I was a little concerned that I’d get to Chain O’ Lakes State Park “too early”. Sure it was just 140 miles on the map, but without a lot of scenic places along the way for me to stop and gawk at, I might just keep riding and get there early afternoon. Especially since I’m still on Eastern Time and thus got a pretty early start. 

Not to worry. I got to the park at about 6pm Central Time, which makes for nearly 10 hours on the road. Of course that’s because I did stop along the way, and took plenty of time when I did. 

The roads got more to my liking as I got to the north of Chicago proper. Around Lake Zurich were some pretty nice ones … If not for the construction backups. Due to a few outright closures I relented and just took US-12 for the last 20ish miles. I try to avoid those kinds of letter-number roads, and this one was a bit of a racetrack, but not too bad. Ironically, US-12 was also the road that Indiana Dunes is on. But there’s no way I was going to stay on it the whole way. 

I had an annoyance as I was setting up the tent at the campground: only 6 stakes instead of 7. I can’t figure out how I lost one. But apparently I did. It’s more annoying in principle than in practice; the tent is pretty stable without it. (In fact it can get by with just 3 stakes, or just 2 if you don’t need the rain fly.)

On the other hand, I got lucky looking for a place to eat supper. I used an app called AroundMe to show me the nearest restaurants, all of which would require a good 6+ miles of backtracking from my camp site. Except that when I asked the app to tell me the actual distance to one of them, it said just 3 miles. It turns out there’s a back entrance to the park… sort of. I checked it out, and it’s blocked by a chained gate. But with a pedestrian opening, just big enough to push a scooter through. 🙂

So I’m at the Route 12  Bar & Grill, which is exactly what it sounds like. But in addition to an assortment of burgers and other sandwiches, they have a nice array of draft beers, from Bud Light to Guiness to several craft brews. I’m having Misfit IPA, which … I am too thirsty to judge objectively. 🙂 and a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich with tater tots on the side.  

I haven’t encountered any rain yet, but it’s raining north of me, so I’m pausing for a bit before continuing, giving it a chance to blow over. 

I’m at a park in Barrington (just a short distance from the old Vaas homestead in Lake Zurich). Barrington is posh. A development on the south side of town advertises homesites “starting in the upper $700s” (presumably thousands). Through the trees I could see mansions with 4-stall garages, landscaped fountains, etc. The park here even has an air-conditioned “tea pavilion”. 

I’ve stopped for lunch in Lemont IL, a smallish town southwest of Chicago. The restaurant is the Lemon Tree a former Burger King (from the looks of it) that’s been converted into more of a standard diner. The circle turns. 

  
I’m probably a little short of halfway to the state park I’m staying at tonight. The rain’s still several hours out (assuming it doesn’t fizzle out before it gets this far to the east), so I’m not worrying about it. When/if it comes, I can deal with it. 

  I’ve stopped at a park in Orland Park to stretch my legs and sit on a bench instead of a scooter for a bit. The morning’s ride has been uneventful. I turned left just before entering Gary, and crossed I-80 to get to my main road for the journey west. It goes by various names, but mostly Ridge Road. It was a bit like riding 28th Street… If 28th was 20 miles long. Lots of suburban retail, mostly. From time to time it passed through a blighted area, or a smalltowny Main Street zone. I’m sure there would’ve been more pleasant streets to ride on, but it had the advantage of being easy to follow. 

I’ve been on the road for about three hours now. I have a little farther west to go before I turn northward, trying for a similar route through the suburbs to the west of Chicago. 

I had a reasonably restful night’s sleep. It’s impossible to find a position that’s comfortable for the full night, so I had to adjust from time to time. I finally woke up for good about 5:30 local time. 

I’ve been going over the map, trying to get a handle on the route I’ll be taking today. Unlike traveling by interstate, where you can memorize a few roads and exits, taking regular roads will involve dozens, for anywhere from 300 feet to 15 miles each. This is where a big paper map would be handy, because zooming in and out on even a 5″ screen doesn’t let you keep your sense of place. I can tell that I’m going to have to stop and reorient myself a lot today. 

At least the weather’s been good. It was cool but not cold last night; 67F and sunny now. Looks like a little rain coming through later today though. 

Another flashback to 2009. One of the cool lucky photos I took at Warren Dunes was of Chicago. Just after sunset, I noticed something off on the horizon. Zooming in with my camera I realized that it was the tops of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers, poking above the curve of the earth. (That page still gets hits from a forum where idiots debate whether the earth is flat.)

I happened to be in the right place at about the right time again. This time I’m closer to Chicago, so I could see the whole skyline above the horizon. The sun had just set (which was not great timing, but good enough) directly behind downtown. I got some pretty good high-zoom shots of it with the good camera; for now this one with the iPhone will have to do.   

I also took a walk on the beach. Which is nice enough, I suppose, but being bracketed by industrial Gary and Michigan City takes away some of the charm.   

I chatted for a little while with an older guy at the campground who was curuous about my scooter. He’s familiar with Genuine Scooter; he owns a Kymco (which are similar in quality). I explained about my travels and my experience with the Buddy. He was impressed with the 25K I’d put on my 50cc, and he was jealous of the 12V phone-charging socket. 🙂