Driving West Part 1 – DC to Chicago

Leg one of my journey westward is complete. It took 10.5 hrs to get from DC to Chicago, leaving DC before 6am to avoid the great parking lot known as Washington Rush Hour Traffic. I made great time with no traffic hang-ups until I got to Chicago itself. It then took me 2.5 hrs to get from the Skyway toll plaza across the city to the northern suburb of Gurnee – a trip which can be completed in just under an hour with no traffic. Still, thirteen hours on the road really wasn’t all that bad. Yesterday was a nice day for driving, with enough cloud cover for most of the trip to keep the sun from glaring. That is, until I got to Indiana, where it started drizzling… then raining… then pouring. Oh my poor bikes getting wet up on the roof! They’ve all dried out now, though, and seem to be no worse for the wear. The mountain bike needed a bath anyway.

Welcome to Pennsylvania

Hooray Ohio – another toll! Seriously, the tolls were a little bit ridiculous, as I think I spent more money on tolls than on food this trip.

Shots of the Ohio countryside:

My traveling companion behaved herself quite nicely!

Finally starting to see signs for Chicago.

Made it to Indiana… then the rain started.

I believe this is referred to as the “Are we there yet?!” look.

This caused a little bit of a traffic jam for a while. It was forty feet off the highway, across a ditch, upside-down. No idea how it got that way, but it must have been a spectacular flip. No other cars were around, so either the driver ran him(her?)self off the road or else the police/fire people had the other car towed before I got there.

Made it to Chicago! Only two and a half hours to go…

Sitting in traffic, moving at half-a-mile-an-hour. Might as well take a photo of Comiskey Park… er, I mean, U.S. Cellular Field.