Today we had a good start from Tomah, Wisconsin -- after a quick breakfast at the hotel, and a quick stop for cheese at Humbird Cheese (we actually stopped at this exact same place last year on the way home from our trip!) we set out for Chicago. Driving went smoothy until we hit Illinois .. Then the tolls began. Started off with $1.90 to get on the Jane Addams toll highway then not too far in, another $3.50! Then more tolls .. And they even make you pay to get off the crazy thing!
We stopped at Johnnie's Beef in Arlington Heights (a suburb of Chicago) for the famous italian beef burgers / sausage burgers and ice drinks. My watermelon ice drink was very tasty; Derek's lemonade ice drink was good but quite sweet.
Then we set out to go downtown Chicago, but changed plans once we realized how slow traffic was turning out to be. For the most part we drove about 10 mph and at one point we were at a complete standstill for several minutes. All in all, ittook us about an hour and a half to go 20 miles. Good grief! Realized tonight that there was a White Sox game, but although that may have contributed to more traffic, probably not the only reason. Imagine what 'rush hour' might be Iike during the week.
Finally out of Chicago, and entering Indiana, we paid our first dues to the Indiana toll system, then remembered that we still need to fuel up. So we kept watch for an exit with fuel. Eventually decided we really needed to stop, so we exited at Scary, ....correction - Gary, Indiana. We have driven through parts of Gary before (further northeast, closer to Indiana Sand Dunes Park), and this experience was much the same and worse. Maybe the fact we were coasting on gas fumes into an area that looked like an apocalypse had just occurred added to this feeling, but seriously ... Gary, Indiana is one of the scariest places I have ever been. Such a strange feeling about this place. There could be several abandoned and/or burnt out houses, and then one nice looking home with a beautifully landscaped and irrigated yard. After Nuvi directed us to a desolate, abandoned gas station in the middle of all this, and then sitting at the longest traffic light in the country (in a next to abandoned center), we were never so thankful to finally find fuel. We would have paid $6/gallon if that's what they were asking, just let us out of here! Derek had asked the guy at the gas station about the history of Gary, and apparently the guy commented that it wasn't good. Derek asked if that meant it that meant we shouldn't stick around and the guy told him to get out as quick as we can. Hmmm. We high-tailed it out of Gary and continued east.
We decided to stop for the night at South Bend, Indiana as we have now lost an hour as we have crossed into eastern time zone. We found a decent place to pitch our tent at the South Bend/ Elkhart North KOA in Granger, and grabbed a snack at the Between The Buns Sports Bar & Grill just down the street. The food was very good and we had a gigantic mug of beer to wash it all down. It was great - the place even had wifi and I was able to borrow a plug-in nearby to charge my camera battery for tomorrow!
We returned to the campsite and settled in for the night. Just crickets and frogs now ...beats the sound of trains, motor bikes and police cars we were hearing earlier in the evening. Tomorrow we hit Pittsburgh, if everything goes as planned
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