as they have snow in the Wasatch Mountains sometimes all the way into July.
Check out the before and after pictures. The dreary, sad, depressing pictures represent a typical spring day in Chicago and the after is the winter wonderland known as skiing Salt Lake City, Utah. Take your pick and either stay in Chicago to experience despair or fly to Salt Lake and ski the beautiful Wasatch Mountains.
Stay tuned,
TT
The goal of Traveling Ted TV is to inspire people to outdoor adventure travel and then provide tips on where and how to go. If you liked this post then enter your email in the box to get email notifications for each new entry. Daily travel photos are excluded from your email in order to not flood you with posts. There is no spam and email information will not be shared. Other e-follow options include Facebook (click on the like box to the right) or twitter (click on the pretty bird on the rainbow above).
What a great title! Did I miss something? Were you in Utah recently?
Glad you had a great trip and it looks like there will be plenty of snow for skiers in Utah well into spring!
Jeremy B recently posted..10 reasons Budget Travel Adventures will make you a better traveler
I hear you Ted! Those pics of Chicago post-snow look an awful lot like NYC. I’d love to go on an SLC skiing getaway this spring. The mountains look beautiful in your photos
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