This town is about 50 miles from Chicago, close enough for a day trip yet far enough to require a Blain’s Farm and Fleet store.
When Bears training camp opens on Friday, the ride down Interstate Highway 57 and especially the traffic around the main entrance to the new facility at Olivet Nazarene University could turn out to be a bigger mess than Cade McNown.
“Traffic is going to be hell,” said Angela Heldt, 24, a nurse who, like many area residents, plans to alter her daily driving schedule because she expects some big jams. “People won’t know where they’re going.”
Even before you get there, you’d better watch out.
Just after you get on I-57 south from I-80 west, there is a very low gulley with very high grass between the northbound and southbound lanes. It is a perfect place to hide a state trooper who will see you before you can see him, who will hit his lights before you can hit your brakes.
Several miles past that, the ride from Chicago starts looking like the trip to Wisconsin, what with all the farmland. Then the potential for the big problem begins.
Directions on the Bears’ Web site for getting to Olivet Nazarene University instruct you to take Exit 315 and bear right, putting you on Illinois 50.
Take your first right, which is Armour Road, and go two stoplights to Convent Road, which is also U.S. 45/52. Technically, you have to go to the third stoplight, where you make a left and follow it to the university’s main entrance.
An alternate route would be to take Exit 322 in Manteno, head west to U.S. 45/52, go left seven miles as it meets Main Street, then right to the main entrance.
Either way, you are on Main Street. Just about everyone is on Main Street, a curving road with two lanes each way and a dedicated left turn lane.
It is busy now (a daily count of 31,000 cars, according to Bourbonnais police). It could be overrun with Bears fans twice daily. It could be all-pro road rage.
“It’s gridlock on Fridays from 3 to 6:30 normally,” said Tom Nix, a regular in R.D.’s Place, one of the two bars near the campus entrance. “Self-employed people are saying they won’t be able to do their job and get around.”
Factor in last season’s 13-3 record, the novelty of a new site, curiosity from residents in Champaign, where the Bears will play their home games this season, and the enthusiastic countywide population of 105,000 and you could have more cars, more traffic, more frustration than Gary Crowton’s wide-receiver screen.
Bourbonnais Police Chief Joe Beard has heard estimates of as many as 10,000 people a day coming. But even he concedes no one knows what to expect.
“We’ve had some people complain that traffic will be bad,” said Tom Richmond, who owns T.J. Donlins, the other bar in Bourbonnais. “We hope the city and county will have it under control, and they’d better.”
Expect congestion. Also expect to have more options and a better time in Bourbonnais than in Platteville, Wis., the Bears’ old summer home.
“We’re Bears fans 12 months a year,” Richmond said. “In Platteville they aren’t.”
Here’s our user’s guide to the Bourbonnais area, a clip-and-save package to help you out while waiting for the first pulled hamstring of the summer.
The area
Bourbonnais proper is fairly small. It abuts Bradley in Kankakee County. This leads to some confusion.
Know that Main Street, which cuts in front of the university in Bourbonnais, becomes Kennedy Drive in Bradley, which begins south of North Street.
Everybody will say they’re in Bourbonnais, but they really aren’t. The Lees Inn, for instance, is in Bradley, but it bills itself as Bourbonnais. And the guy at the front desk pronounces it “bur-BOH-niss.” Deal with it.
At practice
No drinking. No smoking. No fifths, ands or butts. Got it?
“Drinking in public is not allowed. We’d enforce that law,” Beard said. “No smoking on campus is a rule. There’s a difference. It’s not a criminal violation to light up. We’d respectfully ask people as guests of the campus to respect the rules and not smoke.”
Once you get on campus, you’ll find plentiful parking. The Bears will have an interactive game area and a team store near the fields. Everything here is closer than in Platteville, which means the players won’t have golf carts and can’t ditch you when you want an autograph.
The university built a Platteville-like berm near the end zone of one field, so fans will be familiar with the squatter’s rights involved in watching practice. Plus the university has plans for several sections of shiny new bleachers.
There will be a misting tent and a chamber of commerce concierge tent to help you find other activities. But the big news is trailer restrooms, not Port-o-Potties.
Olivet Nazarene’s colors are purple and yellow. Vikings colors. That will have to change.
Where to stay
There is a Motel 6 at Illinois 50 and Armour Road, where you turn to get to Olivet Nazarene. A little farther down Illinois 50 is a Quality Inn.
But the best bet for proximity and other leisure options would seem to be four places east of I-57, all in the parking lot outside Northfield Square Mall.
Exit I-57 to the left, go under the highway, then make a right into the mall and hang a right to your choice of the Fairfield Inn, Lees Inn, Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn.
You get the best complimentary hot breakfast at Lees Inn. The place has been known to eject entire Little League teams when the parents failed to rein them in. The Quiet Police are on the job there.
