Day 8 and 9 (Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11)
Both of these days were spent on the road for the most part. On Saturday, we drove from Minnesota to Chicago Illinois. I am so glad for the GPS we brought with us. Yet even with that, I still needed to be the navigator, as "Madge" doesn't always speak clearly. And she may say "right" when she shows and means "left".
Along the way, we found a "Cracker Barrel" restaurant. My brother-in-law's family love this restaurant and have been known to drive 3+ hours just to go to one. We're not as crazy about it, but do enjoy it. (think Carrows, Denny's with a country/home cooking feel to it). When we found our first one around dinner time, we decided to go, and enjoy a meal. When we got to our hotel, Russ had told us of the McDonald's that was the first Drive-in for them and that it was located right there in the town of Mt. Prospect, IL. So we went to it to get a snack size McFlurry. The original drive in is now a museum, and it was closed, but they turned on the lights, just as we drove up, so I could get some good pictures. Right across the street, was a modern day McDonalds, which also had museum items inside - pictures and items from that first fast food restaurant. I'm having trouble loading up pictures to this blog, so I'm not sure if I can show you all those fun items....
We stayed overnight, just outside of Chicago, and went to a DDD restaurant called "Smoque". It too was a BBQ place. It reminded me of the style of "Main Street Grill" in Cambria. The menu was on a large blackboard and you order what you want, THEN the helpers found a place for you to sit. We timed it again very well, as after we got there (around 11:30) the line to order food went to the door. The reviews say that they often go out the door and up the block. The reviews also say that parking is a problem, as it's on the edge of a residential area and advise us to take the "Blue line" light rail. We went to the O'hare airport by shuttle from our hotel, and made it to the stop we needed with relatively no problems. When we got off on the platform, we were a bit shocked to find ourselves on a narrow walkway and not sure how to get off! We walked in one direction, and eventually found a staircase to go down. All the while, the traffic on the expressway (?) was zooming by on both sides of the elevated track. It was a bit unnerving to say the least. So on the ground, one wrong direction was quickly corrected as we found the numbers n houses and businesses going in the opposite direction than what we wanted. So confident that we were now heading in the right direction, we walked the "9 minutes" that one review said. We got to the number we needed, and although we smelled some good BBQ food, we couldn't find it! That's one of the things that DDD is known for, plucking out an establishment out of obscurity that only the locals know about. Finally, we found it, and gave it 2 thumbs up! The boys even put it at the top of our DDD favorites.
We did our trip back to the hotel in reverse order and left with our rented car toward Michigan. One thing we didn't count on was all the road construction going on. Russ figured with the winter months and so much snow, construction is probably limited to the warm months and we were there at the height of this time. So this trip, which should have taken about 5 hours took about 7 hours. I took many pictures out the window of the car - the landscape was similar yet a bit different as we drove through Indiana and into Michigan. Each time we go into a different state, and think there's not much to see here, we find out we err. A stop in Michigan's welcome center near the border made me wish we had more time to spend here. There's a Bavarian village 2-3 hours north of where we're staying that has the sights, sounds, and food of Germany. My grandmother lived in Bavaria and it would have been a bit nostalgic to walk around there. So our list of traveling destinations only grow, not shrink when we travel! At the end of this long day, we were so grateful to finally come to our hotel to rest for the night! I am so appreciative to Russ, as he is an excellent driver through all the long stretches and the hectic traffic!
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