Chicago!

We woke up this morning to much warmer temperatures than expected. It was around 4 degrees Celsius which was a log way from the -11 that we were expecting.  It was overcast, but the forecast along our route said it was going to be sunny and clear and that was good news since we were tackling Chicago today.

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.

 A better perspective comes from our dash cam. You might get the impression that Rick was not happy with his navigator.  **Warning - there is a cuss word at the end

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. 

Finally! A Good Drive

We were up early and ready to hit the road by 8:00 am. We have three and a half more days of driving to get home and today will be our first full day of towing the jeep after it broke loose. Neither one of can completely relax while driving  and we are constantly checking the mirrors for any sign that the jeep is still back there. I was still concerned with road conditions and had my fingers crossed that we did not run into any bad patches today. On the up-side, the weather was clear and the sun was shining. The weatherman was correct and the temperature had dropped to a frosty -11C but it looked like we were moving into some warmer weather.

We were heading for Oakdale Wisconsin - an almost 700 km drive through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin. Each of the remaining 4 days of driving will take us through or close to a large, traffic filled city. Today it will be Minneapolis.

As we started out, we saw a roadside sign that just said "Smile." Although our visit to North Dakota had not given us much to smile about, the sign did make me smile on this day. Of course some of that may have been that were were finally putting North Dakota behind us.

We we a little fascinated by the strong presence of the Canadian Pacific Railway in North Dakota. Many of the roads we traveled on in this state had a main rail line running beside it and we saw a lot of trains. Many of them were either CP rail cars or engines. It makes sense that there would be some crop and grain transport between the norther states and the western provinces but we had no idea how much traffic there really was. We actually saw a CP Rail van travelling on the highway sporting North Dakota licence plates. Then, when we were still wondering about that we were passed by a transport carrying a CP Rail train engine.

Early into our journey that day we went through Fargo North Dakota. If you have ever watched the movie or the TV shows about that city, you would have the impression that Fargo is just a little town in the mid-west. Not so! Fargo is a large city that sprawls along the freeway for quite some distance and is, in fact, the largest city in the state based on a population of over 100,000.

We crossed into Minnesota just after leaving Fargo. This felt like progress!

The roads were, thankfully, very good, although the signs were snow and ice covered and sometimes unreadable. This continued for about the first hour that we traveled through the state.

Thankfully, as we continued to the south east, the evidence of snow disappeared and it actually got warm! Now some of that was certainly the sunshine in the cab with the windows done up, but we will take it! My feet were actually warm for the first time in days.

Minnesota started to show us her beautiful side, with it's many little lakes, rivers and ponds and the changing leaves in the trees,

As always, I was on the lookout for interesting road signs and, happily I was able to find some.

Some other interesting road side attractions were an alien looking water tower, some chainsaw art works and, my favourite, some playful cars that looked to be demonstrating what could go wrong jumping off a ramp.

We passed through Minneapolis without incident and, while the traffic was heavier than what we have seen so far in Minnesota, it was moving well We crossed the Mississippi River and then crossed the St, Croix River into Wisconsin. We were halfway through our day!

Road signs here told us there was a problem with tailgating on some of the roads.

With the worst of today's drive behind us, we started to relax a little and enjoy the drive. Wisconsin was showing her beautiful fall colours and this was one of the most scenic stretches of road we have seen so far on our return trip.

We arrived at our campground around 5:00 pm and it was a balmy 8 degrees Celsius! Warmth! The managers told us that they had turned off the water to the campsites, though because it was supposed to go down to -11C that night but they offered to fill our water tanks from a hose at the office. We told them we had lots and headed to our site. It was warm enough that we could open our door and vents for a little while that evening. It had been weeks since that was possible. We had dinner and a shower and reviewed our route for tomorrow. Today gave us hope that the rest of our trip would be smooth and trouble free.

Back On The Road Again

We finally got back on the road around lunch time on Thursday. We were only planning to drive a little over 300 kilometers to Casselton, on the eastern edge of North Dakota. I planned for us to stay at Governors Days Inn and RV Park again this year. They were so good to us last year I will always stay there if we are in the area.

To say we were on edge would be a very big understatement. Both of us were constantly checking the side mirror, hoping to see the shadow of the jeep.

The weather was overcast when we started out but it did clear out eventually. i kept thinking about what the gentleman said at the RV Dealership about all the snow they had east of us - the very direction we were heading. all of the snow that was in Martin and Harvey when we first arrived on Sunday was now gone and it felt like the temperatures had climbed a little above the freezing mark. As we heading east, though, we noticed growing amounts of snow in the fields that we passed.

As we continued east the amount of snow in the fields increased even more.

And then we came upon this beautiful winter scene..

At this point I was a little nervous, but the roads were clear, even if the ground was snow covered. Then we came to Valley City North Dakota. We were still driving on good roads, but there were snow banks on the side of the roads. Then, out of no where, the driving lane was covered with thick, chunky ice. It is only Rick's excellent driving skills that kept us out of trouble.

Rick pulled the video off of our dash cam from when we hit it:  ***warning you may hear some cussing***

https://youtu.be/QDhsNeKyVck?fbclid=IwAR39KFC4iArkvfd3SB1y1u1EH-TFbVaOJuaVwwhd89IjtfhQkwsR7mnAdUw

This is what the ice looked like up close:

This was the only time in almost 10,000 kms of driving that we saw any kind of accident and then it was just cars in the ditch.  (while watching the video you will see a tractor trailer jackknifed in the ditch on the other side of the road)

Luckily we were pretty close to our destination for the night and we needed the break. I think it was probably the most stressful drive we had ever had and it was only for 4 hours. Happily the jeep stayed with us for the day.

