A Day Trip to Chicago

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With just one day left at Indiana Dunes State Park, we set off to the Windy City - Chicago. We generally shy away from big cities but Chris has a good reason for heading there. We definitely would not bring the motorhome anywhere near Chicago and would prefer to not have to drive the car in all the traffic either. But there is another option - we can take the train. The South Shore Line runs near the state park and heads into Chicago. Dune Park station is only a mile from the campground so it could reached by foot or bicycle but the parking is free so driving makes more sense.

There are lots of places to see in Chicago but we had a singular mission - the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. As former engineers, this type of place has a lot of appeal to us but Chris had another reason for heading there. As a kid growing up in the upper Midwest, she had taken field trips to this place and had many fond memories. Sometimes trying to relive childhood memories doesn’t work out but we shall see if a visit many decades later turns out to be a good experience or not.

Looking at the train schedule, there are lots of times to choose from with departure from Dune Park station starting as early as 4:30AM! The train ride to the stop near the museum is just under an hour but the museum doesn’t open until 9:30 so the 8:24 train would work out well for us. There may be other things to see in this part of Chicago but it is expected to be rainy at times and this is the South Side of Chicago - and we all know what Jim Croce says about this part of town! We head over the the train station a bit early to figure out how to buy tickets instead of dealing with installing an app on the phones.

Outside of Dun Park Train Station

There were a few people already waiting inside since it was a bit damp. We purchased tickets for the trip in and the trip back just to save time later. Total cost: $32 for four one way tickets which sure beats having to drive and find parking. We started talking with one of the passengers waiting in the terminal. She lives nearby the park but attends the University of Chicago and needs to take the train into the city rather frequently. Just a little before the train is to arrive, more people come in and we have around two dozen catching this train. Fortunately the train was pretty empty so it wasn’t an issue getting a seat. Shortly after we start up, the conductor comes and checks our tickets.

Covered Platform at Dune Park Station

Our Train Arrives on Time

The train ride was fairly comfortable. I wouldn’t consider it a very scenic ride as it heads around the south end of the lake at Gary Indiana before heading north. The train definitely felt fast at times. I discovered that I could use Google Map to get the current speed and we did hit 70 MPH at one point. There are only 6 intermediate stops along the way so the hour seemed to go reasonably quickly and before we knew it, we were at the desired 55th-56th-57th Station.

Exited at 55th-56th-57th Station

It is less than a half mile from the train station to the museum. However it wasn’t currently raining and I really wanted to get a geocache at some point during our visit. I had scoped out one in Jackson Park immediately to the south of the museum. From the map of the park, it looked like we could walk from the station, find the cache and get to the museum in just a little over a mile so it wasn’t “that” far, and Chris went along with the plan. It is a nice park and we were just about the only people here. When we got near the cache, we needed to cross over one of the many bridges over the ponds in the park only to discover it was closed. From the signage and the vegetation growth, it looked like it has been closed for many years so we were forced to head to the far south end of the park to get around the one pond instead of over it. But cache was found and we made it to the museum around 10:15.

Sculpture in Jackson Park

Marina Near Museum

Not Your Normal Column Design

The skyline near the museum isn’t as impressive as I was hoping for but the major skyscrapers are over 6 miles north of here so we have to make do with what we have. The Griffin Museum is a beautiful building. Opened in 1933, it has a long history of teaching students (like Chris) about all sorts of things. But it has evolved to have things more interesting to the current generation as seen by the huge Spider-Man banners hanging in the front entrance. General admission was about $26 per person. There are three optional venues - a coal mine tour, a submarine tour and the Spider-Man exhibit - each running an additional $12 to $18. We knew the museum had more than enough things to entertain us so we stayed with the base tickets. It is possible to get the other tickets later if we decide we need to see one of them.

Skyline Next to Griffin Museum

Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

Entrance with Spider-Man Banners

This is a very big museum with several floors of displays. Chris had several areas she wants to get to but it is early enough in the day that we will attempt to wander around in a more systematic fashion. After awhile, we should be able to gauge how well we are doing time wise and adjust accordingly. We start out in the main rotunda which has a huge domed ceiling overhead and all sorts of varying images displayed on this dome, walls and floor.

