35. Illinois

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Illinois kinda blows.

I think I would subscribe myself to a crew of Illinois haters. It just kinda makes me a little angry. I have had to drive though a large portion of the state tens of times while my mom worked in Chicago. And that drive certainly never got easier.

Peoria, Illinois

It’s flat, and it’s empty except for a few boring cities lined up along the way. In preparation for my blog entries, I like to look around at a few different places around the state just to remind myself of the scenery. This is the image that popped up when I clicked on Peoria! Yeah that just about sums up what I think of when I imagine the state.

Because it is flat, there are wind farms everywhere, and when you drive up I-55, it’s kind of all you have to look at. If you drive through the state at night though, they all blink a bright red light in unison. It’s really creepy, and before I knew what they were, it made me think that aliens were about to attack. I don’t know why they’d come to central Illinois though.

“But Autumn,” you are probably saying, “Illinois isn’t even close to your bottom, and it beats out states so many people love like Arizona and Louisiana.” Well, Illinois would probably be my lowest state if it weren’t for Chicago. Why did they have to put a city so cool in a state that sucks butt cheeks.

Chicago Lakefront

Chicago is one of the coolest cities in the country, hands down. It has so much history, so much culture! It’s beautiful, sitting along Lake Michigan and there are parks all the way down. It has so many museums that are world class. And Chicago truly does feel like a world class city when you’re there. More so than any other city in the country apart from New York. While there, you can understand why people would come from all over the world to visit. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is all about how much there to appreciate in a city like Chicago, and there really is so much.

Parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

However, Illinois is not only Chicago, and without it, it would be the epitome of fly-over. I don’t even like that term, but it’s pretty apt in this case. What can I say about a state that the most interesting location outside of its major city is a crumbling ghost town at the intersection of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Maybe that’s not entirely true though because southern Illinois is pretty neat.

But as much as I want to put Illinois at 50, I just can’t. I can’t put it any lower than right here. Chicago is just too damn awesome.