Stop #25: Valparaiso (#318)

On July 2, I had to head back to Indiana, so Kathy joined me to hit a couple more Steak 'n' Shakes on the way. Starting with the one in Valparaiso, which is where we attempted to have breakfast.

Unfortunately, though we built in a good amount of cushion time, traffic was terrible as Chicago drove all its residents away for the holiday weekend.

So we had lots of opportunities to get shots of the interesting things we saw on the road back.

Such as, a sign for Krazy Kaplan's fireworks.


As well as a sign for Krazy Kaplan's fireworks.


And then, a sign for Krazy Kaplan's fireworks!


All told, we got pictures of 10 different billboards for Krazy Kaplan's fireworks.


And those are just the ones we got pictures of. It was ridiculous. And did you see the picture of TWO billboards for Krazy Kaplan? Is that necessary? Really? Maybe Kaplan should take all that extra money he's got, since he can afford two billboard where one would be more than sufficient, and attach it to a firework he's going to shoot off for the Fourth.

We also saw other signs of weekend patriotism, though. Beyond just the fireworks billboards.

For example, below, an example of patriotism at its best:


Big, loud, inconvenient, and through my dirty windshield.

Eventually, we did see the light at the end of the tunnel. Also through my dirty windshield. It seems Daisy might be due for a wash.


However, we already knew at this point that the likelihood of us making it to the Valpo Steak 'n' Shake in time for breakfast was slim.

And we felt angry.


Sure enough, we finaly got there -- at 11:15 a.m. Fifteen minutes too late for breakfast.

And I was sad.


I wrote a letter expressing my anger to Chicago.



Kathy tried -- and failed -- to defend her city and throw the blame on my beloved Hoosier state.


The back and forth continued.

Dear Chicago,
I hate that you make your residents want to EVACUATE, causing traffic problems for us Hoosiers just trying to get home.
No Love,
Marcy

P.S. It was INDIANA that thought closing lanes of traffic over the 4th of July holiday was a good idea. The SAME Indiana that is BEGGING for Illinois tourism. We came and YOU FAILED!

P.P.S. Kathy is delusional.

P.P.P.S. INDIANA = FAIL

CHICAGO = MORE FAILIER!

For the record, I was confused by Kathy's comment about the begging for tourism, until she explained that Indiana sites are constantly advertising on Chicago radio, which makes me sad for Indiana. Come on, home state. We don't need tourism dollars from Illinois -- I'm sure it's dirty money anyway. And not just in your standard "make sure you wash your hands after you handle it because you never know which dollar bills have been used to pay strippers" kind of way. I mean in the "maybe laundered, coming from the mafia, was used to finance some sort of crime" kind of dirty money.

Our back and forth was cut short when we got our food. Which was the closest we could get to breakfast: the Fruit 'n Yogurt parfait.


I thought it was tasty.


Unfortunately, we couldn't stick around Valparaiso for terribly long, as we had to meet others elsewhere in the Region for lunch. Others that include someone whose face has been terribly missed around these here parts lately. But you will have to come check out the next post to figure out who exactly that is. Unless you're, you know, at least marginally intelligent and have been reading for a while. ;-)