Where to eat
Welcome to franchise heaven. Illinois 50 has Applebee’s, Red Lobster, Boston Market, Steak ‘n Shake, Lone Star Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Old Country Buffet, whatever.
But if you want something dollar-stretching and different, here are three places:
The Chicago Dough Co. offers thin, thick and stuffed pizza, but the best part is an all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch as well as Tuesday night. Pizza, pasta, bread, soup and salad for $5.49 at lunch, $6.29 for dinner, $2.99 for kids 4-11. It’s a block away from the campus entrance.
Another intriguing place is Coyote Canyon, an all-you-can-eat steak place on Route 50 near Armour Road. It’s $8.89 for adults, 50 cents a year for kids 3-10 and 10 percent off for seniors. There is a full buffet of the usual stuff–fried chicken, potatoes, pot roast, salad, pizza and dessert–plus a couple of guys grilling sirloins.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Piccolo’s (what Bear fans wouldn’t like that name?) is located next to the Northfield Square Mall. It describes itself as casual dining, but that’s the dress code. The menu choices are upscale, from steaks and chops to poultry, and they’ll let you order the lunch-size portion with the lunch-size price ($11.95 for a ribeye) at dinner.
“Mike McCaskey ate here,” Piccolo’s general manager Terry Turner said. “He stopped me at lunch and said he liked the food. Hopefully word will filter out through him.”
Turner apparently is unaware of what most Bears fans think about McCaskey’s opinion, but the food at Piccolo’s is good, the wait staff is accommodating and kids eat free.
Where to drink
There are two bars in Bourbonnais proper: R.D.’s Place and T.J. Donlins. Both are a short walk from campus. Both have $1 drafts and $2 bottles. Both share a parking lot. There’s your pub crawl.
R.D.’s Place features two golden bear statues on pedestals at the door, sort of a football version of the Art Institute. It is cozy with new wood paneling and the obligatory Bears paraphernalia. It is filled with Bears fans.
“When the Bears would fall in the second half,” said Nix, a railroad machinist who works in Chicago, “we’d say, `Dang, [Dave] Wannstedt called them again at halftime.”
T.J. Donlins has three rooms of new white paint and a lot of memorabilia from Chicago sports teams.
“We’ve been doing Bears games since 1983,” owner Tom Richmond said. “It was packed back in the day.”
And then Wannstedt tried to coach in the second half. Yeah, we know.
On Armour Road, just after you turn from Illinois 50, is John’s Pub. It used to be a Packers place. Now it’s orange and blue. Loyalty is fluid.
Where to spend money
You just missed the Gladiolus Festival, but coming up is the Kankakee County Fair, featuring a combine demolition derby, the eighth annual.
The Kankakee River State Park offers picnicking, canoe rentals (Reed’s Canoe Trips, $36-$42), horseback riding ($17/hour, $6 for children under 6), fishing (no charge, but you need a license) and a boat launch. It is 5 miles from the campus, going north on Illinois 102, a two-lane highway between cornfields and trees.
Bon Vivant Country Club, located about five minutes northwest of the university, has two courses and two twilight rates on each course. Greens fees range from $14 on weekdays to $28 on weekends.
Aspen Ridge Golf Course, located near the mall, goes for $12 on weekdays to $17 on weekends.
The Hidden Cove Family Fun Park, located behind the mall, offers everything from batting cages to two arcades. There are go-karts, outdoor mini-golf and indoor mini-golf, paddleboats, a giant slide, in-line skating and something called a Fun Jungle, which goes for $3.75, if you have any money left.
There is a strip of antique stores at Illinois 50 and Larry Power Road across from the mall.
For something that might be educational, not to mention cheaper, there is the Perry Farm and Exploration Station.
The Perry Farm, located down the street from the university entrance on Main Street/Kennedy Drive, is free and offers picnic areas, trails, Indian caves and live animals. The Exploration Station is located on the grounds of the Perry Farm. It is a children’s museum that charges $4 per person.
Coming home
Late morning and early afternoon is an easy ride on I-57 north.
But remember the rule on I-294 north: The closer you get to O’Hare or downtown, the closer you get to a complete stop on a 55-m.p.h. tollway, and the closer you get to road rage.
Think of it as a souvenir from Bears training camp.
Bears training camp schedule and area map
Schedule is subject to change
Thursday: Players report to camp.
Friday: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Saturday: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
July 29: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
July 30: Practice at 2:45 p.m.
July 31: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Aug. 1: Practice at 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 2: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 3: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (stadium)
Aug. 5: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 6: Practice at 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 7: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Aug. 8: Practice at 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 9: Practice at 8:30 a.m.
Aug. 10: Bears vs. Denver at Memorial Stadium, Champaign, 7:05 p.m.
Aug. 12: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 13: Practices at 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 14: Practice at 8:30 a.m.
