Survived Chicago

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What a day of driving. When I left Door County around 9 am I thought I was good to go to make it through Chicago and arrive at my stop for the evening by late afternoon. What was I thinking???

It took me 4 hours to drive the 100 miles or so from the WI - IL state line to Indiana. And the last part of the route to get around Chicago was my plan C!!!

I had every intention of splitting Chicago wide open on I-94 and motor right through downtown. In hindsight it might have been best to stick with my original plans. But upon hearing it was an hour drive on the JFK (I-94) to downtown, I opted to go around I-294 (which is the way the signs route you to Indiana). It was no better.

After 2 hours of stop and go traffic and $10 in tolls, I bailed off the interstate just south of I-55. I went due south on US 45 and then east on US 30 which finally brought me in to I-65 south of Gary, Indiana. Even though it was city suburb driving with traffic, signals, shopping areas, etc. it was less stressful than the stop and go on the interstate and people cutting you off left and right.

So what I thought was going to be an ok drive today was a handful.

I talked with a guy here in the campground who lives in the Chicago area and drives a truck into town every day making deliveries. He told me it is just as bad on the weekends so it wouldn’t have helped to wait until Saturday to leave.

Note to self - NEVER drive an RV through Chicago on a Friday afternoon!!!!! In fact, next time I’m in this neck of the woods, think I’ll allow an extra day and completely avoid the Windy City.

No photos today. Just thought I’d share a little of the joys of Chicago traffic with no navigator.

Forgot that I’d be on EDT tonight here at the campground. Doesn’t really matter in the big scheme of thing, but I was thinking I’d be changing tomorrow. So I’m no longer on “Tulsa Time”. I’ll stay on Smoky Mountain time even through the area of KY where they are on Central Time.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Thanks for checking in on the travels. I plan on the final two days being much less stressful driving.

I hope to make it to Berea early enough to possibly do some sightseeing around there.

Oh one last thing I forgot to share with you about the campground in Door County. Chessy had LOTS of pals there. The owners have a big chocolate lab and their son and his family (who also work there) have a black lab and a mix that may have been part border collie. There was another chocolate lab there visiting from Ohio. We would take our furry friends to the office and game room to work on the internet. It was very nice.

It's nice to actually be able to connect to the internet from my rig tonight.

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