Moving on from Illinois

On Sunday, we left Illinois to continue our journey eastward.

The Garmin (which knows how big Gracie is) and Waze (which knows the current traffic situation) both recommended taking I-90 through downtown Chicago. We would normally take non toll roads and skirt the far western suburbs, but we determined that would add time and mileage to our trip, and though the shorter route had tolls, the cost in fuel would probably make up the cost of tolls. So, we decided to brave it...

We were traveling on Sunday morning, so traffic wasn't too awful, though there were definitely some very rough parts to the road.

The route took us over Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge south of downtown Chicago...

... from which we had a view of Lake Michigan...

... I guess if we'd been going in the opposite direction we would have had a good view of the Chicago skyline.

Not far past the bridge,

We crossed into Indiana!

We stopped at a rest area to take a walk around. Carl did all the driving because I'm still feeling rather "fuzzy headed" - some may ask how that differs from normal!

The fall colors were so pretty with the bright sunshine on them!

Gracie in the rest area.

It has been so nice to see family and friends in the Chicagoland area, but, as the temperatures are starting to get down toward freezing each night, and predictions of falling weather are coming, we figured it was time to make our way onwards east and south.