Road Trip 25 – Final Day 6&7 – Stand Still, Sand Hill, Sheer Will

16 hours (by map) more like 22 by reality.

STAND STILL

I reached Chicago on Saturday. What Google Maps said should’ve taken 16 hours, took 22. I never saw downtown. To be fair – been there, done that, I am okay with the drive around. I used the Illinois Tollway to get through the urbanized area. And it was anything but speedy. I was hoping being a Saturday, traffic would be light. However, the construction and a light accident in front of me made all lanes but one closed. Therefor, this leg of my journey was more of a stand still. 

Now, taking the tollway kept having signs to pay online (Pay by Plate) … and I tried and tried. After 2 weeks – it seems they billed me $4.50, which seems way to small of an amount. If they charged by speed I reached, then I was overcharged.

SAND HILL

Finally, I reached the area of the Indiana Dunes National Park. This is a small NP – Under 16,000 acres spread along about 20 miles of the coast of Lake Michigan. They have 12 major dunes, but the biggest oil Mount Baldy. 

Off to Mount Baldy. Interestingly, the dune is now restricted. I must have been one of the last allowed on the dune.

Here are some interesting facts from the NP website.

• Mount Baldy is 126 above the water level of Lake Michigan.
• Mount Baldy is moving 5-10 feet a year. Beach sand moves when the prevailing northwest wind exceeds 7 mph.
• Mount Baldy is ‘starving’. Beach erosion is taking away more sand than the waves are bringing in due to the breakwall that was built for the Michigan City Harbor. To try and correct the effect of the breakwall the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began feeding the beach in 1974. Thus far they have given it four meals:
  • 1974 fine sand trucked in … 1983 coarse sand trucked in … 1996 early summer 35,000 cubic yards slurried in by pipe from the harbor … 1996 late summer 50,000 cubic yards trucked in.
  • WOW – a hungry dune. 
  • Also, just down the coast is a power plant – one of two that are on both ends of the NP. 

SHEER WILL

I left the dunes (after brushing all the sand off I could) and headed south. Online said 12 hours, but figure more like 16. And near the end, it was sheer will that kept me going. The early morning hours in West Virginia were dark and long and foggy. I stopped just inside the Virginia state line and ate Waffle House and downed lots (and lots of coffee!) 

Finally home – and it was Sunday morning, The end of the Road Trip was tiring and now – I showered and laid down.  Wishing I would never have to get up … but by Monday – a new adventure – one of the grandkids comes here. More driving but lots of fun!

This part – STAND STILL … SAND HILL … SHEER WILL

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But Bubbish … she got the better end of this last part. She spent the day with the apples of her eyes – the grand kids.