Summer 2010
Pacific Northwest

This should have a been an uneventful day and it was, for the most part.

We got up early, having forgotten that we are going into the Central time zone and would lose an hour. We stalled a bit and left around 7:30 and our GPS told us that we would arrive in the Chicago Northwest KOA, in Union, IL by 12:30 local time. The route the GPS plotted for us would take us on I-80/I-90 until they split at Gary, IN, where we would take I-90 through Chicago. We've been through the Chicago area twice on our way to Alaska and always took the I-80 at the split and then took I-294 and I-290 until we got back on I-90 west of O'Hare Airport. I figured that we shouldn't hit too much traffic at the time we were going through, so we took I-90. It turned out to be a very poor choice, between construction, heavy traffic and left exits, we wound up taking a lot more time than had we gone around Chicago. To make matters worse, I misread a traffic sign and wound up pulling a 37 foot trailer on the congested streets of downtown Chicago. I tried to make light of it by telling Susie we were getting a sightseeing tour of a lifetime... she didn't buy it. Eventually we got back on I-90 and its heavy traffic. The traffic cleared up once we got past O'Hare and we were in the campground a half an hour later.

The lesson from today's trip was stick to your instincts and prior experience. The GPS does not always yield the best route. Interestingly, this route was also plotted by two other navigation programs I had. Most of the time, the GPS programs the route around rather than through a major city. Why these programs all routed us through Chicago is beyond me. Believe me, If we go through this area again, I'm going around and not through.