Upon learning that the greatest German music legend since Richard Wagner would be playing a single show in America for the first time in years, I immediately bought tickets. It had been more than 15 years since I last saw Rammstein live so I was thrilled at the opportunity to finally see them again.|Our first stop on the journey was Pilot Grove, Missouri where my grandfather grew up.We passed through St. Louis and stopped at an authentic Turkish restaurant. They put yogurt on literally everything here.We arrived in Schaumburg just north of Chicago to check into our hotel and then with some time to kill we left for Des Plaines to see the original McDonald's opened by Ray Kroc in 1955. Even though it was now a museum (that was closed) we were able to get something to eat at the modern McDonald's just across the street. From there it was on to the Chicago Open Air to see Rammstein.The day after the concert we decided to do a bit of site-seeing in Chicago and we even visited the local aquarium. In the evening we rented some city bikes and rode to Navy Pier. My favorite thing about Chicago is that they refuse to put ketchup on hotdogs.Upon leaving Chicago we took a slight detour on the way back stopping in Santa Claus, Indiana to visit some friends. As the name may suggest, the entire town is Christmas themed. While we were there we also visited the monastery in Ferdinand as well as the nearby Abraham Lincoln boyhood home memorial.After spending the night at the Buis's farmhouse we packed up our things and prepared ourselves for the gauntlet of critters we had to pass through in order to get to our car.
