Heading West

Today we returned from camping with friends and headed west.  Kind of like a trip reboot, we packed up after having breakfast with the group, drove home, loaded up on fresh water, loaded the fridge and freezer with all the stuff that was stored at home, and took off again.

We have approximately three weeks to make it to Marsing, Idaho, where we will be volunteering, so we will be doing some “slow travel”, taking time to explore areas between here and there.  However, today was not a slow travel day.  Our geography dictates that anyone heading west from here has to go around the south side of Lake Michigan.  And that means Interstate 80 and Chicago.  Two words that strike fear into nearly every driver out there.  So today we planned to put as many miles between us and the west side of Chicago as possible, and eventually to leave I-80 altogether.

We figured we were good for about 300 miles, or somewhere around the Iowa border.  Leaving home at 1:30, we could still get there before dark.

Interstate 80 lived up to its reputation.  Slowdowns, construction, terrible road surfaces, the works.  I was a little surprised how heavy the traffic was on a Sunday afternoon.  It’s always heavy, but it just seemed heavier.

We breathed a sigh of relief  when we finally passed Joliet and the traffic thinned considerably.  Even the truck traffic seemed somewhat less.  We made dinner in the Three Rivers rest area and then continued for another hour, stopping several miles off the interstate at the Hennepin Canal Lock 26 Campground.

“Campground” is used with a lot of license here as this is a small parking lot beside a bicycle trail.  It doesn’t resemble a campground at all, however, it does have a picnic table, a fire pit, and a rather ripe-smelling vault toilet.  You’ll just have to park your camper in the parking lot along with the bikers and dog-walkers.  The price was right, though.

The Hennepin Canal is a waterway cut between the Illinois River and the Mississippi River to allow barge traffic to save about 400 miles of travel.  A tow path along either side allowed the barges to be pulled by mules.  This tow path is now a bike path.  A series of locks are spaced along this route, and we are parked at Lock 26.  We will be lulled to sleep tonight by the roar of water falling about six feet over one of the lock gates.

For the last hour of driving, we were driving into the sunset, however, the high clouds and the haze cut down the brilliance of the sun dramatically, to the point where, just before setting, it could barely be seen.  Not sure what caused the haze but it made for a rather unspectacular sunset.  I got a picture of the sun setting behind Lock 26 and I had to enhance the photo to see it at all.

Miles Covered: 312
(From home)