Krekel's Chicken Car, Decatur, Illinois

Butter cow, Illinois State Fair, Springfield

Moon peeping out of Lake Michigan

Nobody wants to live on the 13th floor.

Long before he lived in the White House, Barack Obama lived in this courtyard apartment building in Hyde Park, Chicago, when he was earning $10,000 a year as a community organizer.

You're about to make a bad life choice.

Vacant lot in Englewood, Chicago

Holler House, a Milwaukee tavern, has the oldest sanctioned bowling alley in the U.S., dating back to 1908. They still use pinsetters!

Few Illinoisans leave Wisconsin without a visit to Mars Cheese Castle.

Rogers Park, Chicago

Harvey Pekar statue, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Only in Michigan does a party store sell beer and liquor.

Former movie theater and pizza parlor, Hegewisch, Chicago

The wall separating Chicago from Evanston

In Pittsburgh, "Kennywood's open" means "your fly's unzipped." The term comes from the Kennywood amusement park.

Tonight, make a tater tots hotdish in solidarity with Minnesota.

Go Staleys!

Breakfast at Valois Cafeteria. The most food for your money in Chicago.

A precious Illinois artifact: Jeff Tweedy's hat, State of Sound exhibit, Navy Pier, Chicago

Plaistow, New Hampshire

Currently reading, for the nth time, my favorite book.

Postcard style Chicago mural, Logan Square

Timber Lanes, last of the old school bowling alleys, North Center, Chicago

Mary Tyler Moore statue, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Spoonbridge and Cherry, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mr. Red tattoo, Cincinnati, Ohio

Campaign poster for Richard J. Daley's first election as mayor, 1955.

Superdawg, Forest Glen, Chicago

Statue of Ronald Reagan that does look like Ronald Reagan, Dixon, Illinois

seneca mobil, west allis, wisconsin, 1977

Ronald Reagan statue that doesn't look like Ronald Reagan, Dixon, Illinois

Gemini Giant, Wilmington, Illinois

Goodman, Manzarek and Prine on a Chicago musicians mural.

Dive bar, Portage Park, Chicago

Hilliard Homes, Bertrand Goldberg, architect, South Loop, Chicago

Ernest Hemingway's boyhood home, Oak Park, Illinois

Carpet mosaic, Francisco CTA stop, Chicago

Ghost bike on Milwaukee Avenue, the most dangerous stretch of road in Chicago.

Masonic Hall converted to a Hare Krishna temple, Rogers Park, Chicago

Ship passing under the Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth, Minnesota

German-American club in historically German Lincoln Square, Chicago

A moose on Isle Royale, Michigan, which I visited 20 years ago. It's a long way from a long way from anywhere.

Millard and Grover, City Hall, Buffalo, New York

The most Instagrammed restaurant in Chicago

The proposed Indiana state sandwich is the breaded pork tenderloin, of course. I ate one in Peru and can't recommend it.

The Eternal Indian, Lowden State Park, Illinois. Sculpted by Lorado Taft. The statue is supposed to represent Black Hawk, but Taft used a friend as a model, so it doesn't look anything like Black Hawk.

The original Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois. As a result of a court case, the other Burger King is not allowed to operate within 20 miles of Mattoon.

Steamboat, Dubuque, Iowa

Decatur, Illinois's minor league baseball team (d. 1974) was nicknamed the Commodores, after Commodore Stephen Decatur. They were popularly known as the Commies, even during the Cold War.

It's considered good luck to rub Lincoln's nose at his tomb in Springfield.