Interstate Blues

The morning dawned clear and bright and it was starting to warm up by the time we got on the road at 9:00. Today's goal was mostly to just get to Chicago so we could start this thing. it was supposed to be a 6-hour trip down Rt 80, slipping between Akron and Cleveland, then Rt 90 sliding past Toledo and South Bend, then on to the Windy City. But what with several traffic jams, a few detours to miss some construction (including one through the slums of Gary Indiana (Gary Indiana Gary Indiana)) and a few stops, it ended up being almost 10. Hopefully this will be our longest driving day until we head home.

State number 3

We're driving our KIA Sorento plug-in hybrid on this trip. The car is great for everyday driving where 90% of our trips are within the car's 35-mile electric range. When going on longer trips it switches to gas-hybrid mode when the EV battery is expended. The drawback of this arrangement is it has a gas range of only a little over 300 miles, which means extra stops on extended road trips, so we stopped for gas 3 times today.

we did make one sightseeing stop today: the Indiana Welcome Center with a bronze tribute to Flick from a Christmas Story with his tongue stuck to a flagpole. The Welcome Center is in Hammond Indiana, hometown of Jean Shepherd, author of A Christmas Story.

I triple dog-dared her!

By the time we finished at the Welcome Center it was 5:00 (after the time change crossing into the central time zone) and we were getting hangry, having only had a sparse Holiday Inn Express free breakfast. So we decided to have our last chain "restaraunt" meal at the Cracker Barrel next door.

Four States Down!

Then we braved another bout of traffic into Chicago and arrived at the Congress Hotel around 6:00. $62 for overnight parking! While Sue stayed in and planned our itinerary for tomorrow, I explored Grant Park, the Lake Michigan shore, and Adams Street where Rt66 starts. Sue and I went out for a walk and stopped in for a nip and a nosh at Industrial Ales, a new restaurant and craft brewery under the El on Wabash Ave. On our way back to the Hotel we found the Start of RT 66 marker in preparation for the start of our trip tomorrow!