My Kind of Town, Chicago is(n't)

I'm behind a day because of my lack of a reliable internet connection, so this is my second post today because the other one was for yesterday.

In Chicago I bought The Milepost which will be really helpful for the Canadian leg of my journey. It's got information similar to the research I've been doing anyways, but it's organized well and has a ton more info than I'd ever be able to gather.

While I was getting my oil changed at home, I was talking to one of the mechanics and another customer. The other customer told us that in some sort of article or something Mass was rated as having some of the best roads in the country. We all laughed in disbelief of course. Since this trip I'm starting to believe the claim. The roads in Chicago are horrible!! the pavement is really rough, poorly patched, potholed and full of trash EVERYWHERE! I realize it's right after winter, the worst time for roads, but you can tell these roads haven't seen fresh pavement in years. That was given away by the many crumbling patch jobs of different ages. I wonder what the flat tire prevalence is around here. It's probably astronomical.

I'm staying in Forest Park, IL, which is just outside of the city, so I've been doing a lot of cruising around the Chicago suburbs these past few days. Very interesting landscape. It's weird because you'll be in a really nice area and a block later you're in a horrible one. There seem to be pockets of wealth.

I've heard people say on many occasions that Boston is a comparatively rude city, hence the term Masshole. I'm going to have to officially disagree. I've been in Chicago for a few days and haven't come across many nice people. I consistently hold doors for people, say thank you and try to just be pleasant to strangers. I've found my pleasantness goes largely ignored. I've had more people ignore that I held the door for them, walk into a building in front of me and practically slam the door in my face, and ignore me when I say thank you (more than one person has just stared at me blankly when I said thank you, like I was nuts or something) than I ever have anywhere else. I don't get it. I'm going to assume that I've just come into contact with jerks while here by chance.

I realize this post makes it seem like I don't like Chicago, but I do. The lack of nice strangers and abundance of crappy roads isn't dictating the time I'm having here at all. Why should it?