Main Rotunda Dome

One side of the rotunda enters into the Transportation Gallery. This is a huge room that extends up into the balcony level where we should later get to check out the planes hanging overhead. There are lots of old cars, trains, trolleys and a wide assortment of travel displays.

A 1923 Electric Car

1929 Duesenberg Model J

Possibly the most interesting venue takes up the most space in this hall is named The Great Train Story. It is a model train exhibit using HO gauge train tracks. It represents the train ride between Chicago and Seattle. The skyline of the two cities has been created in great detail. There is 1400 feet of track and over 20 trains running. The mountain scenes are impressive as well.

Chicago Skyline

Mountain Scene

Seattle Skyline

We head over to the Numbers in Nature and the Mirror Maze. Lots of displays explain how nature has all sorts of patterns hidden in plain sight. From the golden ratio to fractals. As numbers people, we find it all rather intriguing. But by far, the mirror maze is the highlight of this area (possibly the museum - at least for me). An attendant sits at the entrance mainly to ensure that not too many people are in the maze at a particular time and to remind kids not to run in the maze. She didn’t give us that instruction so we might try running. They do offer a shortcut path around the maze for those not wanting to see themselves over and over again.

Mirror Maze Entrance

When I had first heard about the mirror maze, I immediately thought of the type that includes mirrors that make you look tall or fat or simply distorted in some fashion. This maze was much more interesting. The whole room of mirrors are set up with a series of equilateral triangles.  Most of the panels have mirrors and there is lighting along the floor that changes color over time. When we first step in, we just see a repetitive pattern extending to infinity.

Which Way Do We Go?

The first thing is that my mind becomes quite confused trying to interpret what we are seeing. As we headed in, I completely lost my desire to run and found myself walking quite slowly trying to figure out which way to go. There are a few dead ends but there is only one way out. At each intersection, I try to determine where my reflection is, or actually where it isn’t, to decide which way I should go. At any point, there are multiple versions of Jack and Chris every which way. As other people would wonder by, it looked like there were nearly 100 people surrounding us. At one point I wondered if they had a rescue team to extract lost visitors! But we eventually got towards the end and could hear people in the next display area and we made our way out safely - what a cool experience.

I See at east 4 Chris'

On our way to the next exhibit was a work area closed off but with large windows to see inside. It housed some large 3D printers and all sorts of creative and unusual items that had been printed.

3D Printed Art

Yesterday’s Main Street is a step back into a 1910 Chicago street scene. It has multiple businesses lining the dark street. Most are just a storefront with windows to view inside but there is a movie theater with a dozen or so seats with a black and white silent movie running on a loop. We sat for a bit to watch the film.

Movie Theater

Back out to the rotunda and to the opposite side of the transportation gallery is the Science of 

Storms room. This was a very popular section and filled predominantly with schoolchildren. There are numerous displays regarding things mainly related to weather on our planet. From avalanches to fire to a tornado and lightning generator. A circular theater with a large sphere dangling in the center was having a program taking place with several dozen kids listening to the instructor and watching the display on the glowing orb. It was packed, so we could only observe from the perimeter. The tornado generator had a line of kids waiting to step into the swirling vortex. When they set off the lightning generator high above, the thunder shook the area.

No Seats Left

Kids in a Twister

Lightning Strikes

As we continued around the displays on the main level, we enter the Extreme Ice exhibit. There is an excellent video that shows the rapid pace of the demise of the world’s glaciers. They also have a 7 foot tall chunk of ice that has an attached refrigeration unit. It was clear that the goal of visitors was to place their hands on the ice and melt an imprint of your hand. I put my hand in the depression already started to try to make it deeper but it turned out to be much more difficult than expected. I likely didn’t last a minute before my hand was too cold to continue. The Whispering Gallery is another crowd favorite. You and another person stand beside a large curved dish on either end of a long room. Even the slightest whisper can be heard but it was nearly impossible to experience since there were lots of people either trying it or talking as they walked by.

