Chi-town and beyond

2023-07-01
PA, OH, IN, IL, WI

Today we are heading west, covering a lot of country. Early in the day we stopped at Cuyahoga National Park and hiked the Ledges Trail. I do this a lot on the way past; it's close to the interstate, the perfect length for a leg stretch at 2.5 miles, and the cliffs never disappoint. This time was unusual because I was there in the morning, so the sun was on the other side of the hill. Even lighting makes for easier pictures.

The trail seemed relatively crowded for 9:00 AM, with a couple dozen cars in the lot, including a group of volunteers cleaning the trail. It turned out that the early birds got the cliffs as the rain rolled in later. In fact it rained off and on all day. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because it will tend to wash out the smoke from the Canadian wild fires. At the time we left, Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis were in the top ten most polluted cities in the world due the the Canada Day present from our northern neighbors. We would see later that Chicago was still quite hazy as we went through.

Ohio was replete with plenty of orange construction barrels; they should adopt that as their state flower. Near the Ohio-Indiana state line it was one lane for at least 5 miles. Google helpfully routed us around much of it so we only were in the last mile or so. It was a slow slog through that constriction, but it had an unexpected benefit once we got through: With only half the cars getting through, there was only half the traffic for most of the state of Indiana. Bonus!

I felt like I was making good time until once again Google conspired with Chicago to make the trip past the city as challenging as possible. Google took me straight through the middle of the city on I-90. It was a good chance to see the city from the viewpoint of stop-and-go traffic. I wonder how much Chicago pays to make sure that I spend the maximum amount of time in the city? Nevertheless, we eventually got through, and an hour or so later stopped for the night in Beloit Wisconsin.