Down Calumet Sag Way

Back again on June 1, after Memorial Day, Observed. Which happens to come the day after Decoration Day this year.

As usual, there's much to do before the weekend actually starts. This morning I drove down to a part of Cook County I don't visit often for a meeting and a fine lunch. Now I know a place in Orland Park that serves a terrific Reuben -- a fine balance between the corned beef and the sauerkraut. All too often the sauerkraut mugs the corned beef.

I also enjoyed a stretch of road I never knew existed, the part of Calumet Sag Road connecting La Grange Road with the Kingery Highway. It's a two- or three-mile section of Illinois 83, which is a major road through the thick of suburban Cook, DuPage and Lake counties. Calumet Sag Road roughly parallels the Calumet Sag Channel, site of a massive fish kill just now. The fish gave their fish lives so that the invasive Asian carp might be kept out of the Great Lakes. But the channel mostly isn't visible from the road.

The road is unlike any other part of Illinois 83 that I've driven. It's two lanes with a 55 mph speed limit, and for a while it's surrounded on both sides by the woods of the Cap Sauers Holdings Nature Preserve, which is so lush now that the trees nearly form a tree tunnel in places. Otherwise the sunshine was bright. There wasn't a lot of traffic. It was hard to believe I was in populous Cook County.