Midway Airport is downtown in the Loop. That is heavy traffic for sure. O'Hare is out in the northwest suburbs. Where is he actually playing in Chicago???? Joliet is wayyyy out of the Chicago area, and I assume you would try to fly in to Joliet??? Do they even have a good sized airport and could you fly direct? Or take a train? As I recall, the Rock Island goes through Joliet.

Congrats to your son, and I am glad to hear you are feeling better.

St Louis has terrible traffic at morning and evening rush hour. I didn't think it would be bad at all until I was stuck in it.

kat_wa, you have brought me out of lurker land and made me write my first post!

I'm from Joliet. Is the game at Jackhammer's Stadium? If so, it's right next door to the train station. Sadly, there is no train from Midway to Joliet.

Now then, Midway Airport is south of the loop, but the traffic is heavy nonetheless. I don't know where you're coming from, but can you fly into Bloomington? It's 20 or so miles further, but it's an extremely easy drive with next to no traffic. Timewise it's about the same. I have no issue with Bloomington, and I'm a wimp when it comes to driving in traffic!

Good luck on your decision, and DS's game! If you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

If it is in Joliet, try the airport in Rockford. If it is in St. Charles, Lambert is on the north side and an easy drive to St. Charles (NW of STL). I just never liked the bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. YUCK!!

B'ham has a medium size airport.

Come to B'ham and I'll treat you to Irondale Cafe :o)

wow... I'll be flying from Seattle. And I just
assumed that I would need to fly in to these major
airports.!

Well, Woodsy, it's about time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
thank you all for posting and giving me ideas. I'll
go check out Rockford and Bloomington..
St. Francis University? Does that ring a bell? I don't
know if it is there or at another stadium. I don't know anything! They (the NAIA) just have a list of possible sites, those aren't even for sure!

man oh man!
thanks,

I've been to Lambert (St. Louis) many times... these days I make DH drive there though and we still can hardly find our way out of the airport without driving around once or twice. lol You'll sit in traffic if it's near rush hour, otherwise it's not too bad once you actually get onto the highway. Maybe it's just us that get confused? :-)

Now St. Charles I can handle. It is only about 15 minutes from the airport. If you go there and want some company let me know. There's a very nice historic district full of shopping and restaurants and a nearby casino if you will have spare time.

nothing from Seattle or Chicago to Rockford...
and to Bloomington, well, today they are $600 and some have only 1 seat left. I won't know anything til I get home from work on Friday afternoon. I wonder how expensive they will be then? there are a lot of flights to Bloomington .... that are 15 to 17 hours travel time.. with
3 stops. um... NOOOOOOOOOOOOoo lol

Just to clarify... Lambert is the St. Louis airport, but it is on the west side of St. Louis so you wouldn't have to drive downtown. Lambert's just 9 miles from St. Charles.

oh, Lydia! that sounds like one I would like!
thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kat, who will drive Seattle, but Seattle is
small! and we have only ONE freeway! LOL
two choices, either northbound or southbound! LOLO

The simplest of all the airports you mentioned is Columbus, GA. The town is not large and its easy to drive out of and into this airport. Avoid the time when the Masters Golf tournament is playing. Motels are filled and the airport is busy,and may not have sufficient resources to handle the passenger traffic. On busy weekends and holidays, speed traps are common on connecting roads to the airport and outer loops.

In Chicago, Midway is not much of an airport compared to O'Hare and its a traffic mess to try to get out of town from there. Years ago, Midway was popular for folks going to the "Navy Pier" extension of the University of Illinois, or to destinations downtown.

O'Hare is very large and busy, but the vehicular traffic is organized. The biggest traffic problem is the on and off ramps to the interatate tollway. Do not rent an underpowerd, wimpy car. You'll apprecaite a boost in the pants when merging with Chicago traffic. However, in my experience, St. Louis drivers are "meaner" than Chicagians.

Smoothness of traffic in Chicago depends on the time of day and amount of construction. The best time to drive the tri-state Tollway is at night after 8pm and until 6am.

Hint: All of the tri-state tollway (Chicago) is now equipped with electronic, overhead gates, and the manual gates are fewer in number. Most of the electronic gates now have high speed capability; Only a few ask you to slow to 15 mph when passing through. The charge for the electronic toll is 1/2 of the manual gates. This system is known as the "I-Pass". The electronic gates are very different to a manual gate. The sensors are mounted on cross bars high over the driving lanes and there is little to no impedence to traffic flow. To use the system, you purchase a small transponder that attaches to the top of the inside of your windshield. The unit can be "refilled" with money using your credit card and logging into a web site.

