2 Strange Vending Machines & Inedible Trucks.....Our Trip to IL PART 1

Well if you know me you KNOW I like to write ramble so it should be no surprise that this trip post will be a multipart report.  8-)

We usually take a short vacation each October to the shore, Ocean City Maryland specifically.
But we decided to change things up this Fall and take a trip elsewhere.

This was partly because the hotel we always stay at in OC didn't send me a special rate card/promo this year(we are long time customers there)so we would have had to have paid full fare for the room.  Add in, for some strange reason, when I went onto their website in mid-September, all their oceanfront rooms were booked for the time we usually visit.
Crap!
This has never happened at this time of year before at this hotel. 

And secondly I didn't get a chance to take a Summer Road Trip this year like I did last year because of cataract surgeries and recovery times and I needed to spend chunks of July aiding my Eldest son in his relocation to Virginia.

And thirdly, I wanted to visit my 8th cousin, blogger Sonya Ann and she lives in the middle of the country in Illinois.
So even though I am not a big fan of "The Land of Lincoln" we planned a trip out West......well, it's West for us in the East.

We left bright and early on a Thursday after a quick stop at the local Mickey D's so Hubs could get his coffee fix.
We crossed PA with no problems or back-ups so the drive that first day was fine.
Made another stop in Clearfield PA for gas and more coffee and a pee break.

Oh, if you are traveling along the interstates in PA and see one of these, do NOT under any circumstances stop and eat there........

It's a DUTCH PANTRY Restaurant and they all look similar and dot the interstates in much of PA.
This one is in Clearfield, PA.
You will live to regret eating there is you do.....just remember, you have been warned!! ;-)

I tried to get some shots of the fall foliage as we drove along rural stretches of the interstate.....

Not much color yet in many areas as we'd had a warm Fall so far.

These sections in a higher elevation was better.

The only snag we hit was in the middle of PA.  There was a wrecked tractor trailer that must have been there quiet awhile since they had enough time to set up signage for 2 miles before we got to it that there was an accident on the roadway and a lane of traffic was closed.

The trailer was still on the roadside and they were cleaning up it's cargo.

We finally got out of PA about 1:45pm......

We stopped outside of Youngstown OH for a late lunch.

We got the slowest waitress employed by a Bob Evans Restaurant in the universe named Dottie.  Don't get me wrong, she was personable and sweet even, and horror of horrors could do her job, but we didn't want to linger for hours at lunch and wanted to get back onto the highway.  But that was not in Dottie's plans.

This was after 2pm and they weren't busy but Dottie......well, let's just say she likes to get to know her customers intimately rather than make with the quick service.
Sigh.....or maybe it's me?  I do seem to bring something out in people I am told. lolz

So back on the road by 3:30pm(!!!)and we still had most of OH and half of IN to cross before stopping for the night.

Around 5ishpm we stopped for another coffee/pee break at the Turnpike Rest Area and I saw this vending machine.........

2015 is the 60th Anniversary of the Ohio Turnpike so they are selling crap fine quality merchandise commemorating this milestone in History.
How about a Ohio Turnpike keychain for your Sweetheart for Christmas?
Who wouldn't love that?!

The Ohio Turnpike is always an opportunity to see interesting things.  I saw my first triple tractor-trailer a couple of years ago while riding on it.
This trip it was an "inedible truck".
Now you would think that ALL trucks are inedible.....unless of course you are a Transformers Autobot, and then trucks are a special delicacy.

I give you the inedible truck........

If you look closer you'll see this too.....

I am glad they cleared that up for us all, aren't you?
Humans......don't eat trucks
Tranformers......eat trucks


After forking over $15.75 to the Ohio Toll Commission to get out of that fine state we crossed over into Indiana as the sun began to slowing sink into the West.....

By the time we got to our exit off the Indiana extortion toll road it was dark and going on 7:30pm.
Hubs got a bit cranky with me as our motel for the night was 7 MILES off the toll road and not right off the exit in SouthBend.
Hey, I wanted a night place to lay my head and not have to pay through the nose for a SouthBend motel room.

So we headed up into Michigan to stay at a motel in Niles.  It may have been a few miles out but it was reasonably priced and had an indoor pool, which I took full advantage of!

There was a KFC right next door so Hubs walked over and got us overpriced chicken dinner.
After dinner and a swim I noticed that strange vending machine on the way back to our room.

Food AND drinks in the same machine!  See the little wheels on the side?  You put your quarters in and turn the wheel for your item.

But the wheels/slots for the drinks are hidden inside the machine.  You have to open the front to access the drink selections.
I don't why this struck me as weird/odd but it did.
Maybe it was because it took me a full 5 minutes to figure out how it worked! lolz

After hurting my brain over this funky vending machine I went to bed.
We would need all our faculties about us for Day 2 when we hit Illinois.

Sluggy