That's a WIN WIN situation if you ask me!
Before we even reached the Michigan/Indiana border we began to see billboards for the Blue Beacon Truck Wash coming up at Exit 30 on I-94. We hardly ever pass up a chance to treat THE POD to a bath, so we pulled off the Interstate to get in line for a high pressure wash.
We know from past visits that they average about 15-minutes per wash.
So we're looking at a 1¾-hours before we're out of here, plenty of time to eat lunch.
A little over 1½-hours later we were waiting in line again, this time at the entrance to one of Indiana's premier state parks, Indiana Dunes State Park.
Whenever you combine a cloudless summer weekend day with temperatures in the mid-70°Fs you can expect a long wait to get into this park, even at 2:00PM in the afternoon. We were about 15-minutes into our wait when we realized it was only 1:00PM in the afternoon, because this little corner of Indiana is in Central Time and not Eastern Time like most of the rest of the state.
After getting unhitched and all set up we headed 8-miles back up the Interstate to purchase gasoline at $3.07 a gallon, that's because here at our location gasoline is going for $3.59 to $3.70? I don't know the reason why the big discrepancy, but we have a few other things to take care of on that side of town too.
Two weeks ago while I was collecting my "Knee Deep" sample from Lake Huron, Tricia took her "waterproof" camera out into the lake to take some photos.
Her phone accidentally spent a few seconds about a foot underwater, which shouldn't have been any kind of problem, but it was.
After several days of sitting in a container full of rice the phone seemed to be OK, except occaisionally it wouldn't charge or accept a thumb drive to transfer photos off of her phone.
Both of those problems are BIG problems for us!
We took her phone into Verizon today and the technician immediately showed us the failure in the seal, which explained all the problems we've been experiencing.
The battery had overheated and swollen enough to break the waterproof seal. Long story short, we have insurance on the phone and on Tuesday she'll be getting a brand new $1000 phone, just like the one she has now, for a $99 fee.
We also ordered a brand new "waterproof case" on Amazon to put her brand new "waterproof phone" into anytime she goes near the water so her phone is doubley protected.
When we got back to the park we drove down to the beach parking lot to check things out.
but that's the Chicago skyline 32-miles away on the far shore of Lake Michigan.
This is about as close as we're gonna get to Chicago this time around.
This time it was at 6:30AM, before the front gates open for the "Day Use" visitors, so the parking lot was nearly empty.
So at 9:00AM we were in the parking lot of the Verizon store where we had her new phone shipped to. It was a pretty painless procedure, other than the $99 deductible we had to pay, to get her new phone up and running.
In less than 30-minutes the technician/salesperson had all of Tricia's information transfered to her new phone, the old phone wiped out back to factory settings and then we were out the door. We also picked up a new set of five camera lens covers to keep them safe from scratches.
With that out of the way it was once again time to find a laundromat. Once I got Tricia all set up I went in search of a post office to return her old broken phone to the insurance company, plus we had a "Get Well Soon" package to send out to our good friend in Jacksonville.
With the mailing chore all done I went in search of the all new, and appartently elusive, flavor of Mountain Dew called "Infinite Swirl". It is a Pineapple/Strawberry flavor that is exculsive to 7-Eleven/Speedway/Stripes convenience stores.
There are no 7-Eleven or Stripes stores in this immediate area we're in, but Speedway stores seem to be located on nearly every major intersection in Michigan City, IN. After checking out 3 Speedway locations and coming up empty, I got all excited when I found an advertisement stuck on one of the refrigerator case doors announcing the new flavor.
After searching high and low in the case there were none to be found. I even asked the clerk to see if maybe there were some in the back that hadn't been placed on the shelf yet. Nope! Once again I left empty handed.
I consider myself somewhat of a Mountain Dew connoisseur and every time I hear of a new flavor I just have to taste one. I'm not giving up on Infinite Swirl just yet, as it is still brand new. Currently, as best as I can tell, there are 23 flavors available on the market. I tend to focus on the flavors that are available in stores and not the ones only found in restaurants like KFC, Applebee's and Buffalo Wild Wings, who each have their own exculsive flavor.
Feeling defeated I returned to the laundomat to pickup Trica and we headed back to THE POD to put away the fresh clean laundry. Later in the afternoon I recieved a text message that our Amazon order had arrived and was ready for pickup at the locker located 10-miles west of the campground.
