Chicago and Zion Illinois

We traveled to the Chicago area May 28th to visit our son Ward. We selected a new campground this trip, Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois. It is way north of Chicago, almost to the Wisconsin border. However one of the METRA commuter train lines passes only a short drive from the campground. One of the stops on this line is in Ward’s neighborhood. So we could ride the train and either stop to go to Ward’s apartment, or he could hop on the train to join us to go downtown to one of the museums. The train rides were long, about 1½ hours each way, but it sure beat driving.

Unfortunately Illinois Beach SP campground leaves a lot to be desired. We had a relatively narrow spot on an asphalt parking lot with only electric hook ups. So we had to operate on our fresh water tanks and storage tanks. This necessitated close water conservation to reduce the number of times we had to bring in the slides, store things away, raise the levelers, and unhook the power in order to drive around to the dump station to empty our tanks and refill with fresh water.

The beach on Lake Michigan is much different than South Carolina’s. It is more “rocky” than sandy. Still it can be quite beautiful on a sunny day,. We enjoyed walking on the paved bike trails just behind the beach.

We made four trips into the city. We toured the Chicago Institute of Art, Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry. All are outstanding. The Art Institute has many well know paintings. They have an especially good collection of Impressionist paintings, especially by Claude Monet. Ward explained that the Institute started collecting these while the artists were still alive and actively painting. I can’t imagine how many millions all of these are worth.

You could spend days at all the museums we visited. The Field has a wide variety of exhibits. One of my favorites is the skeleton of a large Tyrannosaurus Rex, “Sue”. It is the most complete ever found. My only problem is that I kept remembering the comedy movie “Night at the Museum”, In this movie all the exhibits come alive after dark. There is a dinosaur like Sue that starts out looking very fierce, but ends up being more like a pet dog chasing a toy around the museum. I kept seeing Sue in this light instead of the awesome “meat eater” she was in real life.

We also enjoyed a special exhibit on George Washington Carver. He was a pioneer in crop rotation and other steps to restore the soil and improve agriculture, especially in the deep south. He was known as “father of the peanut“. Monique said he was her hero since our son probably would not be alive without his work. Ward seemed to live on peanut butter sandwiches growing up - and still does.

On one of our trips to town, we had the opportunity to meet Gerald Bloodsaw for lunch. Gerald handled the negotiations when we purchased the Dutch Star from his Dad. We had enjoyed dealing with both Gerald and his Dad, Herman. It was a treat to meet Gerald. We went to a Caribbean Restaurant near his office. I tried "Jerk" chicken for the first time. It was great. Gerald is a financial planner and we enjoyed learning more about him and his family.

Our last Saturday in Zion, we rode the train into town to tour the Museum of Science and Industry. I assumed we would practically have the train to ourselves - wrong! It was packed. Lots of families got on board. Plus one of our stops was at the Navy’s Great Lakes training Center. We thought half the US Navy got on board. There is just so much to do in Chicago with the museums, baseball games, festivals in the parks and just general sight seeing. Plus you can ride the train all weekend for just $5.00.

The Science and Industry Museum was awesome. We primarily toured two exhibits. One was a permanent exhibit of a German U-Boat captured in 1944. The capture was kept secret during the war since the capture included German codes and a copy of the German Enigma coding machine. The allies were already reading the German codes and did not want them to change anything which they would have done had they known about the sub’s capture.

The other main exhibit we toured was a temporary one on glass. There were many beautiful works of glass art and the highlight was a glass blowing demonstration. The primary glass blowers are from the Corning Glass Museum out of Corning, New York. We got a special treat to see the work of a famous Chicago glass artist working with the Corning team. It was fascinating to watch the process and made us really appreciate the art and understand why hand blown glass art can be expensive.

We definitely want to go back. We did not even reach the top floor and only walked through a portion of the other exhibits.

Heading back home we again ran into very crowded trains. We were amazed at the huge crowd waiting at the station near Ward’s apartment. Everyone had coolers, blankets, folding chairs, etc. We finally discovered these people were waiting on special express trains going to an outdoor concert by James Taylor. Two express trains stopped before our regular train arrived (30 minutes late). It is pretty neat that Chicago has these outdoor concerts throughout the summer with these special trains carrying the patrons there and back. That would be a nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

Another activity in Zion was the purchase of new bikes for the two of us. I have always enjoyed biking and had a touring bike that Ward took over in college. I have wanted to replace it with a more comfortable bike for some time. One of our favorite RV writers, Nick Russell, wrote about he and his wife’s search for bikes and reported the type they selected - Trek Navigators. So Monique and I went to a local bike shop in Zion to try them out.

We really liked them. You sit straight up rather than bent over on the touring bike. Plus the front wheel and the seat post have shock absorbers. We also added soft “gel” padded seats. So hopefully we can ride in comfort. We look forward to riding them when we leave Chicago and have more time. Many of the campgrounds where we have stayed would have been great spots for riding. We hope others we visit will be the same. I for one could certainly use the exercise.

On Wednesday June 11th, we left Zion heading towards Southern Illinois to attend a Newmar Rally. We are looking forward to meeting there with our friends John and Dede Fisher from Chapin, SC who also just purchased a Newmar motorhome.