Our site at the RV park was covered in about 6 inches of snow and the forecast was for it to go to -11C overnight. Not the best conditions for our rig, but we made the best of it. It was time to check the weather for tomorrow and review our route for the day. At least we are 300 kilometers closer to home.

Our Captive Time in North Dakota

I don't think there is much worse than being stuck somewhere and having nothing to do but wait.

Neither one of us slept very well the night before. An evening searching the internet did not give us any decent leads on a new tow hitch that we could have sent to us overnight so Monday we decided to check the RV dealerships in the towns around us. With some luck one of them would have the part in stock. Clearly we had no luck. We did find a dealership in Minot (pronounced my-not not minnow) who could get it for us and we asked him about overnight delivery. That being done Rick got as bundled up as he could and set off for the tow yard to see who he could find to get the how hitch welded back onto the RV.

We were directed to what we thought was a local farm (was actually an old school) so that we could get the tow hitch welded back on the RV. We met Dave, the town welder, who bumped all jobs to get us in and done. When he was finished he said we would be able to tow the Titanic now! All of the people we have met in Martin ND so far have gone out of their way to help us which soothed our somewhat frazzled nerves.

Rick called the dealership back to check on the delivery of the trailer hitch. He called back to say it was going to cost us an additional $600 US if we wanted to part delivered the next day. Now we were already paying over $900 US for the part so we asked him to check on other options. We even offered to pay someone to drive it to us. He called back an hour or so later today if we did not want to pay the $600. The best he could do was a Thursday delivery. Rick had a contract for work that started on Monday but if we had to wait for the part until Thursday there is no way we would make it home on time unless Rick drove for 16 hours each day and no way was I going to let that happen. After reviewing our options, or should I say lack of options,we ended up calling them back to order the part. he told us the part should be in sometime before lunch on Thursday. Rick contacted his boss to say he would not be there on Monday and we revised our plans.

We drove to the town of  Harvey to get some cash from the ATM to start paying some of the charges associated with pulling the jeep out of the weeds and getting the hitch welded back onto the RV. We got to the bank and found out the only ATM they had was a drive thru so Rick walked around the side of the building and walked through to get his cash. Another first! 😏😉

Right Across the road from the bank was an old locomotive. I had seen SOO Line on some of the locomotives going past the town so I grabbed a picture.

We headed back to Martin to pay the welder but he had gone for lunch, so we waited. While we were waiting we considered our options in terms of where we were going to stay the next 3 nights, We found an RV park in Harvey that had all the amenities we needed but decided to find a park in Minot, since we had to go there anyhow to pick up the part we needed. We found a place called Roughrider Campgrounds which was pretty close to the RV Dealership so we decided to go there. After making the decision I checked my list of Passport America Campgrounds and they were on the list. At last one piece of good news! It meant our first 2 nights were going to be half price. So off we went to the new campground. The new site was more sheltered than the one we stayed at in Martin so it was a wee bit warmer. Did I mention North Dakota was cold? With a brisk wind? I don't think it got above -5C the entire time we were there.

On Tuesday we did not do much of anything except to stay hunkered down in the RV. We did a quick check of our supplies and realized we would probably need to get more food to last the rest of the trip and propane for the furnace.

We decided that on Wednesday we would unhook the RV and go for a trip around town to get the supplies we needed. A friend of Rick's recommended a local diner called Kroll's. We had noticed the place on the way into town and decided we would have lunch there.  We arrived at Kroll's around 11:00 am - just before the lunch hour rush. We both had burgers and I ordered one of their milkshakes. Wow! The food was good and the milkshake was the old-fashioned kind with scooped ice cream and milk. You got the shake and the rest of the mixing container and there was enough for 2 full shakes. I ended up taking the rest of it with us and had it at supper time.

:

After lunch we picked up some groceries and headed for the RV dealership to ask if they could trace the package and make sure it is still going to arrive the next day. We spoke to a very nice lady who made some calls and was able to trace it while we looked around their store. She told us it was due to arrive tomorrow as planned but then told us it would not be there until 3:20 pm. I think you could have heard both of our hearts hit the ground. Not getting it until late afternoon would mean we would not have the jeep hitched up and ready to go until 6:00 pm at best. That would put us at our campsite at 9:00 pm. Night driving. We were going to be nervous starting to tow again and, doing it at night meant we could not check for the jeep's shadow to make sure it is still back there. As we were leaving I jokingly said to the lady "ask the UPS guy to go a little faster and deliver your packages a bit earlier tomorrow" We all laughed and then went back to the RV park.

Thursday morning was bright and clear and cold, but we should be back on the road so there was a bit of excitement as well as dread. We had breakfast and were just finishing our coffee when the lady from the RV shop called. She told the UPS guy the day before that there was a very important package coming in and she needed it as soon as he could get it there, so he delivered there first that day. It was just after 9:00 am and the part was there! We had quick showers, secured everything and were on our way to the dealership by 10:00 am. When we got the part the gentleman who brought it out to the RV for us said there had been a big snow storm the day before in the eastern part of the state and that we should check the road conditions. I had already checked the weather along the route and there was nothing there about snow either today or yesterday. The sky was clear and we were finally going to be moving again.  No worries. Well except was the jeep going to stay attached.

We arrived in Martin just over an hour later and picked up the jeep and were back on the road by lunch time. We had decided to keep our original schedule for campsites so we only had 300 kms to cover. A nice easy trip to get used to towing again. We hit the road singing "On The Road Again" with our fingers crossed.