Illinois Beach Oddities

I think it’s important to remember that it’s fun to do something for no reason at all. That is, not everything needs a reason beyond simply the freedom to do it.

This is what Sir Edmund Hilery was hinting at when he was asked, why do you want to climb Mount Everest, and he answered, because it’s there. Because the freedom of the will to choose and act and do, the freedom for you to do something for no other reason than you happen to want to do it, is the irreducible, unassailable base on which all human delight is built¹.

That has nothing to do with how we came to be at Illinois Beach State Park, on the far northern reaches of Chicago, or what we did there, but I think it’s worth saying things from time to time about the meta-journey if you will. One of the things I’ve learned from this adventure is that life isn’t so serious as it seems, perhaps especially when it seems most serious. It’s okay to do things just because. The universe is a whimsical place after all, how else do you explain the giraffe? Or this strange, abandoned concession center in the middle of Illinois Beach State Park looking for all the world like it was plucked out of a 1950s Soviet seaside resort and plopped here in Illinois?

One of the things I was most looking forward to about coming back to the Great Lakes area was replicating the day we drove out of the heat and into the wonderfully cool summer of Wisconsin. Alas, that did not happen this time (you can never go back).

The heat wave followed us up through Chicago, where I stopped off at the Zipdee factory to pick up two awnings we’d ordered several months ago. With the giant, fifteen foot tubes on the floor of the bus, I hit the road again bound for Illinois State Beach, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Thankfully the heat wave only lasted two more days, and we had the nice clear, icy waters of Lake Michigan to keep us cool in the mean time. Almost any day spent on the water is a good day in my book, though the temperature extremes were more than we’re used to — 100 in the air, 53 in the water. Stay in for more than a few minutes and you’re shivering, but by the time you’re out two minutes you’re ready to cool back down again.

Fortunately after the weekend the air temp settled back down to a nice 80 degrees, making it a bit of fun to sit (and play) on the beach.

The abandoned concession stand wasn’t the only odd thing in Illinois State Beach, in fact there were quiet a few oddities. My favorite was the pair of Sandhill Cranes that strolled through the campground every day utterly unconcerned with any humans that might be around. In fact they would march right up to people, looking for food. I saw one sneak a hot dog off a picnic table and proceed to eat it before any of the people around it noticed.

While I was photographing the birds a ranger pulled up in a truck behind me and said, “don’t be bothering my chickens, now.” I learned from him that while there’s been a pair of cranes that have nested here for a few years, this year there are seven pairs. No one knows why they stopped here, and no one knows why they seem utterly unafraid of humans. Maybe they just wanted to. Because they can.

The oddities of Illinois Beach State Park were perfectly suited to the real reason we came — to install our new Zipdee awnings and get rid of our old. It’s an odd thing to do in a campground full of people enjoying their weekend. But no one complained about the sawing and the remains of the old awning fit nicely in the dumpster. In the end rain stopped me from getting the big awning installed here, but I got our new side awning on at least.

It keeps the afternoon sun out of the window and allows us to have the window open even if it’s raining, but really we just like it… because it’s there. It makes the bus a little more fun, a little more delightful if I do say so myself.