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Us 41 Trip


usroadman
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Back in August we did the family trip down US 41. Summer is long gone, but I have finally finished posting pictures from our trip. They are available through my website, or directly on Webshots.

 

We had a great time on our trek from Michigan to Florida. We tried pasties in Calumet, Michigan and some kind of local sausage at Congress Pizza in Ishpeming, Michigan. In Wisconsin we stopped for frozen custard multiple times, and my 5-year old got the cheese-head he so craved. In Kenosha where we went for a trolley ride, the kids got honorary police badges from a local officer (very nice of him) and we stopped at an old downtown Walgreen's (don't see too many of them anymore). Pizza from Giordano's in Chicago was quite good. Spent the night at the corner of Wabash and 7th in Terre Haute. Saw a movie being filmed (on US 41) on the Kentucky - Tennessee border (Michael Clark Duncan was there so I'm guessing the movie is "Bailey"). Took an early morning train ride in Nashville. Had lunch at the Dwarf House (Chick-fil-a) on US 41 in Hapeville, Georgia. Saw a bunch of interesting old/abandoned service stations in Georgia. Breakfast in Valdosta was at the small, out of the way but very yummy Dixie Cream Donuts. Finally in Miami just before the end of US 41, we stopped at a little outdoor restaurant counter where my wife got a Cuban sandwich and I had some kind of sausage with fried potatoes. Not exactly sure what it was since the lady at the counter didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, but it was tasty. Overall it was an enjoyable trip down 41.

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Great trip...just like being there!

 

The weather looked good...just one wet pavement shot.

 

US41 looks like a great drive, with lots of small towns, and few examples of conjestion, even at peak tourist season.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Dave

 

keep the Show on the Road!

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Thanks!

 

I'm especially glad to hear you spent the night at the Crossroads of America in little old Terre Haute!

 

Yeah, I was very happy that I chose the Hilton downtown. Aside from the hotel being very nice and right at the crossroads so I could experience a bit of history, downtown just had a totally different feel from the standard jumble of Interstate exit hotels further down the road.

 

The weather looked good...just one wet pavement shot.

 

Yup, I believe the only place we hit major rain was Chicago, where a bunch of strong afternoon thunderstorms came through just after we crossed into Illinois and didn't dissipate until we were pretty close to downtown. Also hit an afternoon thunderstorm in northeast Georgia, but it was over pretty quickly.

 

The entire trip was unbelievably hot though. I'm one who really likes to drive with the windows open in the morning to enjoy the fresh air, and the only time the whole trip where we could survive without air conditioning was driving along Lake Superior near Copper Harbor where we got a nice breeze off the lake. The whole rest of the trip was brutal, but I guess it was August.

 

US41 looks like a great drive, with lots of small towns, and few examples of conjestion, even at peak tourist season.

 

The heaviest but still moving traffic was in Wisconsin pretty much from Michigan until we were on the city streets in Milwaukee. US 41 seems to be the only real highway that connects Milwaukee to Oshkosh and Appleton so it sees a lot of traffic (far more than we saw on I-43 on our way up north). I-94 (& US41) was a parking lot in southern Wisconsin due to all of the construction. Chicago city streets had what you'd expect in a major city. Lake Shore Drive was a little backed up, but I think the thunderstorms actually helped us out there. There was a big airshow on the day we were driving through, but the weather chased most people out early. Beyond that the only place we hit really bad traffic was Dalton, GA, and I think that might have just been that we happened to hit their early rush hour (but thankfully rush hour was over by the time we got to Atlanta).

 

Yes, a bunch of really nice old small towns, particularly in Kentucky, Tennessee, and especially the southern half of Georgia. In all of these areas US41 is paralleled by an Interstate-quality road, so US 41 still goes through the small towns. This was especially true in the southern half of Georgia where US 41 and many of the towns it went through felt like they were still in the 1950s.

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Yeah, I was very happy that I chose the Hilton downtown. Aside from the hotel being very nice and right at the crossroads so I could experience a bit of history, downtown just had a totally different feel from the standard jumble of Interstate exit hotels further down the road.

 

Just north of Terre Haute, there was a place where you had to take a ramp to follow 41. If you had continued straight, you would have stayed on old US 41. It's not signed, but it's Clinton Ave (which becomes Lafayette Rd.) to 7th St., then 7th south to Wabash Ave., the Crossroads.

 

The Hilton stands where the Terre Haute House used to. It was Terre Haute's grand hotel, but it hadn't been open since probably the 1970s and was razed in favor of the Hilton. It was sad to see it go. Here's a link with a photo: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine...y-in-terre.html

 

(I lived in Terre Haute for 9 years in the 80s and 90s.)

 

jim

 

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It's sad that adaptive reuse wasn't successful. Being built in 1927 you'd think it was basically a simple steel-frame structure at it's heart, making floor re-configuration to something more modern relatively straightforward, but who knows (and I admit I know nothing about building renovation).

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Back in August we did the family trip down US 41. Summer is long gone, but I have finally finished posting pictures from our trip. They are available through my website, or directly on Webshots.

 

We had a great time on our trek from Michigan to Florida. We tried pasties in Calumet, Michigan and some kind of local sausage at Congress Pizza in Ishpeming, Michigan. In Wisconsin we stopped for frozen custard multiple times, and my 5-year old got the cheese-head he so craved. In Kenosha where we went for a trolley ride, the kids got honorary police badges from a local officer (very nice of him) and we stopped at an old downtown Walgreen's (don't see too many of them anymore). Pizza from Giordano's in Chicago was quite good. Spent the night at the corner of Wabash and 7th in Terre Haute. Saw a movie being filmed (on US 41) on the Kentucky - Tennessee border (Michael Clark Duncan was there so I'm guessing the movie is "Bailey"). Took an early morning train ride in Nashville. Had lunch at the Dwarf House (Chick-fil-a) on US 41 in Hapeville, Georgia. Saw a bunch of interesting old/abandoned service stations in Georgia. Breakfast in Valdosta was at the small, out of the way but very yummy Dixie Cream Donuts. Finally in Miami just before the end of US 41, we stopped at a little outdoor restaurant counter where my wife got a Cuban sandwich and I had some kind of sausage with fried potatoes. Not exactly sure what it was since the lady at the counter didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, but it was tasty. Overall it was an enjoyable trip down 41.

 

Your comment on the "lady at the counter didn't speak English............." rings a bell. A few years back, before I moved to Memphis, I would go down to Massachusetts and stay a Saturday night with a friend - on Sunday we would head for a Hudson car meet near by that was, at that time, hosted twice a year by some great people. We'd usually stop at a Burger King in Brockton, MA, for breakfast. I always had the #1 sausage-egg-cheese croissant simply because the people working there spoke at least 3 different languages (1 was Spanish - I don't have a clue as to the other two) none of which were English. My friend told me one of the other languages was Cape Verdian, what-ever that was. As I said I ordered the #1 - at least I know Numero Uno!!!! LOL

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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Nice set of pictures. I've been to Nashville several times but have never thought of a train excursion. May give it a try next time. I didn't realize that Wisconsin even had multiple places to stop for frozen custard. That moves it up a few notches on my potential vacation target list.

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Great trip...thanks for letting us come along! I've driven quite a bit of 41 in both directions, but never in the same trip. I especially enjoyed the Copper Harbor, MI area images. My parents & I took a Great Lakes trip in '85 before my senior year in high school and stayed in the Copper Harbor area for a couple of those nights. And once again, I have to say I love the signature you put on your photos with having the sign of the highway you're on in each (or most) pic. :goodjob:

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