Originally Posted by SMF UA 1K

I was wondering if someone would raise this and thought about addressing it in my OP. Even though it's not relevant to my question, there are two main reasons why I don't fly into MKE. First, I need to be in Milwaukee as early as possible on Mondays. If I land in ORD at noon, I am usually where I need to be around 2:00 or 2:15. If I were to fly into MKE, the earliest I could arrive would be at 1:35. After getting my bags, rental car, and something to eat, I'm probably at the office at the same time. I don't have to worry about potentially missing a connection by flying the non-stop to ORD.

The second reason I don't fly into MKE is that if I were to connect through DEN, I'd have to fly on an RJ and I detest them, so I'm not going to fly 900 miles on then once or twice each week if I can avoid it. It would be a shorter ride through ORD, but connecting through ORD can be a crapshoot, especially when I am on the last flight of the day back to SMF.

Anyway, my ride down I-294 was much better yesterday. I hit it at the same time as last week, and it probably took half the time it took the previous week. Just before crossing the state line into Illinois on I-94, there is a sign showing times to certain destinations. Last week, it showed 80 minutes to ORD, which I thought was crazy when I saw it, but as soon as I hit the traffic, I knew it was right. Yesterday showed 51 minutes, which was much better.

So, thanks to all for the alternate routes. I may take them one of these days if the traffic is just too much to bear. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about the time I get there (I'll be leaving Milwaukee at 3:30 each Thursday, so I'll probably be just getting to I-294 around 4:45-5:00), so I'll just have to hope that yesterday was normal and the previous week was an aberration.