Road Trip Day 1: Pennsylvania - Illinois

Our first day was our longest day of driving, with only a few stops.  First was the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA, the crash landing site of the one of the 9/11 planes.  It was really cool and moving to see. Pictured is the field where the plane crashed, right next to the boulder.  I was probably most excited to see that the toilet facilities at the Memorial were Ventilated Pit Latrines, a design similar to that I worked on planning in South Africa.  Small world.

   

Flight 93 Memorial Map 

Flight 93 Crash Site

Next it was on through Ohio and to Indiana.  The turnpike came so close to the Michigan border that we stopped in Sturgis, Michigan to get gas and check another state off our list. Then it was back on the road through Indiana.   We saw signs that the turnpike went through South Bend, so we stopped to drive through the University of Notre Dame to see the home of the fighting Irish. It’s a beautiful campus that the few pictures we got don’t really capture. 

    

We were to spend this night with one of Jeff’s close friends from school, who lives about an hour outside of Chicago.  We drove around the city to get there, and got some pretty good pictures of the Chicago skyline (though sadly, we couldn’t find an Illinois sign). 

Notre Dame and Chicago photo credits to Chris Gregan,
 after many, many tries

We got to Jeff’s friend’s house, and had dinner at a Steak N Shake, apparently a Midwest diner chain, with delicious burgers and milkshakes.

We planned to get up early the next day to head into Chicago before rush hour, so we could see the sights and get back on the road.  We were hanging out after dinner, talking to Jeff’s friend and her family when it came up that we were actually very close to the Wisconsin border.  Wanting to cross another state off the list, we made a late night excursion across the state border to get a picture of the Wisconsin sign, (and one of Illinois).  We thanked our hosts profusely for their hospitality, and went to bed.