...and I never want to drive again. Kidding.


I drove from St. Paul, MN down MN-52 to I-90 and picked up some friends at UW-La Crosse and then headed out to Winfield, IL to see a good friend of mine graduate from Naval Training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago. What can I say, I love the fact that my Accord got 500 miles to the tank averaging 80-90 MPH on the highway, with a few sprints up to 115.

Was my first time driving in Illinois and wow, that place has so much construction and no ones seems to care what the speed limit is, including the posted 45 MPH construction zones that traffic was going 80 MPH through. Traffic on 90, 294, 94, 88, etc. was rediculous and I'm so glad that MNs freeway system is much more organized and toll-free.

All in all I put 1,000 miles on in 3 days and went through 2.25 tanks of gas.

 

Welcome back and were glad that you made it back...

WheelBrokerAng

 

Try driving in NJ some time

 

Illinois ALWAYS has construction. For me it is somewhat odd to go to a different state and not see any orange cones or anything like that. However our roads get really bad b/c the hot summer and freezing temps destroy the road....and for some reason we cant spend enough money on construction! And yeah, the construction on I-90 is terrible. I have driven on that stupid road about 6 times in the past couple months. Semis in the left lane only! Did you see how short of room you have to get on I-90? they cut the merge lanes by like 2 1/2 times!

 

Don't forget we have the same climate here in MN with the hot/cold mix, yet we don't seem to have nearly the same amount of extensive construction and our roads are in better shape. IL doesn't have road tax does it? That's what the tolls are there for, right?

Semis in the left lane was actually nice since they weren't in the way for people to get on and off the freeway, but there were a few that seems to like the right lane better and didn't allow any cars to pass.

I didn't have any issues merging onto the freeways; I tend to have a heavy foot on the on-ramps The on-ramps seemed to be the same size that we have in MN... it was slowing down and speeding up for tolls that was pissing me off. I was following a buddy around in his Mercedes so I had to keep up with that thing and he liked to brake hard and accelerate fast.

 

Yeah, IL has a road tax included in the price of gasoline. The tollways you had to go through are specific to construction around Chicago. Farther south there arent any tollways at all. I don't know, our roads always are getting torn up. They fix it, its fine for about 4 years, then one day its like driving over a constant strip of mini speed bumps.

The ramp that I get on I-90 to (from I-55) is basically a u-turn. The actual merging lane could literally hold about 5 cars if that, so you either WOT it or break your neck stopping which ticks everyone off b/c everyone on the ramp jams on the brakes!

I actually like tollways. I imagine they are dragstrips and once the gate goes up, the pedal goes to the floor. Got that from my old man! haha Whos gonna merge first?!

 

Yea chicago is ridiculous! i live right off of 290 and i have to say that is a horrible highway. There are literally speed bumps in the road. I was behind a crotchrocket the other day and the rider bounces off his seat a good foot whenever he goes over one of these bumps. Scary stuff.

I love chicago but i hate it very much at the same time. We are the highest taxed county in the country and we have tolls!!!!! So why do we have the worst highways in the country and our city is in debt???? Ridiculous

 

I was going to make a post before I left to see if any one wanted to meet up... but I had a car full or people and a tight schedule.

 

No one can complain about roads or tolls until they go to NYC. The roads are absolutely terrible, huge potholes and dips and just general bojangles. Me and my 5g buddies took a trip down to Jersey to go to Honda Day(which ended up being canceled) and I was riding with my friend that had a stock 5g(which as some of you know has a insane 4x4 status ride height stock) and it bottomed out a few times. And tolls in NYC are insane, the bridge to Staten Island is $10. other tolls averaging around $5

 

Wow... holy tolls.

I'm kind of saddened that 5th gens weren't AWD to go with that suspension lift.