The Great Lakes MINI Tour - Chicago to Cleveland

And yet another awesome day!  Cindi finally experienced her first day on the road with MTTS!

This morning started out a little rough…there was some confusion as to how to get to the Rise & Shine event.  It was held at the Museum of Science and Industry, and the internet had a different address than our route sheet from MINI.  Garmin seemed to agree with the route sheet, so we went that way.  But we needed to get onto Lake Shore Drive, and had to go several blocks north before we could finally access it!  Good thing we left a little early, as we lost almost an hour messing around with all that!  But we made it in time to park, have some coffee and breakfast, and visit with some new friends.

This car belongs to Darren from Edmonton, Canada.  He was heading home today…. 

Me and Cindi…"Sisters once removed"

One thing everyone noticed about Chicago was the HUGE potholes!!  OMG!  I think they would easily consume 3 or 4 MINIs in one pothole!!  They would definitely cause serious damage if you happened to fall into one…fortunately we avoided them as we came across them.  One post I saw on Facebook described it well, "Chicago, home of the world famous deep dish potholes!"

We headed east on I-80 out of Chicago, which is a toll road.  Several weeks ago, I saw a post on the MTTS Facebook page that suggested using an EZ Pass transponder for the tolls, so I ordered the Illinois version, I-Pass.  It works for most all of the states' toll roads from Illinois and eastward.  It's basically a prepaid toll device, and we just whipped through all the toll gates with no waiting.  It worked out great!!

I didn't realize that we'd be driving right past South Bend, Indiana, so when I saw how close we were, I had to stop to see the Notre Dame campus!  It was beautiful!!  We stopped for some souvenirs, pictures, and lunch.  It was nice to just relax for a bit.

Golden Dome at University of Notre Dame

Except now we were running pretty late getting to the Evening Event!  So between WAZE (watching for "cop dots"…lol!) and the radar detector, and an occasional "escort", we were able to make up a little bit of time getting to Cleveland.  We went straight to the event, held at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  It was pretty cool!  The food they served was not as awesome as past events, but Cindi and I were both still pretty full from lunch, so no biggie.

ZZ Top at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Tomorrow, we're going to skip the Pit Stop in Pittsburgh, and head straight to Buffalo.  Niagra Falls is calling!!