International Motorcycle Show - Rosemont

We headed to the International Motorcycle Show early Saturday morning. We took our time heading towards Chicago. The weather was decent enough to make it an easy road to travel. No snow, no sub-zero temps like the last time we attended this show. We got to Embassy Suites and checked in to our room. It was a lovely room, quite large and clean. I define clean as a non-smoking room that really feels like no one smoked in it. The air was fresh in this room.

We unpacked our things, hung up our dress clothes for our dinner plans at Morton’s and headed over to the show. We walked through the skywalk to get over to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. As it turned out, the skywalk was a very round-about way of getting there. We could have easily went out the front of the hotel and over to the show which was a much more direct route.

We handed over the tickets we bought online glad to know online ordering was not only a cheaper deal, but also more convenient based on the long line of people waiting to buy their tickets.

We got inside and immediately received a Progressive Insurance tote bag to store all that fodder we knew we would pick up along the way. We stopped at booths that had tire changers, exhaust systems, batteries, trailers, chocks, GPS holders, electronics devices, and custom painted bikes. There were plenty of vendors selling helmets, jackets and chaps, boots, and other clothing. We looked at some items made to protect in colder weather, but we already have everything we need at home, it was more of a fact-finding mission to see what new things are available.

We stopped to grab a pretzel and beer while perusing the leather goods available for bikers. We looked at jewelry and scarves found in a section of the convention center dedicated to women bikers. There were also displays of antique bikes – and not just Harleys, many brands, including some I’ve never heard of were there. Most major bike manufacturers, Indian, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Victory, and Harley were all there. Not only could you sit on motorcycles, you could also check out the ATVs. There were quite a few to choose from.
My favorite thing is to pick up information on rides. Most pre-planned rides are charity events and we like to use them as opportunities to see new parts of the Midwest. I got brochures on a brain tumor ride in Madison in August, and Illinois Veteran Memorial ride in June, a disabled children benefit ride in Elgin in May, and a homeless Veteran benefit. It’s good to have options.

We didn’t buy much. Jeff got a set of stretch rubber luggage straps. I thought about buying a scarf but nothing really held my interest. After going through the entire event a second time in case we missed anything, we headed back to the hotel. We put on our swimsuits and headed to the pool. The hotel hot tub was horrible so we swam some laps in the pools to stretch our legs, dried off, and then went back to the room to change. The hotel has a free happy hour and we met some friends there. It was nice to share the day with friends from Milwaukee. We had a few margaritas and shared shopping stories. It was hard to imagine that we wouldn’t run into each other at the show. There were lots of people there, but even though the place is big it’s not that big - I mean we walked through all the aisles twice.

After happy hour which was actually two hours, we went back to our room to get dressed for dinner. Morton’s has a dress code so I put on a nice skirt and we walked through the back of the parking lot to get there. It was a mere 300 yards away and that was a good thing since I was wearing high-heeled boots. The place was fantastic, we were treated like royalty. My Morton’s review can be found at www.sunshinekaty.yelp.com .

Sunday morning we got up and went back to the pool to swim lots of laps. Morton’s was so good it put us in a food coma for the rest of the evening. Now was the time to work off the calories. We stopped for coffee at the breakfast buffet then went to the pool where we spent 45 minutes swimming laps and every lap felt great. It was like we were renewed and ready to start the new day. We got dressed and met our friends for breakfast. Embassy Suites includes a nice hot breakfast that includes fresh made omelets. It was a good start for our drive over to IKEA for some shopping. IKEA is a fun place filled with inexpensive, sometime cheesy housewares. I like to think of it as an adventure in home accessorizing because you never know what kind of deals you will find. I spent $95 on cute things, like serving dishes and votive candles. Jeff bought a new cutting board for the kitchen since mine cracked.

After all that shopping we were still home by 1:30 Sunday afternoon. It was a good weekend that we will repeat again next year.