Some Days, It Doesn't Pay to Chew Through the Straps

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

People who live in Chicagoland or SE Cheddarland will know about this, but since most of you don't, let me set this up. On the Illnois Tollroad, there are a series of service areas, each one known as The (Nearby Community) Oasis. There are 7 or 8 Oases on the system, 6 in the Chicago area that I know of, anyway. It is a bridge that is built over the top of the tollroad, with a building on the bridge. Each one has several fast food restaurants and the usual service area fare. (Part of one got blown up in The Blues Brothers.) Traffic from both directions can exit for the Oasis and get right back on again.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/BelOasisAug2004A.jpg/350px-BelOasisAug2004A.jpg

I'm on my way home (north) tonight and I just stopped at the Lake Forest Oasis. (I'm in the parking lot, typing this.) I walked in and got all confused...McDonalds is on the wrong end, Auntie Ann's and Starschmucks are on the wrong side and I had trouble finding the celluar phone accessories store that I wanted to visit. I was baffled, thinking maybe that I always stopped at a different Oasis and not this one, because they wouldn't rearrange it.

It took awhile to figure out that I usually stop when I'm southbound, not northbound, and Micky D's is right where it's supposed to be.

I've been on the road too long. I'm glad I'm almost home.

Here's where you can find everything you never wanted to know about the Illinois Toll Road.

 

[dannyzmom]

You're havin' a rough day, huh? LOL
Hey - when in the Chicagoland area - you have GOT to get over to the Museum of Science and Industry and see the Bodyworlds2 Exhibit - it is AMAZING!!!

 

[jdavis]

So can we say you must have had a wonderful trip and a stress-free breakfast, lmao.

 

[chefann]

OMG! I think Lake Forest is the one we stop at when we need to stretch on our way to M'waukee.Are you sure you aren't my DH's long-lost twin? BTW, he'd be the evil one.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

So can we say you must have had a wonderful trip and a stress-free breakfast, lmao.

Read my blog, did you?

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Just remember that they turn the whole thing around when you're going north. Which is actually going west, because you take I-94 West from Detroit to Milwaukee.

 

[GeorgiaPeach]

The Oasis'....wow, that's a flash from my past As a child, my family would stop at one while driving from Ohio to Minnesota to visit the relatives. I haven't thought about them for a long time. I always thought they were SO cool.....to watch the traffic drive under us. (Okay...I was a kid and easily entertained!)

 

[MicheleC]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who has these experiences . Of course in my case I probably would have asked them when they moved all the stores around before I figured it out.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

They were really cool when they first opened in the last 1950's. They were exclusively Fred Harvey restaurants and Standard Oil Stations. (Remember the Judy Garland movie, The Harvey Girls?) The Oases were clean, bright and a novelty but over the decades, they aged, and not well. After the Harvey organization went away, they were HoJo's and when that went away, there were Wendy's and other fast food places. They got tacky...the ceramic tile into the rest rooms had a path worn right through the tile to the sub floor. The sinks and toilets were worn and frankly, pretty digusting. Restaurants blocked the views of the tollroad traffic.A few years ago, the toll authority set out to refurbish them, which they did, at no cost or risk to the toll authority, by signing a 25 year lease with a vendor. They razed the buildings right down to the bridge deck. New buildings, taller and with more glass than the old ones, have been built with more open areas - so you can watch traffic more easilly.By the way, the 25 year lease, negotiated by the governor of Illinois, is under investigation.My Sources.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

You're havin' a rough day, huh? LOL
Hey - when in the Chicagoland area - you have GOT to get over to the Museum of Science and Industry and see the Bodyworlds2 Exhibit - it is AMAZING!!!

Other than conference, these days, all I ever want to do in Chicagoland is see it in my rearview mirror.

 

[nikkijo]

KG that is to funny! Can you believe that I've never stopped at one of them? Everytime we go by there I mention to DH that we should stop there some time but we usually just want to get to our destination or home!

Are the bathrooms better now? I always try to stop as little as possible because I hate public bathrooms.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

They're very nice now - it's amazing what $95 million can do.