Random Bursts of Excitement

I drove up to Chicago one Sunday afternoon in early November to see my brother who happened to be in town for business. He was in the middle of some meetings when I got to his hotel, but he'd sent me a text earlier to say he'd heard about some guy who was going to try to walk a high wire strung between a couple of skyscrapers close by, so I wandered out to take a look. Sure enough, there was the wire, strung across the Chicago river about fifty stories up.
Turns out the guy was Nik Wallenda, the famous tightrope walker from the famous high-flying Wallenda family, and that he was planning to walk the wire that very evening. On live TV of course. With no nets or safety harness. This could be exciting.
So I found a spot to hang out and wait as the streets filled up with curious onlookers, all craning their necks towards the thin little wire so high up in the sky and so dramatically lit against the gradually darkening sky.
In my blurry cell phone picture you can barely make out the cable attached between one of the Marina City towers on the left and another building across the river and across Wacker Drive on the right.

What you can't see in the picture are all the support cables that were strung back down to anchor points on the street to hold the main wire steady. It was quite an interesting setup.
The crowd in the street was pretty quite as we waited for something to happen. Every now and then someone would think they saw a figure look over the edge of the building or see some movement near one of the ends of the wire and a cheer would go up, but then fall silent again. Sam eventually got back from the conference center and joined me on the street.

Finally, unmistakably, Nik appeared on the wire, holding his balance pole and walking steadily towards the other side. He didn't pause, he didn't fool around, he just motored up the slight incline with measured, precise pace and an air of supreme confidence. (We learned later he was talking to the TV broadcasters as he walked)

When he got to the other side he hopped off the cable, then looked over the edge and waved to the crowd. Everyone cheered. Then we hurried back to the hotel to get warmed up.