"Travis Marlatte" wrote:
So. Was Chicago's initial read of my clearance also my clearance to proceed?

Yup.

Or, did they expect me to get a "release" from Grand Rapids.

Nope. You only get released when you're on the ground. If you're in the
air, you've already escaped, so there's nothing to release :-)

As soon as the guy said, "Lake 3094P is cleared direct to the Flint VOR
then D95. Climb maintain 5000.", you should have headed direct to Flint and
started climbing.