MILWAUKEE trip
Aug. 15-17 2013
PART 1
I call this the Eddie Money trip, because I saw an Eddie Money look-alike at a series of baseball games I attended. But the forces of Scholardom loomed large, and the road photos piled up like Lite-Brite pegs for this 5-part set...
West on I-865 near Indianapolis - one of the most useless Interstates of all. I-865 is only 5 miles long and used to be just a dogleg of I-465 with mileposts numbered in the 900s, before becoming I-865 in 2002. I-865 also carries US 52 as it bypasses the city. I-865 has no interchanges other than the beginning and the end.
Along I-65 near Brookston, Ind., is this wind farm that goes on for miles.
I wonder how many small children are afraid of these windmills.
I-65 approaches its end near Gary, Ind.
This is in Gary, closing in on the end of I-65, which concludes in a tangle.
Instead of ramping onto I-90, users of I-65 can instead go straight and hit US 12/20. This is the branch of I-65 to US 12/20, and I-90 is on an overpass in the background.
West on US 12/20 (Dunes Highway) in Gary. Up ahead is a rail overpass that also goes over a rail line to the right of the road.
Still on US 12/20, and if you look straight ahead from this angle, you're looking along 5th Avenue to downtown Gary. This is where US 12/20 splits into a one-way pair consisting of 4th and 5th.
Continuing on 4th. I-90 is elevated on the right.
Fourth Avenue in Gary. The road goes under a Skywalk-like structure up ahead. The distinctive domed building is Lake County Superior Court (although Gary is not the official county seat). It was built in 1927 and is not to be confused with the similar looking Gary City Hall nearby.
Looking back at downtown Gary on IN 53 (Broadway).
I-90 includes the Indiana East-West Toll Road. The Indiana Toll Road was built in 1956. Originally, this stretch was I-94, before I-90 and 94 switched places in this area. In 2006, right-wing Gov. Mitch Daniels turned over operation of the road to a for-profit foreign company. The transaction netted millions for Goldman Sachs, and some of the proceeds will fund the extension of I-69 through southern Indiana that nobody wants. Also, as part of his Major Moves program, the Daniels administration shortchanged Gary's Lake County for political reasons.
Approaching the tollbooth on I-90 in Hammond, Ind.
I-90 on the south side of Chicago uses the Chicago Skyway - another toll stretch. It opened in 1958. The half-mile-long bridge up ahead spans the Calumet River - though actually, all 7 miles of the Skyway is elevated. Contrary to the "TO" label that appears on I-90 signage through here, the road is still part of I-90.
Chicago is another city that keeps on giving. This is a distant view of downtown Chicago from I-90.
Now we're getting onto the Calumet River bridge. Shockingly, Chicago privatized the Skyway even before Daniels privatized the Indiana Toll Road. That happened in 2004 (when else?), when the road was turned over to the same foreign corporation that took control of I-90 in Indiana.
The Chicago Skyway tollbooth. As of 2013, the toll is a budget-bustin' $4. Notice they refer to the Skyway as a bridge, because the entire road is elevated. Best all, they use the Sesame Street font here.
This is in Chicago, about where I-90 merges with I-94.
I-90/94 in Chicago!
It's Chicago! Yeah, that's right, my little woocap, it's Chicago! Aren't you happy?!
Chicago again! (We're done with one whole part, and we're only up to Chicago?)