I haven't mentioned this, but nearly every single day since we arrived here we've made this 20-mile round trip to pickup our Amazon items from the locker. It's still quicker and cheaper than shopping at local stores to find everything we need and some items we would never find locally.
Can you image trying to find a 12V and 120V charger for my 2012 Macbook Pro that has a proprietary Apple plug on the end, that would just not happen. What I did find on Amazon were adapter tips that fit on a standard USB-C cable that seems to be working just fine. Now when the cord gets frayed and stops charging, I simply buy a new standard cable at just about anywhere these days and I'm back in business.
Other items included new shoes for both Tricia and I, new binoculars, a phone tether (for when Tricia and I go kayaking), tea strainers (for all that loose tea Tricia purchased last week), a replacement Contigo travel mug (Tricia left hers in the kayak she rented last week), some special kind of Lip Balm, Lip Moisturizer, Lip Cure, Chapstick kind of product for Tricia, and finally an electronic fly swatter/bug zapper wand (for me).
Today we're making our final trip to the Amazon locker and the normal 30-40 minute trip took us just over 2-hours. There are three highways that run east/west in this area. The mostly 2-lane US-12 (our prefered route), the mostly 4-lane US-20 and then there's Interstate 94.
This afternoon the construction crew working on Interstate 94 ruptured a gas line which shut down traffic in both directions for the rest of the day. This meant that all that traffic had to spill out onto the other two lesser highways. We skipped using any of the three mentioned routes and instead used Apple Maps to route us into the neighborhood streets along with 100s, at least not 1000s of other drivers. We sometimes spent three or four traffic light cycles to get through some of the busier intersections, but we at least made it there and back.
We celebrated by checking out the Rooftop Restaurant on the third floor of the Dunes Pavilion located here in the State Park.
The food we ordered was good, but the atmosphere and management style we found lacking. First off we took an elevator to the 3rd floor which exited on the wrong side of the building. That required us to walk down a narrow hallway, around a corner and then out the doors to the rooftop patio area.
There were probably three-dozen four-seater tables on the deck and not one of them had an umbrella for shade. It was 80°F this afternoon and no clouds so it was hot! We noticed half of the six occupied tables were all cramped into one corner where the shadow of the building created a little shade, but where there was no view of the beach or lake down below.
Upon arrival on the deck the bartender hands you a 4"x9" menu card with a very limited offering of food on one side and beverages (alcoholic and not) on the other side, then you're told to chose any available table you'd like. On every table is a QR code with instructions on how to order your food.
Since there is very limited cell phone coverage in the park, you have to logon to the restaurant's unsecure wifi network to place your order. You have to enter credit card information to pay for the order, this is something we always try to avoid for obvious security reasons! Since you order your own food, there are no employees stationed fulltime on the deck, only the bartender who seemed reluctant to come out from behind the bar, so no one to answer questions about the menu before ordering your food.
When you are all done with the ordering process someone does quickly come out of the kitchen with your beverages and just as quickly returns. The food was delivered shortly there after, but at that time no offer was made to refill our nearly empty lemonade. I imagine things would have been different if we had beer or alcohol drinks.
It was very much like the typical "fast food" restaurant syle of dining, you stand in line (or order yourself on one of the new kiosks some places offer), you order your food and pay, you find a seat and someone delivers your food to your table. Only here you get to sit while ordering your food, but you have to subject your credit card information to any "hacker" located within range of the unsecured wifi network signal you're sharing.
I'm OK with most of this, except the unsecured network thing, but here's the kicker that I have the most problem with.
Before hitting send on your order you better read the fine print! They prompt you with a window where you can add 10%-15%-20%-25% gratuity to you order with the press of a button, how convenient and kind of normal these days. Unless you read the whole screen before this prompt where it states that every order has a 20% gratuity added to the total, you'll find yourself way overtipping. If you want to leave 0% additional gratuity you have to select "other" from the menu and type in "0".
Other than possibly the quality of the food, I found this experience no different than eating at any upscale "fast food" place like Five Guys, Chick-fil-A, Chipolte's or even Arby's for that matter, where I don't usually feel compelled to leave a tip.
What about you guys, do you tip at a fast food restaurant? What about when using the drive thru lanes? I'm curious, if so, how much?
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