{"id":1799,"date":"2012-06-01T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2012-06-01T01:28:40","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T06:28:40","slug":"illinois-trip-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2012\/06\/illinois-trip-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois trip Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the first post about my vacation at the end of May. More will come starting Monday.<\/em><\/p>\n

Champaign, Illinois, May 22 \u2014<\/strong> I had the flexibility to put off this trip for a few days, and was glad I did. There were nothing but clear skies ahead, and I had my first 450-mile day in a long time.<\/p>\n

Route:\u00a0I-235, I-80, Business 61, I-280, I-80, I-74, US 6, IL 89, I-80, IL 178, US 6, IL 71, I-80 to exit 105, US 6, I-55, I-80, I-57<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe style matches and it’s not Butt-Ugly Kansas-Style letters! This replacement is pretty seamless. Compare to previously existing setup.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

“Business” tabs have replaced directional markers all along the old route of US 61 through Davenport except for the interchange with IA 22. There, they are still “north” and “south.” I don’t know why they took down the directional markers, since the business route would still be thought to run north and south. The I-280\/US 6 interchange, however, did not have US 61 signs on 6. Business 61 was my only route clinch of the day. I technically have not clinched US 61 in Iowa since the Fort Madison bypass opened, but my travel on I-80 and I-280 closed this reroute gap.<\/p>\n

I hopped on and off US 6 in Illinois, skipping some urban areas so I didn’t spend as much time. I got stuck behind a cement mixer between the QC and Geneseo and had to clean the windshield a third time in Atkinson. One of my switches back to I-80 was unintentional; IL 71 is the main road while 6 splits off.<\/p>\n

Approaching IL 26 from US 6\/34, guess what you see? Yup. “Jct 6\/34\/26.” This issue of having a “junction” with the road you are already on<\/em> is a chronic one in Illinois.<\/p>\n

The westward creep of Chicago sprawl continues. I was on US 6 “west of” Channahon according to DeLorme, but it was an intersection with a stoplight, opposing Osco Drug and Walgreens, and one bank-owned empty lot. I think it’s a law in Illinois that every corner with a Walgreens must also have a CVS or Jewel\/Osco.<\/p>\n

I-80’s control cities as seen on I-55 are Iowa and Indiana.\u00a0Traffic was somewhat heavy on I-80 between I-55 and I-57.\u00a0Practically all the BGSs on that part of I-80 (with the notable exception of I-57, see below) are Clearview now. All the pull-throughs are “Indiana” instead of “Toledo.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nYou can’t really see it here, but these signs are button copy, and some of the last remaining non-Clearview BGSs on I-80 in the Chicago area.<\/em><\/p>\n

I-57 traffic declined markedly after US 30. Unlike Iowa, there are not mileage signs after every exit. Those that exist have Memphis as the control city.<\/p>\n

Illinois’ corn crop is coming in pretty nicely despite some standing water (!) in some fields on I-57. One thing I noticed after hearing it on WMT-AM earlier in the day is that while the talk used to be about planting “fence row to fence row”, farmers are now\u00a0taking out the fences<\/em>. End rows wrap around utility poles.<\/p>\n

Nothing else to report about I-57, other than it seemed less busy than I-35 in southern Iowa. The setting sun wasn’t bad at all. It was a perfect day of driving and I ended up in Champaign shortly after 7 with 475 miles done. This also finished off I-57 in northern Illinois, plus every county north of (but not on) I-70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the first post about my vacation at the end of May. More will come starting Monday. Champaign, Illinois, May 22 \u2014 I had the flexibility to put off this trip for a few days, and was glad I did. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1802,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}