Lansing is the capital of Michigan, so of course Buzz wanted to see the State Capital building:
But of course the main attraction in Lansing is MSU in East Lansing.
Here's a picture of the stadium:
We left Lansing and were on the long road to Chicago, knowing there'd be a stop in Gary of course.
But I saw a sign nearing Battle Creek that mentioned Kellogg and something called cereal city.
I thought it would be good for a laugh, but it was splendid in all it's awesome tackiness!
See the picture ... Inside is a cornucopia of Kellogg's past and present, all the original characters like Smaxie and Dig 'em. All the different Tony the Tigers. Oddly, there was little to see with those demented elves, Snap, Crackle and Pop (I guess after the beating from the Keebler elves they're laying low).
Back on the highway, which had too many long stretches of nothing and construction I see a sign announcing the Chocolate Garden. I started having images of houses made of chocolate and chocolate landscaping ... think Homer's dream.
This is what I found:
Not exactly the utopian paradise I anticipated.
I need to be honest. The only reason I wanted to see Gary, Indiana is because I heard it's a crap-hole. I've seen East St. Louis, I've been to Flint. This is supposed to be the other in the top 3 worst cities.
I was not disappointed. Main Street (as pictured) was deader than Flint's. The houses in the side streets were often abandoned to the vegetation, or had boarded up windows.
Not a pretty sight. You wouldn't want to go to any of the bars we saw ... scary!
What's weird is that US Steel (which sponsors the Minor league team - how did they get that?) and Mittal both have huge working operations there. Why is it so poor?
Finally we were back on the road to Chicago.
Gorgeous skyline, with America's tallest building. Why does the water look so good? I would have thought it would be unbelievably polluted. But it looked good enough to swim, and there were a few beaches along the way.
By this time I was sooooo hungry. I got to see Soldier Field and Comiskey and just wanted to eat at Gino's.
We get there (finally - there's 2 but they are no help at 411) and there's a sign that says it's closed for renovation. I don't even get a chance to ask Frank what do we do now. As I turn around a wonderful woman (an Angel? - she was cute, as I remember her anyway) tells us to go to the other one and gives us impeccable directions.
15 minutes later we're seated at the famous Gino's East.
It took forever to get our food, but we should have known, when this is the sign above the bar:
The Cheese and Sausage Deep dish arrived forty-five minutes later (we got there at 4:30) and it was delicious.
It was just so different than anything we're used to.
The cheese was on the crust, followed by the sausage patties and the sauce on top (so a reverse order). Very tasty.
We then went to Wrigley and headed back East. We're staying in Laporte for the night.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Have Fun!
So Cool ~ Thanks for sharing : )
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