I'll say I don't drive on Chicago's interstates during the week so I'm not an expert on the traffic patterns and timings. Saying that, if I were you I'd take 294 South and just get into the Chicago area after 10am and be out of the area by 3.

 

Advice? You bet! Just sent you a lengthy PM with a bunch of info. Hope this helps!

 

Thanks guys! Nice to have the first hand advice.
Nevada....I was fine with going out of my way, UNTIL you mentioned that 2 drink thing. Now you have my attention
Thanks again

 

what's your destination, you didn't say or I missed it.1) If you want to circle bottom of the Pond you have a couple of routes and timing on a weekday is everything! Personally, I would leave Museum come south on East 94 to south East 41. Ride thru the Loop on LSD all the way to until you come up on Skyway. I think your first opportunity to get on Skyway will be 106TH/ Indianapolis Blvd. and continue trucking around lake, or stay on Indianapolis (12/41) and take scenic route. 1b. if you're in a hurry stay on 94 East to 80/90/94 East - I HIGHLY ADVISE AGAINST AS THEY HAVE BEEN REDOING THE CIRCLE INTERCHANGE! and it's a freaking parking lot most anytime day or night!
I grew up driving these Expressways and schooled my kids driving on them so I have first hand knowledge what it takes to stay alive around here, especially on a scooter.
a) at all times keep your head on a swivel, no freakin daydreaming or you'll get eatin alive!
b) almost if not more important, drive your freakin mirrors! I can't stress this enough. you can be tooling along in 75-80MPH bumper to bumper and have some fool whizz bye you like an F1 diving thru openings doing +90MPH I **** YOU NOT! And you will **** your drawers if you had been contemplating a lane change!
c) most traffic flows 75-80MPH on the 55MPH Tollways. It's not a place to pick a lane and do the posted limit as that can get you in and/or cause some bad **** to happen!
d) expect people to do totally insane maneuvers when there's the least amount of open black top, especially on a workday!
e) watch out for the freakin potholes, a real bad winter and our roads are torn up.

Now for the positives - The Chicago Skyline has to be one, if not the, most beautiful man-made places in existence! And if you're not on a time table, come in to the loop, park your scooters at a pay lot and check out the Loop! The Hancock just opened the "Flip on 94TH". It's a glass wall you stand at and it rotates out away from the building on the 94th floor! You are literally at like a 30 degree angle on glass over Chestnut Street some 1200 feet below! There's a lounge / restaurant on the floor as well. Having done that, walk south on the Mag Mile to the Wrigley Building and catch a boot ride down the Chicago River to the Sears (Willis) Tower and go up to the 103rd Floor glass walk out! Freakin incredible view standing in a glass cube a quarter mile over the sidewalk! Finish up there head back up to Navy Pier for tasty beverages, great food an a Ferris Wheel ride, it's awesome.
Why just blow bye when you can have a mini-cation downtown! And nothing beat the reverberations of drag pipes off monolithic slaps of steel and glass! It's like driving thru man-made canyons. When tooling around loop, pedestrians are on a different planet, but don't freak out as the worker bees know what they're doing.

Another route around to the east would be 94 East to 294 South (which parallels above route slightly to the west) again heavily traveled on a workday. to 80 East to 80/90/94 East heading into Indiana. What for signage entering Illinois as you'll have to choose 94E city and 294 Indiania. One cool thing on this route you pass bye Ohare and if you get lucky you might have a 777 take off or land as your riding buy and you can wave to the pilot!
It also has Oasis along this route for food, fuel, or just plan ole tapping a kidney.

If UP is your destination why not take a ferry ride out of Beer City over to Mi side then pack up to UP? And thereby avoiding the madness we affectionally refer to as The Loop.

And if you plan on doing a midnight early am ride, please don't be lulled into a false sense of security. The Expressways may have light traffic, but it can be insane, depending what night you're out there.

I'm not trying to frighten anyone away, just giving you an honest sense of what to expect.


Me, I jump in the far right lane (alleged fast lane) and keep her at ~80-85MPH if that's what the flow is. Not reckless, just tooling along. I prefer to NOT have cages making lane changes around me out there, it's just safer in my mind and if you need you have an escape lane on your left.



Keep the rubber side down and Enjoy!

 

Lol - just trying to keep it in perspective my friend.

Sober1's info is accurate. What I will add, that he and other locals may disagree with, is that despite the insanity, Chicagoans know how to drive. If you keep in perspective that, due to traffic volumes off the highways especially, they are late for everything, their next move is easy to predict. Whereas everywhere else I travel it just seems like random stupidity mixed with heavy texting. Just keep your game face on and keep up. You'll do fine.

On 41 - volumes have increased quite a bit. And there are stop lights. Speaking of which, if you are in the area, DO NOT even attempt to make it on a yellow. They are short, camera enforced, and they hand out $100 red light tickets like confetti at the St Patrick's parade - even if you live out of state. Ask me how I know. Lake Shore is a mixed bag. If you are there after 9AM you should roll along fine just as you will be fine on 294. By that time the mayhem has subsided. It is a cool ride if you've never done it. But again, I'll be up on you by 2 drinks if you take that route.

 

oh we have our share of what I refer to as "Mashers", you know, the drivers that never grasped the concept of modulating the throttle. They don't like to adjust speed according to volume, instead laying on the brake pedal to adjust their speed. It's not a problem at posted speed or below but when flow is +70 in all lanes brake taps aint cool.
For some real excitement, hit southbound Dan Ryan (I-57) anytime - you can get run over doing 80MPH. Just after you pass Sox Park (35TH Street) it opens up to something like 6 lanes of recently laid concrete. I was cruising at 85 heading down to my sisters and people where blowing by me like I was standing still. I think the posted limit is 55.
I'm not bitchin, I'm just saying.........

Nevada72 hit the nail on the head, keep your wits about you and you can have a blast!

 

If you are going to head down through Peru, make sure you hop off the interstate at Utica. If it is open during those hours (they are closed several days during the week, so the owner can make his weekly trip down south to pick up fresh meat from Louisiana), you have to go to Cajun Connection. 4-5 minutes off the interstate, awesome place. Downtown Utica is pretty bike friendly if CC is closed and you want to grab a burger or bar food. There are a couple good leather/bike gear shops just south of the downtown too.

I'd also recommend detouring south of I-80 there to Route 71. Take that through Starved Rock and along the IL River at least to Ottawa, if not sticking to the backroads south of the river (Trumbo Road east out of Ottawa) all the way to Seneca. Just a few minutes added to your trip and some of the better riding you'll find anywhere in the middle of IL.

 

excellent ride along the Mighty Illinois - this stretch of road follows bends of river nicely - and you might catch views of Bald Eagles around LaSalle/Peru

 

How much time do you have to get from Milwaukee to the indiana/Michigan border and what time(s) can u leave Milwaukee?

 

Really not on a time schedule. The plan is to be in or near Ludington, Mi sometime Friday eve. The only schedule we have to keep is being back in the UP of Michigan Saturday night.
Certainely appreciate all the advice given here. As of now, we are leaning towards taking 39 through Rockford towards Peru, then taking Rt 71 towards Seneca, from there hitting Rt 6 as far as we can before jumping on 80 towards Gary. From there we'll head up into Mi.
Looks to be about a 500 mile day. (Nevada will have a good glow going by now, I know. But I'll do my best to catch up)
That's the plan for now, but subject to change....