1. Pennsylvania highway planners like straight roads. They like them so much they run them through mountains rather than around them.
2. "Falling Water", the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Mill Run, PA is most definitely worth a stop on any extended road trip. Check the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy web site for details.
3. I knew I'd see corn. I figured that it would start in Indiana, or maybe Ohio. Wrong. It starts in (Western) Pennsylvania, and is everywhere!
4. Drive-in movies still exist. We found one in Western PA.
5. Once you make it past Central Pennsylvania, its hard not to DQ (Dairy Queen) today!
6. West Virginia has 70MPH speed limits... When's the last time you've seen that east of the Mississippi and north of the Carolinas?
7. Speaking of Carolinas. This is the first time I've seen the "Forget 911, In an emergency I dial .357" bumper sticker north of the Mason-Dixon.
8. Indiana has combination Gas Station/White Castles. Eat here and get gas?
9. Richmond, Indiana. Metropolis? Not quite. But oodles of dirt cheap motels. Makes you wonder why....
10. In case you care: Indiana is home to the world's largeest RV dealer.
11. Entering Indiana, the first thing you see is the Shelton Co.'s "World's Largets Fireworks Store." I though this only happened in the South!
12. Marathon Oil Truck Stop(Richmond, IN): where else can you get a video of NASCAR's Greatest Wrecks?
13. The Midwest has another food craze besides DQ: Steak-n-Shake. I really don't know what to say about a name like that...
14. Some states still engage in that classic country tradition --- the state fair. Evidently, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio all engage in that tradition on the same weekend.
15. The Amish and Mennonites evidently made it a ways past Lancaster County, Pa. They have settlements in Illinois too, and Urbana, IL has its own Mennonite church.
16. Cheddar's restauirant has some mighty fine fresh-baked honey croissants. Well worth the $1.29 for three.
17. Who would've thunk it, but K-Mart is open 24/7 in Champaign, IL.
18. Illini Orange has to be one of the brightest colors imaginable. Sunglasses reccomended for visitors.
19. Move-in day is the biggest shopping day of the year for Champaign-Urbana merchants. Think about it: 30,000 college students all buying supplies they forgot, with their parents' money. Makes the day after Thanksgiving look like nothing!
20. Drive-in restaurants still exist -- car hops and all. The name? Dog and Suds (Champaign, IL).