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. 🙂

On my first overnight scooter ride in 2009, I rode down to Warren Dunes State Park, stopping in all the harbor towns along the way, kind of like today’s ride but a bit more leisurely. But St. Joseph surprised me. 

In 2008, the downtown/harbor/beach area was pretty desolate. I could see some publi works projects underway, showing that the city (with some combo of private investment and government grants) was trying to revitalize it. There was a funky pizza place sharing the old train station with the token Amtrak kiosk, which is where I had dinner before continuing to the state park. But not many people. 

Today it was different. The downtown retail blocks were full of people: young couple with children, small packs of teenagers, older couples. It looked almost like Saugatuck or South Haven. The beach area (which you can see from a neat overlook at the edge of the shopping district) was busy too. 

Now some of the difference may be the time/day I was there, but I don’t think that accounts for all of it. And I was in adjacent Benton Harbor a few nights ago and it still looked like a city in decline. So I’m not proclaiming an economic miracle. But still: downtown Saint Joe is looking better. 

  
New Buffalo (which I hadn’t been to before) was my next stop. It… hasn’t quite hit the tourist vibe that Saint Joe has, but it’s working on it. 

Next was Michigan City. I didn’t stop. The huge power plant cooling tower looming over it kinda kills the atmosphere. 

I got to Indiana Dunes State Park around 7pm … make that 6pm local time. Nice enough campground, but all I’ve done so far is pitch the tent and head off to get dinner at Leroy’s, a bar and grill on the highway a few miles away.