If you are going to be driving more than a couple of days around Chicago, I recommend that you subscribe to the I-Pass system. This transponder also works on a few other toll roads in other states as well. I found it to be very convenient.

US highways in Wisconsin are toll free. The major interstate from Rockford to Chicago is a toll way.

I live about 1/2 way between both Chicago's O'Hare and Midway Airports. When we have to fly, we ALWAYS try to go in/out of Midway. It's smaller and much more manageable both within the airport and getting to/from.

Summertime in Chicago is highway construction time no matter where you drive. This year is typical in that construction on one highway forces traffic to other highways and surface road. One is impacted no matter where they drive.

The trip from Midway to Joliet is about 30 miles. From O'Hare to Joliet is about 38 miles. Both driving routes involve highways and, if you are driving during the day, traffic will be heavy. Both drives will take you well over 1 hr unless you drive at night. Rockford to Joliet is about 100 miles - no way would I fly into Rockford!!

I agree about getting an I-Pass. Highways around Chicago are toll rds and, if you don't have an I-Pass, tolls are over double what they would be with an I-Pass. Plus, with one you get to avoid lines at toll booths.

Good luck with the playoffs, no matter where they are held.

The statement that Midway Airport in Chicago is downtown, in The Loop is inaccurate.

I am originally from the South Suburbs (only about 10 miles from Joliet at one point!) and agree with what lesterd stated. We ALWAYS try to go in & out of Midway. The airport itself is much easier to navigate than O'Hare. And, we're closer to "home" when using Midway!

just drove thru the southside of chicago this (I94, to I57)week...and they have LOTS of huge 18 wheelers, but if you be sure and mapquest any of the sites mentioned, it's not that bad...just read the maps at least once or twice, 3 times is best..

of the 3 choices i'd take birmigham, though...

ok they do have a non-stop flight from seatac to midway...on southwest airlines...not bad time either leave seattle at 7am arrive in chicago at 1pm...so traffic wouldn't be so bad...

She doesn't have time enough to get an I-Pass transponder through the mail, and navigating a trip to Jewel after she flies in would be a pain, and then she'd have to register it......Plus, she'd lose $10 deposit or whatever it is unless she makes time to return the thing. In this case, it's probably not a good idea. I have one, and I've given them as gifts (believe it or not, haha) to my kids, so it's not that I don't like them. Besides, as convenient as they are, since everyone has them these days, the coin lanes don't get backed up very often.

I stay away from Midway, much prefer O'Hare, as big and obnoxious as it is. Very easy to navigate there, both inside and out.

Sherry

In many major cities the rental cars are outfitted with toll passes. You can use them, but pay the extra service fee, charged to the card you rented your car with, or obscure them and stop and pay cash.
I'd either take a GPS or rent a car with GPS service. I used to have to travel to new cities all the time and if only GPS had been common then, I could have saved a lot of stress.

Kat, Leaving from the Atlanta airport for Columbus would not really be that bad. It's about 1-1/2 hrs. with good roads. You would also pass through the area of Callaway Gardens and Pine Mountain that's about 30 miles out of Columbus. Honestly, I've driven in Seattle traffic as well and the Atlanta to Columbus trip isn't any more daunting. Birmingham to Columbus would definitely be a convoluted path. Montgomery's airport isn't very large but wouldn't be my choice of a starting point for driving. (There's a LOT of road work going on there now.) There's another airport in Dothan, Alabama that's 1-1/2 hr. drive from Columbus and that would be easier driving than from Montgomery.

LOL.. thanks everyone!
I wish I knew where! and when!
boy, prices are very expensive this close to leaving DNG!
yeah, Seattle is in the top 10 for bad traffic, even though
we are small. But it isn't necessarily the traffic,
its all the freeways! lol Geez, to get back to the Columbus airport I think I had to get on and off 4 freeways! lol
def. get GPS!

well, darn! they took the Missouri site out.
now just waiting to hear where they go. Joliet is still on the list of sites, Lubbock Texas too. Cleveland Tennessee too. hmmmmm

I see we've lost our history on this site too!