It looks like we're heading right for Wendy's!

Something the Western Canadians said while we were driving to the Wolves game on Tuesday reminded me of something 2 of my college friends once remarked on--and it made me laugh all over again.

Having lived in the Greater Chicagoland Metropolitan Area all my life, it never occurred to me that our method of providing gas and chow to highway travelers was unique. Having, say, a Wendy's or a Hardee's or a McDonald's suspended across a line of cars going 80 miles per hour seems perfectly normal to me.

That is, until people who haven't driven the IL tollways* point out the front window and say, "Oh my god! It looks like we're heading right for Wendy's! That's so weird!"

Uh, that's 'cause we are heading right for Wendy's.

I went to college in Kirksville, MO for a semester and made 2 very good friends while I was there. After I had left MO, they flew into Midway for a visit and I picked them up there. As we were driving home from Midway on I55, sure enough, we drove right under the Hinsdale Oasis (OMG, we're heading right for Wendy's!!!!)

This past Tuesday it happened again! We're driving along I90 and the Western Canadians were like, "What is that?!?" McDonald's and a gas station. "But it looks like it's above the road" It is above the road.

Yep, that's how we do things here in IL--when we say haute cuisine**, we mean it!

I find it so enjoyable that a hovering fast-food spaceship can entertain college students and grown people alike :)


*http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_pageid=57,1300922,57_1301152&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

**http://babelfish.altavista.com/