If you have never driven through Chicago it is an experience like no other. Last year we came through Chicago the long way by avoiding toll roads. That took us 3 hours. When we went our west we avoided Chicago altogether by driving through Iowa. This time we were taking the toll highway right through the city. Toll roads usually mean less traffic and an easier drive. Usually. But this is Chicago. We should hit the city around lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. how bad could that be? Stay tuned.
We were planning to be on the road by 8:00 and when Rick was doing our pre-trip checks he found that the Jeep's battery had not charged up overnight, in spite of being on the charger for over 8 hours, so w got it started and let it run for about 30 minutes. We decided to stop at a Walmart in Wisconsin Dells to pick up another battery. We knew it was going to be important to have a fully charged battery and working brakes as we went through Chicago. So we left a little late. We were aiming for Bristol Indiana - about 575 kms away.
As we left the campground, we notices a chicken sitting at the gate that we had not seen when we arrived the day before. The campground had real chickens and goats in a pen, not far from our site.
Wisconsin Dells was about a 30 minute drive from the camp and about a third of the way to the Illinois border. I chose that location because the Walmart was right off the interstate and definitely the easiest location to get in and out of. It was perfect. In total, it only took about 15 minutes to come off the interstate, park at Walmart, go in and get the battery and get back on the Interstate.
Wisconsin still had some interesting things to show us, Along the interstate you see many advertisements and signs for gas stations. This one caught my eye more than the rest.
There was more beautiful scenery.
And a strange and unusual rock formation.
Why was it strange? Well as you drive down the highway it is fields and trees and then all of a sudden this rock is there. No other rocks, really just this one. We saw signs that referred to Stand Rock Park, so we thought that is what it was. However, a check on the internet showed that it was a different location with similar, but smaller rock formations.
About 90 minutes after starting out we crossed into Illinois. We decided to stop at the Visitor's center to charge up the Jeeps battery since Chicago was on the horizon. The visitor's center had some beautiful trees at their autumn best.
Ok so on to Chicago. One thing I like about the toll roads in Chicago is that you drive under the transponders and do not have to slow down or go through any booths. Very easy. For a long time the traffic was light and it was actually nice driving. Then we saw this sign:
The two miles of congestion seemed reasonable. It was, however, very optimistic
As we got closer to the city we came pretty close to O'Hare Airport. We watched as the planes were coming in for a landing right over the highway. At times they seemed to be coming right at us. Every 2 minutes another plane came over and you could actually see the line of planes in the sky.
So that 2 miles of congestion that was mentioned on the sign was probably the understatement of the year....maybe even the decade. Although it did open up for about 30 seconds, it soon bogged down very badly.
We quickly identified one of the problems,
And then there was the construction. It was crazy. I think 5 lanes were turned into 2 lanes in the heart of the city. The road signs we not very helpful through the construction zone.
Finally we got through it. You can see in this next photo the traffic going the other way into the city.
As we broke out of the traffic, we crossed the state line into Indiana
But the Chicago area was not done with us yet. Have I mentioned that rick does not like bridges? Well just over the Indiana State line we went over Wolf Lake Memorial Park. I saw the bridge in the distance as we were approaching it. I said nothing. No need getting Rick wound up sooner than he needed to be. I can not remember what he said when he saw the bridge, but it was not good.
https://www.facebook.com/KnottyBuoyz/videos/1915031741879905/?t=0
On the other side of the bridge we drove through a very industrialized area that had, among other things, a big electricity generating plant and this huge water filtration plant.
After that we were on open roads again......
So once again it took us over three hours just to get through Chicago. We have decided that in the future the best route through Chicago is around it..
It was a couple more hours to our campsite for the night and by this time the sun was setting. The grassy sections beside the highway were thick with deer, even where there were no warning signs. We continued to see deer on the side of the road after exiting the freeway and heading for our campground. we arrived there at about 7:30 and after checking in, went to find our site. The one that they had assigned to us was way too small for even our RV never mind the rig with the jeep on the back. we went back to the office and I told her we did not fit and she wanted to know why. When I told her we were almost 50 feet long she said "we didn't know that" and "You never said anything about towing a Jeep" to which I replied I certainly did. Then she said they didn't have any sites that would fit us. Not what i wanted to here at the end of this day. She then directed us to the 50 amp electric and water sites. She said they had no one else there so we should be able to fit. By this time it is completely dark so Rick had to go and check it our with a flashlight before even attempting it. We did get in, but only by straddling several sights. Once hooked up, we had a quick meal, took some time to unwind and then went to bed. On the up-side, it was warm. we had e the door wide open and all of the vents open and it was completely comfortable. I think we kept the vents opened all night. Plus the worst of the drive was now done. we still had Cleveland and Buffalo to go through, but they are nothing compared to Chicago. We are just a day and a half away form home now and Rick asked about trying to do it all tomorrow, to which I said no. That would be at least a 16 hour day and there is no way that we were going to do that. We would stick with our schedule.
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