“USA 🇺🇸 ~Road Trip’n Through Illinois, Indiana and Michigan”

• August 31, 2021
• By Pen
• 2 Comments

Directly following the enjoyable countryside’s of Wisconsin, boom, we were in the crazy busy city of Chicago.
We did stop to check out Millenium Park to see the famous “Bean.” It was so hot, we were happy to get back to the A/C of the car and continue driving around, then back out of the city.
Driving around Chicago was good practice for Daryl, for when we get to New York.

From Chicago, we drove into Indiana. Our day got very interesting, after arriving there…..
This day started out like everyday on our cross-country road trip….But, someplace in the middle of Indiana, right after we moved into the east coast time zoned, “Grammy” the Buick got too hot and broke down on us. The good news is, we had gone into Angola for a grocery stop and a coffee, so we were not on the freeway when it happened. Whew!…and breaking down in the drive through at Starbucks was not embarrassing at all! 😁
We rolled over to a gas station and waited for her to cool down. After 40 minutes abs extra antifreeze, were able to baby her 1.5 miles, to Mechanic Street (no joke) for a garage to check her out.  Long story shorter, by the time we could spend $2500, just to see how bad things were with her, and with no assurance the dollars would not increase to get her back on the road; to include a possible new engine 😳, we began calling about rentals. $18,000 would get us a minivan for two months! Really?
We then walked next door to a car dealership and bought a “new to us” car.
We are both sad, and excited, because we are having to scrap “Grammy,” but she wasn’t gonna see us into South America 🇺🇸, because she wasn’t able to see us through all of North America. She did get us to the East Coast, and she did give us her all! We started out with 108,000 miles on her and she gave us 6,000 more!
We will really miss her “Buick Smooth Drive,” very much, but are going to like having more ground clearance and the AWD.
Onward and upward, #teamsaunders, prevails. We will have the same amount of room in the AWD Dodge Journey, because we won’t have to carry the huge (full sized) tire in the back seat 😂 (Daryl doesn’t like temp donut tires).
Tomorrow, before we leave Angola we will go back to the mechanic shop, and hope to agree on at least $500. (We got $600) I’m sure somebody there will make a side job of her in their spare time, and get her running again to sell her.

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Leaving Indiana, in our new set of wheels, we drove into Michigan. Michigan was not on our, more direct route, but since we were so close, and Daryls never been, we said why not? Ha. It’s just how we roll.
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Before I forget, I also need to respond to questions about the lack of Daryl writing and posting in our blog.
Well, to start with, way back in California, we had just arrived back from Hawaii on a night flight. We got off the plane, then Daryl realized he left his iPad on said plane. He turned around to get it, but they would not let him back on the plane. We waited for them to get it, but they said they couldn’t find it. 🙄We were in the first row in economy with a wall in front of us. It was right there. United was not being very helpful. We had to go to them and report the forgotten iPad as list, yet we knew exactly where it’s as. Lame. Daryl locked the iPad, for security reasons, remotely, and for two days he tracked it. It went from San Francisco to Arizona, to Texas, to Cancun, back to Arizona, then back to San Francisco; obviously still on the same plane and not stolen from what we could tell. Daryl kept contacting United, at every new airport that same plane with his “traveling” iPad on board was flying around on. They just didn’t care. It was aggravating. Once the plane/iPad returned to San Francisco, the battery died on the device, so no more tracking. I guess the good news here is, the iPad was old and getting worn out. At least it wasn’t the brand new one.
The reason for this long story,  is because this iPad was Daryls device for processing his photos on. His Lightroom App is on this device. It’s where he does his writing and posting from. He is in a pickle for sure. Without his electronic item, which he has come to depend on during our entire 4.5 years of traveling is gone. As a result, he is barely taking any photos.
So, I’ve got this, and continue to write and post. (I have an actual computer).
When we get to Chelsie’s, in North Carolina, and we get our brand new iPads in hand; which we ordered a few months ago… before we knew we were coming back to the USA, and before D lost his old iPad, I’m sure he will get set up again and be race ready to get back in the photo and blogging game, again.

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ILLINOIS
Illinois is a midwestern state bordering Indiana in the east and the Mississippi River in the west. Nicknamed “the Prairie State,” it’s marked by farmland, forests, rolling hills and wetlands. Chicago, one of the largest cities in the U.S, is in the northeast on the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s famous for its skyscrapers, such as sleek, 1,451-ft. Willis Tower and the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower.

Walking the bridge, on our way to Millennium Park

Under grey skies, with rain, and then barely there blue skies, photography was a little challenging, and fun.

In the heart of downtown Chicago, there are 25 acres of beautiful landscape, architecture and public art,  including the iconic Cloud Gate.
Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. It’s prominent features are the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain, the contemporary Lurie Garden, and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture. Millennium Park is located in the heart of downtown Chicago. 

Cloud Gate “the Bean”
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INDIANA
Indiana is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States.
It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 United States.
Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816.

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MICHIGAN
Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. Its name derives from a gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ, meaning “large water?” or “large lake.”

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STATES VISITED ON OUR USA ROAD TRIP:

CALIFORNIA: ✅

NEVADA: ✅

OREGON: ✅

KONA, HAWAII: ✅

OREGON again: ✅

IDAHO: ✅

UTAH: ✅

WYOMING: ✅

COLORADO: ✅

NEBRASKA: ✅

SOUTH DAKOTA: ✅

NORTH DAKOTA: ✅

MINNESOTA: ✅

WISCONSIN: ✅

ILLINOIS: ✅

INDIANA: ✅

MICHIGAN: ✅

MICHIGAN ⬆️INDIANA ⬆️

ILLINOIS ⬆️