Drove south today out of Madison into Illinois. It was a case of Welcome to Illinois - now start paying tolls! Won't mind too much if they had tickets like the New York State Thruway, but you have to stop every couple of miles and pay the toll. Having an IPass would help and make it a lot simpler - have to check on that for the next trip. If it worked on all the roads in IL, OH, PA, NY and NJ, it would be fine.
We kind of had it with all the truck traffic and tolls, so we decided to head south off I-294 and use US highways. Even though US 30 and 6 had traffic lights, there wasn't as much traffic, trucks were fewer and it was more interesting to see a wider view of the area. The area where we dropped of the interstate was around Orland Park, IL which is a pretty affluent area. As we travelled along US 30, we came through Chicago Heights. Let's be polite and say there was a slight bit of difference in the surroundings. There were a lot of boarded up and/or abandoned buildings in Chicago Heights - it was almost like the aftermath of a war zone.
After leaving the suburbs of Chicago and entering Indiana, we drove through farmland which was almost reminiscent of North Dakota. Large farms, flat land, and crops starting to pop up through the soil. There were several areas where the crop (appeared to be oats) was in full bloom - must have been a fall or winter planting. We also came through Amish country which was kind of neat. Saw several horse and buggy's on the road. Kind of harrowing when you're on a two lane road and the buggy is taking up half of your side. Although they trot along at a pretty good clip, they don't quite have the horsepower that the Red Baron has. We saw a buggy earlier which had two young girls in an open buggy - they had on the typical Amish bonnets and dresses. Kind of cute - going to town to do some shopping, I suppose. This one was enclosed and you can barely make out the horse pulling it.
This part of the country is also big for woodworking, cabinetry and RV/trailer/modular home construction. Must be the Amish influence as far as the woodworking is concerned.
We arrived in Kendallville in late afternoon and after we checked in, we went to a local golf course - Noble Hawk Golf Links - to play nine holes. Really great course in awesome shape - the fairways were like our greens back in Reno. Enjoyed playing, but then we ran up against the local high school golf teams which were out practicing. Would have taken too long to play the rest, so we quit after six holes. Still good to get out of the car and get some fresh air and exercise. The courses are pretty crowded in the morning, so we're going to leave here, drive over to Ohio and maybe find some place to play before getting a hotel for the night.
We're still on track to get to Rochester Friday. Tim and Tom III better watch out - today we passed into their time zone.
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