Day 11: June 16, 2021 Illinois in a Day Comment via blog

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I spent the night in Merrillville, IN, and was rather surprised to drive through this quiet scene on the way to, and within thirty miles of, downtown Chicago.

Online searching had turned up a very promising breakfast spot in Gary, IN, which I knew I'd be going through, and I anticipated making my first stop in the city. Alas, when I got there, it had changed hands, changed names, and the new place was already out of business. I was disappointed but quickly found another reason to spend a little time in Gary. Putting the exact address on the sign certainly helped but a random cruise of the area would probably have settled in on the Jackson 5 house as the only one in the neighborhood enclosed by a fence with fan fed note boards attached.

The Jackson 5 diversion was unexpected, but things encountered were soon back to the normal ones like being detoured by construction and stopped by trains at crossings.

I guess I was really counting on that breakfast place in Gary and continued looking until I found a substitute in Whiting. After eating all of my bacon and mozzarella omelet at the Sunrise Restaurant, I questioned whether I'd still fit under the town's arch, but I made it.

The road became a triplex before reaching the state line, and just beyond the line passed a slightly misplaced diner. In a few more miles, I was catching glimpses of the Chicago skyline.

Here are just a few of the things people have built to decorate the Yellowstone Trail through Chicago. Just kidding. The Art Museum lions (1894) and the Water Tower (1869) were already there when the road was laid out so only the Bowman (1928), Cloud Gate (2004), Wrigley Building (1924), and Hancock Building (1968) were actually put there for the benefit of the Trail.

North of Chicago, I got to cruise the shores of Lake Michigan and make right hand turns on Sheridan Road. The little lady inside my Garmin told me to "turn right on Sheridan Road" so many times I'm surprised I'm not still driving in circles there. It even happened once after I was in Wisconsin.

During the 2019 Society for Commercial Archeology conference, the tour bus stopped at Leon's Frozen Custard where I got some pictures but was unable to sample the product. I fully intended to rectify that on this trip. In hindsight, I didn't pick the most efficient departure point from the Yellowstone Trail but it worked. Pandemic related procedures call for customers to approach the window on at a time then wait by a numbered post to receive their order. Leon's offers several flavors which I wasn't interested in. Most people seemed to be getting cones which I thought a little risky. I stepped to the window and asked for vanilla in a cup, and was asked "What toppings?" Instead of returning a sensible answer, like "None", to the unexpected question, I panicked and pointed to the nearby Tin Roof sign. The custard, nuts, and cherry were delicious; the chocolate was kind of overwhelming. But that's just me, and I certainly enjoyed my stop.

I had barely returned to my plotted route when I saw a reassuring yellow sign and several others followed. I made my way through Milwaukee then went to roost for the night a little north of the city in Germantown.

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