In the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", the father and son duo need to go to Berlin to recover the father's Grail diary. As they watch a Nazi demonstration the Henry Jones comments to his son Henry Jones, Jr, also known as Indiana, "My son, we are pilgrims in an unholy land;" you can watch a clip of the here. Travelling out of state often brings this comment to my mind, particularly when going into Illinois.
Now, Illinois is not a bad place. I have family members who live in that state. But, for some reason, perhaps it is the traffic and the tollways, perhaps it is the machine politics, but that scene from teh "Last Crusade" comes to mind as I travel into Illinois. It is not as if we in Wisconsin do not like our neighbors to the south, heck we even have an acronym for them: FIB--which of course stands for Friendly Illinois Brethren. This unholy land came to mind last July when having to travel through Chicago and the Chicago Skyway to get to points east. Traffic was not too bad, until we were a few miles north of the intersection of the Kennedy as we traveled south on the Edens Expressway. It was about 1:00 p.m. on that warm Tuesday. Leave it to Illinois to devise a meaningless term--Expressway, when Parking Lot would be a more apt description.
It is not just the traffic it is also the Illinois drivers. When I was in the proper lane to access the Chicago Skyway, I was almost run into a barricade by a person in a large delivery truck who chose not to look at traffic around his vehicle and just move over. The Chicago Skyway seems to well portray Chicago, the city of Big Shoulders, or the Windy City. It runs through the industrial southeast side and goes above buildings. On our journey into Indiana, the Skyway was littered with semi tire treads that one could not simply avoid. Heck, if I am paying a toll to use the road, one would think they would keep the road clear of debris, but not here. Thanks to the transponder, my Chicago niece picked up for our trip, the tolls were not near as bad as they otherwise would have been. As an aside, I have to say the Illinois tolls moved the best of the all the states we were in. At least in Illinois we did not need to stop or nearly stop to get through the toll lane as most all other states required.
A great deal of truck traffic travels east on this route, and I noticed that the truck traffic remained heavy on I 80/90. Chicago was loaded with steel mills and other industries from which its first quoted nickname evolved. Of course, as the city evolved it became not just an industrial leader, but in architecture and other fields. The Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright did significant work in Oak Park, IL. Now my feeling could come just because Chicago is different for a person who is used to small cities and the rural areas of Wisconsin--you know rolling farm fields, forests and lakes. As I wrote in a post a few years ago, Chicago also has a strong sense of community, which you can read here. In that sense it is urban and urban is not necessarily bad. Manhattan is said to be the most eco-friendly place to live in the United States.
What drew me to write this post at this time? Well, my wife and I were in the Twin Cities area this past weekend, and Friday night found us in Joe Senser's Bar, a sports bar in Bloomington near Hwy 494. Looking at the bar I could tell I was not in Wisconsin anymore--purple Viking memorabilia. Being used to the green and gold of the Packers this was well, different. Although my young niece made a relevant comment: " A bar in Wisconsin would have a great deal more Packer stuff" than that bar had Viking stuff. This even though I heard that the bar was owned by a former Viking player.
Traveling in Illinois is made easier by the responder to pay to heavy tolls, but that still does not get to the amount of traffic, or the Illinois drivers, nor the shoddy upkeep to remove tire treads littered over the road. The next time, I may try to go around the city and urban area, even if it takes more time. I would hope to at least continue to be moving and not sit in the Kennedy parking lot.
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| Chicago Skyline as viewed from Indiana Dunes State Park, in Indiana Southern edge of Lake Michigan Author Photo, July 2018 |
It is not just the traffic it is also the Illinois drivers. When I was in the proper lane to access the Chicago Skyway, I was almost run into a barricade by a person in a large delivery truck who chose not to look at traffic around his vehicle and just move over. The Chicago Skyway seems to well portray Chicago, the city of Big Shoulders, or the Windy City. It runs through the industrial southeast side and goes above buildings. On our journey into Indiana, the Skyway was littered with semi tire treads that one could not simply avoid. Heck, if I am paying a toll to use the road, one would think they would keep the road clear of debris, but not here. Thanks to the transponder, my Chicago niece picked up for our trip, the tolls were not near as bad as they otherwise would have been. As an aside, I have to say the Illinois tolls moved the best of the all the states we were in. At least in Illinois we did not need to stop or nearly stop to get through the toll lane as most all other states required.
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| Green Bay Packer NFL franchise Author photo at Pro Football Hall of Fame, July 2018 |
What drew me to write this post at this time? Well, my wife and I were in the Twin Cities area this past weekend, and Friday night found us in Joe Senser's Bar, a sports bar in Bloomington near Hwy 494. Looking at the bar I could tell I was not in Wisconsin anymore--purple Viking memorabilia. Being used to the green and gold of the Packers this was well, different. Although my young niece made a relevant comment: " A bar in Wisconsin would have a great deal more Packer stuff" than that bar had Viking stuff. This even though I heard that the bar was owned by a former Viking player.
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| Viking Memorabilia at Joe Senser's Bar in Bloomington, MN Author photo, October 2018 |
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