Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

After visiting Willis Tower my brother and I had to make a long walk across Chicago to a boat landing, where we would embark on a ninety-minute cruise of the river.  The purpose of the tour was to showcase the incredible architecture in Chicago.

My brother is a bit of a Romantic—even more so than yours portly—and wanted to walk along the river for as much of our route as possible.  I was fine with that, but in following our GPS directions, we realized that it would not be feasible to follow the river on the side of the street where we needed to be.  I pointed out that we could cross back over the river and enjoy the river walk on that side, but that we’d be on the river for over an hour soon enough, so we might as well just follow the GPS.

Well, my brother’s Romantic wanderlust was right.  My route took us along Lower Wacker Boulevard.  Wacker is a multi-level street—it gets to as high as three levels—and the underside of the street is basically an underground tunnel.  It’s full of steam pipes, service accesses, and darkness.

And a dead pigeon.  When we emerged on the other side, my brother remarked that we’d been through Mordor.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.