The next exhibit that really appealed to us was the Art of the Bicycle. This hallway was loaded with all sorts of creative, unusual or simply old bicycles. We spent a fair amount of time reading about the bikes on display and what makes them special enough to be in this museum. The all wood frame was an interesting idea and I really wonder how well it rides.

Built for Speed

 Bikes from 1800's

So Many Saddle Choices

1960's Spaceliner Bicycle

Wooden Frame Bike

Heading down to the lower level, we start in the Ships Gallery. There are several dozen model ships from all ages and all purposes. There is a lot to learn about and see in this exhibit. It was about noon and the museum kitchen was next door so we stopped in for lunch. There is a wide selection of food choices but nothing was cheap. They know that they have a captive audience. At least the burger and fries we got were pretty good.

Ship's Figurehead

After lunch we headed to the nearby Fairy Castle. This was another stop that Chris was really wanting to see. Built by a film actress from the early 1900’s, this dollhouse has been on display at the museum since 1949. Even though it is a 1/12 scale model, it is extremely large. This means the tallest tower of the castle represents a real tower of 144 feet high! The detail of all the furnishings in the various rooms is incredible. We spend a great deal of time walking around and carefully examining each room.

Fairy House Courtyard

Detailed Interior Room

The Farm Tech exhibit was our next stop. There were lots of displays explaining how much technology now exists in the world of farming. The big John Deere tractor was impressive and I really wanted to sit in it, but it would have meant standing in line with a bunch of little kids. I didn’t see any adults taking a turn so I moved on.

Big John Deere

Stagecoach

The Henry Crown Space Center was another excellent exhibit. There are so many different displays from all the different space programs from Mercury, Apollo and lots about the SpaceX programs. Even those with only a little bit of knowledge about our space programs will likely find the displays and movies interesting.

Rockets Lined Up

Tight Quarters Inside Space Capsule

Lunar Lander

The last display on the lower level was the U-505 Submarine. While tours inside the sub are an additional fee, all museum visitors are ago check out the numerous displays surrounding the huge sub. We start out on the bridge of the USS Guadalcanal when this US escort carrier was stalking a German submarine off the coast of Africa during World War II. We get to listen in to the events which led to this submarine being captured by the US Navy.

Hunting a Submarine

The actual sub is huge. Coming in at 252 feet long and over 1100 tons! A hallway leads from the front of the sub and down along the one side before coming to the gated entrance to the tours. There are plenty of displays along the way before we turn back.

Looking Down the Length of the U-505

There was one other exhibit on this floor that looked pretty neat called the Idea Factory. We could see some of it from a viewing area above the room but you need to be accompanied with a child 10 years or younger. We decided stealing a young child just to get into this exhibit might be frowned upon!

We made our way back to the main level to check out the Blue Paradox exhibit. We had skipped this earlier since a timed entry ticket was required but when we checked out the kiosk to see when we could get a ticket, we found we only had a 10 minute wait. The concept of this exhibit is to showcase what a big problem plastics in the environment is. When our showtime arrived, we entered a room with 10 other people. The small room was lined with dozens of screens on one side and mirrors on the other sides. When the show started, the whole room was aglow with scenes of plastic trash in the oceans and how we need to do something about our continued used of all sorts of plastics. It was well done but probably not a must see in our estimation.

Inside Blue Paradox Exhibit

There was still the balcony level which mainly overlooks the exhibits below but there are several displays up here as well. They have several flight and motion simulators that you can pay to experience as well as access to the inside of the 727 aircraft.

German WWII Plane

Cockpit of 727

The last exhibit was one called You! The Experience. There were some really unique and interesting displays and interactive games to be played. There was clothing that “barked” like a dog if you got too close and a dress that displayed lightning bolts if you clapped. Perhaps the one that caught our attention was a game where two people on either side of a table donned a special head set that somehow measured your brain activity. The goal was to clear your mind more than your opponent which would move a hockey puck towards the goal. There was one guy that seemed to have a real knack for calming his mind. I knew that I would not stand a chance at that game!

