Are you going to drive 50 miles for a cheeseburger!? I've heard that countless times (to the point of annoyance) in my hometown. To them, it blew their minds that you'd drive a town or two over to get something to eat. To answer the question, “Yes, I am.”
Some people are more curious and do want to legitimately travel out of their small town. They will often comment they could never take road trips like I do. What many don't realize is I didn't start with anything big. I'd just randomly drive around. I'd go to neighboring towns to check things out.
Taking trips doesn't have to be a big thing. It can merely be something you do to get supper. With that, you might find a new favorite place to eat. On your drive back, there may be an excellent place to catch the sunset. You might even make new friends that don't live too far away along the way. Regardless, I recommend driving around and getting to know your local area. Everywhere has something to offer. You'll start to really appreciate where you live.
With that, I only take big trips every 6-8 weeks. I do have scraps of time that I can take shorter trips in between for something as simple as supper. I'll probably start doing this a bit more to ensure I get out of the house.
For this trip, I planned to check out Freeport, Illinois. Freeport is about 45 miles from Belleville, Wisconsin, where I live. I initially was going to take the Cougar, but then I looked at the weather.
I hopped in the Focus and was on my way to Freeport.
It was still sunny when I hit the Illinois border.
I ended up driving past the courthouse. I would have stopped if I hadn't already checked it off my list.
I decided to go to mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
I got there early enough to go to confession. After that, I still had a lot of time to kill, so I read the readings and Gospel a bunch of times to reflect. After mass, I headed to my car and was reminded I was in Chicago Bears country.
I headed over to 312 Beef & Sausage for supper.
I got the beef and sausage combo. Illinois is known for this, which was why I came in the first place. It was amazing!
I headed back, and it was starting to cloud up the closer I got to the Wisconsin border.
By the time I hit Wisconsin, it was getting dark.
It continued to get darker as I headed north back towards Belleville.
Once I hit Monticello, it was raining pretty hard.
I know I made a good choice of not getting the Cougar out. The rain is still much needed, so I'm not complaining. I returned to Belleville and then hung out with Victoria and Austin before he went to bed.
I enjoy these little trips. I plan to do them more often because, yes, I will drive 50 or more miles for a burger.