Part I - The Road to Chicago

Big A and I set out on Friday at about 9 a.m., missing the local morning rush on I-94. After getting gas, checking the air in the tires and hitting the ATM, we were finally on our way. I've discovered that there isn't anyone more irritating than Big A when he is at the helm of a car on the expressway (and he agrees with that assessment of himself), so as this trip neared, we agreed that I would drive the expressway portion and he would do the city driving once we reached our destination.

It was pretty uneventful drive through Michigan. Towards the SW corner, we ran into quite a few ramp roosters (a.k.a Michigan State Police) but since I am pretty much a speed limit kind of girl, I didn't have any fear.

Prior to this trip, we decided to go as cheap as possible and bypass the toll roads. I'm still not sure if this was wise. Right after the I-94 exit to the toll road that leads to Chicago (right around Gary, Indiana), I encountered a sight that amazed me and could by why Indiana's slogan is 'The Crossroads of America'. Ahead of me, the expressway becomes 5 lanes in each direction and I see more semis than I ever have. Naturally they weren't sticking to the 'Trucks use right 2 lanes' rule so in amongst all of these behemoths are the smaller passenger vehicles. In my rearview mirror, I see three more bearing down on me - one in my lane and one on either side of me. Shipping goods via expressway is still alive and well despite gas prices. Shortly after, I-94 veered north and became a more manageable 2-3 lanes and we seemed to have left behind quite a few of these semis.

At this point, we are going at the speed limit (55). I see the signs saying that there is construction on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Even with the expressways around my neck of the woods, I don't associate it with their names so I keep driving along, hoping we weren't on it....but we where. Just south of Chicago we came to a grinding not-quite-a-halt. It was a bit of stop-and-go but for the most part, we were moving even if it was at 5 mph. I'm happy with that. I get antsy when we come to a complete stop.

The only positive that came out of this was some nice skyline shots of Chicago from a bridge that we were on:



Right around this time, we had the option of going to the express or local lanes. I had missed the sign so I stayed on what became the express. If you aren't familiar with this option, it's when the expressway divides into two. You choose the express to go right through or the local if you need one of the exits. I guess supposedly this is to keep traffic moving. Here's a shot of the express and local lanes on I-94 in Chicago at 12:30 on a Friday afternoon:
To help you identify which was which, the orange and blue trucks on the right are in the local lanes.


Just for my own sordid sense of humor, here's another shot of just the "express" lanes:
As you can see from the pictures, we are only at exits 51 and 52. The exit that we needed was 35. With patience and a lot of wear and tear on the brake pads, we eventually made it through and it opened up a bit the further we got from downtown. Needless to say, I've never been so happy to see a TGIFridays restaurant before.