The Smells of Peoria

Peoria has been experiencing a warm spell over the past week, which obviously nobody is complaining about.  This heatwave was made even more savory given the fact that it had dipped down in temperatures LITERALLY the day before.  I think we went from 20 degrees to 55 degrees the next day....welcome to Illinois right?


With this heatwave came open windows and outdoor activity.  With open windows came the smells of Peoria.  Now, most of us are familiar with some of the more....shall we say...unique smells of Peoria.  There's the vomit trees (which are actually female ginkgo trees, image below), the yeast smell from the factories downtown and the smell of the river to name a few.  But few are familiar with the smell of Peoria that is...the McBreeze.

The McBreeze is a phenomenon my roommate and I experience almost any time we open the windows.  When the wind is coming from the East and our windows are open, our apartment takes on the scent of a fast food diner.  The smell of fryer grease and cheap burgers fills the air and you can almost feel it clinging to you.

Now for you McDonald's lovers out there, the Eau De Big Mac doesn't sound like a bad scent for your apartment.  But Ben and I spent our high school summers slaving over grills and fryers at campgrounds and bars to make a few bucks.  When you make 400 funnel cakes on holiday weekends, or endless burgers during summer festivals, your entire wardrobe smells of grease and despair so it's not exactly a scent you seek out.

So when the wind is right, and McDonald's is hard at work making sure you're 'lovin it'..... 

Open up your nostrils and search out the dreaded McBreeze.  Or, look for Ben and I with the thousand yard stare as the summer horror stories and flashbacks hit us from our battles behind the grill.