DETOUR

Before we pulled out of the Wal Mart parking lot, I entered the Elkhart, IN address into the GPS (aka Matilda), and it showed 173 miles. Since most of that would be on I80, it seemed like another short driving day. Wrong! The Chicago area is notorious for heavy traffic, so a mid day,
Saturday drive through the area, seemed like it might not be too bad. Wrong again! Shortly after paying the $1.65 toll in South Chicago, E/B traffic comes to a complete stop. We crept along for a couple of miles, then read on a programable freeway sign, that there was an accident about 3 miles ahead. At the speed we were traveling, that was about an hour before we got past the accident scene. After looking at the map, and checking the GPS, I exited the freeway, along with hundreds of other vehicles, and shortly, found ourselves in another traffic jam, caused by everyone getting off the freeway. To make things worse, I unknowingly put us right back in the Chicago Heights area, that I talked about in yesterday's blog. With the door locked, and all available means of self defense at my disposal, we crept along, narrowly avoiding telephone poles and other obstacles present, on the too narrow for a big motor home streets. As we crept toward one intersection, I saw several people soliciting the cars stopped ahead. Fortunately, we caught the light, so that we didn't come to a stop where they were located. Driving through this area was like De Ja Vu all over again. I commented to Patty, "we have no idea what this world is like". I snapped a picture of the sign, during this escapade through the inner city. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against blind people. In fact, I have the greatest empathy for any person with a disability. It's just that you don't see a sign like this very often. We finally made it into the Duncan RV Repair facility in Elkhart, and parked in the space they had reserved for us. To recover from yesterday, today is probably a NASCAR & NHRA day.