We left Wauwatosa about 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday. The traffic leaving town was fairly
heavy due to a Brewer's base ball game and State Fair but we got out of town in good order and
were on our way to Chicago by 2:30. We hit the Illinois border at about 3:30. Fortunately I had
gotten a cup of coffee, mighty large and mighty black. At the border was a wall of traffic four
lanes thick and far ahead as the eye could see. I turned on the XM traffic station and was
informed of times like: 70 minutes to O'Hare from Deerfield, which should be only 10 minutes
and 90 minutes from the spur to downtown. I chose the spur to downtown and to those of you
not from Chicago this actually should have been the better of the two disasters. We did spend
every bit of that 90 minutes getting from the Eden's spur to the downtown and then we had the
thrill of driving the Dan Ryan Expressway. What Chicago is missing out on is charging not tolls
but admission for this thrill ride. Eventually we hit open traffic and I was able to accelerate to 30
MPH! The speed push3ed me back into my captain's chair and I settled in to a comfortable trek
for the next ten or so miles before I needed to slow down again.
7:45 PM, five hours and 45 minutes after we left home for this two and one half hour ride and we
arrived at the Kankakee State Park in Bourbanaise, IL.
Calling ahead for reservations we were told that they did not take them but also they never filled
up so we were confident of getting a site. I filled the water tank and Fran went to register. She
got us a wonderful spot which was all paved with a nice grassy area surrounding the pavement.
We had room for the screen house and picnic table plus a very nice fire pit. I could not imagine
that this space as available on a nice weekend like this. We set up camp had a quick supper and
took a walk. The campgrounds were very nice and the people were friendly. Later that night Fran
and I took Spot for another walk and i decided to stop in the men's bathroom. I walked in the
door and thought it was strange that there were no urinals. Then seeing several young ladies I
wondered what they were doing in a men's bathroom, only then did it occur to me that the reason
there may be no urinals in this particular bathroom was that it was not the men's! I made this
comment to the assembled ladies who did not seem to understand the wisdom associated with it,
and then I left. On the other side of the building I found a bathroom with a whole row of urinals.
How comforting.
The following day Fran's brother, Howie and his wife, Jennie joined us for a cookout, a hike, and
some good conservation. They live about an hour north of here. This is a beautiful state park
along the banks of the Kankakee river and we were able to hike about four miles down a very nice
well groomed trail which followed the river. Along the way we met a couple deer who played
with us for awhile then got bored and went into the woods. The trail was being well used by other
hikers, joggers, and bikers. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the nice day and nice
scenery.
The next day we were talking with some other campers in the campgrounds who asked us where
we were from and were surprised to hear we were from Wisconsin. They could not believe we
came to Illinois to camp and not one of our own parks. We told them that indeed we do have nice
parks but if this park is any indication of the quality of Illinois parks they are also very good. If
only we could get here without driving through Chicago this would be on our list of favorites.