Electric Dress

It was approaching 4 o’clock and by now we were exhausted from the slow walking around of the full museum. Even though we knew we could still probably get tickets for some of the extra exhibits, we knew we would not enjoy it so we head out. We had a fun but tiring day. Based on the train schedule, we knew if we left shortly, we shouldn’t have too long of a wait to catch the next train back out of Chicago. At least we didn’t need to go looking for a geocache so we could make our way directly to the train station. We needed to be a bit more careful since there were several other trains that come thru this stop so we had to pay attention to board the correct one. When it did arrive, it was full and we were forced to stand for about half the trip before enough people had exited so we could grab a seat. At no point did a conductor come by to check tickets so when we got back to camp, we offered our tickets to the campground hosts since the tickets should be good for a month.

While there still may be more places to see out of Indiana Dunes, I think our 4 nights here was a reasonable time to get the highlights. Our original plan had been to head into Michigan since we are right near the state border and we need to be in Marquette in the Upper Peninsula in a little over a week. Our plan is to visit several Elks Lodges and maybe a casino parking lot so we have a lot of flexibility. But over the winter in Florida, we had woken up one morning to find our windshield cracked. It had been fine the day before but when I put up the shade, there was a 13 inch crack on the lower passenger side. As Chris investigated places to have it replaced, she stumbled upon RV Glass Solutions in Elkhart Indiana. After initiating a claim with our insurance, we were able to schedule an appointment with them for right after our stay at Indiana Dunes. We did have one thing to complete prior to getting to Elkhart. We needed to mark the locations of the powerful magnets that were installed when we had our MagnaShade installed back in November of 2023. We marked on the inside trim and even made a template of sorts to help with the reinstallation of them on the new windshield.

Windshield Crack

We had read good reviews about this business. They have several spots for RVs with electric hookups and do the actual installation inside their large building, out of the weather. It’s only a 63 mile drive from Indiana Dunes. As we are approaching the business the area seemed familiar. Turns out it is immediately next to Bradd and Hall where we had come in October of 2021 to have new captains chairs and sofas installed. It was really weird that we had camped about 300 feet from here getting work done on the rig at a different business. Although this is Elkhart - the RV capital of the world - so maybe it wasn’t all that unexpected.

We pull in on Thursday afternoon and back into one of the spots for the night. The next morning just before 8 AM, the guys come out to look it over and have us sign some paperwork. Florida requires full glass coverage so it won’t cost us anything other than our time. The rig is pulled into one of their service bays and we head into the waiting room. It will be an all day process. They anticipate they will be finished with the installation by 3:30 or so but another requirement is to not drive the rig until the next day to allow the adhesive to cure.

We get a little bored in the waiting room. There was one other customer having his windshield replaced too so we chatted with him for a while but we needed to get out. So we hop in the car and drive into Nappanee to the Newmar service facility. They have a very nice parts department and store. It lays seems like we find all sorts of specialty things that we need for our Dutch Star. We found what we needed and kept the bill under $70 which felt like a win for us!

We had seen a very large building in Elkhart on our drive so after eating our lunch in the car, we stopped by Southgate Crossing. This place is impressive. The center cupola stands over 80' tall and provides 51,000 square feet of retail space. It is an Amish built peg and beam building that would have been fun to watch going up. There are several floors with one large hall that looks to be rented for parties or receptions. Most of the stores are comprised of local artists selling their creations. There was a little bit of everything as we wandered around killing time.

Main Hall of Southgate Crossing

We made sure we were back at the shop to see them backing the rig out of the service bay. We inspected the work and signed some final paperwork. Spending another night here won’t be too bad other than we are not allowed to drop our leveling jacks or put out any slides. Apparently they don’t want the rig to not have any twisting or flexing while it sets up. After a good night’s sleep, we pull out the next morning to head into Michigan. First stop, Battle Creek - the home of Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle and Pop!

New Glass Installed