To Chicago! And the beginning of Route 66.

War Correspondents Memorial.

You are here. At the Battle of South Mountain.

The Burnside Bridge. It’s a famous Civil War era bridge on the Antietam Battle Ground.

Walking towards Fort Ligonier.

Inside the fort.

The buildings were rather well maintained.

The raw wood beams are lovely!

I kind of want old glass windows in our house.

We took a short walk to see the place where General Braddock was buried.

And this is where he’s buried now…just a short distance up the hill from the other plaque.

One of a few Madonna’s of the Trail we saw on the trip.

Welcome to West Virginia!

In Moundsville, WV we stayed with friends for two nights. Moundsville is famous for the Grave Creek Mound.

And there’s the mound. It’s an Native American burial mound. The mound used to be higher, but humans are rude and sometimes don’t have respect for the dead.

The former West Virginia State Penitentiary. We actually toured the penitentiary but I’ll save that for a different post!

Be progressive!

National Road West.

There’s our travel buddy!

Don’t you want to play some corn-hole games?

I never really find the drive from Pennsylvania to Chicago all that interesting, but sometimes you come across things like this! And that makes the drive bearable.

Hey Indiana!

The Illinois and Indiana state border.

Welcome to Chicago.

I love Millennium Park in Chicago! You’ll see more of that soon.

A fancy lion in front of the Art Institute.

More Millennium Park! Water pours out from these fountains. The faces on the fountains also change every few minutes. AND the faces on the fountains are of Chicago residents.

The Bean!! It’s my favorite thing in Chicago! I did my art history research paper on the Bean during my senior year in college.

Seagulls on the Bean.

Can you see us in the reflection?

There we are!

The last time we were here was in 2008 and we saw someone buffing and shining the Bean.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain. Chicago has really nice parks and architecture.

Vomiting seahorses!

The beginning of historic Route 66! And the fun begins.