Gary Indiana Trip

A little farther east and you can stop at the Knute Rockne Travel Plaza. I think they have a Starbucks, Sbarro Pizza, and a Burger King.
Came through there yesterday. Might not have been that exact Indiana Turnpike Travel Plaza, but the one I stopped at, the Burger King was closed with a big plastic curtain over the whole front of it.

Sbarro was doing a land office business.
 
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I always wanted to go to Eerie
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Came through there yesterday. Might not have been that exact Indiana Turnpike Travel Plaza, but the one I stopped at, the Burger King was closed with a big plastic curtain over the whole front of it.

Sbarro was doing a land office business.
I think the Burger King was having technical difficulties when we went through nine months ago and Starbucks was closed. Sbarro and vending machines were hopping. Wonder if the king has abdicated?
 
I know this thread is probably sarcasm, but Indiana Dunes which is just down the road from Gary is a pretty cool area. Bike trails, hiking the Dunes and surprisingly nice beaches on Lake Michigan. We went there for a weekend last summer.

I have to go out to the area (northern IN and southern MI not Gary) for work a couple times a year and I really like New Buffalo which is on the lake right across the Michigan border. It’s a cool smaller touristy town with a nice Marina and beach area.
 
Probably the saddest American city I’ve ever been to. Not hyperbole.

Indiana Dunes is fine. I kind of think they gave it National Parks status out of pity though, when you compare it to other National Parks in the country.
 
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Came through there yesterday. Might not have been that exact Indiana Turnpike Travel Plaza, but the one I stopped at, the Burger King was closed with a big plastic curtain over the whole front of it.

Sbarro was doing a land office business.

Through the years, I've noticed some variance in quality of travel plazas on Indiana Toll Road, sometimes depends if traveling east-to-west or vice-versa. Setup and facility size is roughly the same at each, some seem to have better quality/consistency for restaurant/fast-food and convenience store. A few "feel empty," like the food court area has been abandoned, is understaffed or in transition. I don't know how much that depends on traffic volume ... I also don't know if each plaza is managed independently.

(edit -- It's possible your travel path intersected somewhere west of the area I'm referencing)
 
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Newest national parks:

2022 New River George West Virginia

2019 White Sands New Mexico

2019 Indiana Dunes Indiana


Indiana Dunes getting National Park status eliminated any chance of commercial development in or near the park,....a good thing.

Do the 3 dune challenge. Earn a t-shirt.

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Gary, Indiana is a fantastic place to pay homage to the failed arrogance of the American steel manufacturers. Gary is the Mecca of the Rust Belt. Taking a slow drive past the closed steel mills is a powerful reality check.

On another note, it is an easy drive from Gary to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and not too far from downtown. And really close to Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam headquarters.
 
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Googled Gary, Indiana crime and it popped up that you have a 1 in 220 chance of getting raped or murdered. It has that going for. It.
 
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The home of the Jackson 5+

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This one threw me off as there is one on the I-35 section of the Kansas turnpike in the flint hills named for him as well. He died in a plane crash not far from there.
I’ve been to that one too, if it’s the place between Emporia and El Dorado.

The Indiana Toll Road one is about 20 miles west of the Notre Dame exit in South Bend. I think Rockne is buried in a South Bend cemetery, but not the ND cemetery. I sucked at golf enough to hit a few into the ND cemetery.

When he crashed, he was going to LA during the filming of “The Spirit of Notre Dame.” I think there were several others on the plane, pretty tragic.
 

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