Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Quick Trip to a Cool Little Town–Galena Illinois! (and a rant)…

027

We really didn’t do much our last full day in Sugar Bottom Park. Since it was Sunday and the park was still pretty full we took full advantage of our last day of full hookups to clean the inside and outside of the motorhome. We leave Monday  and are headed to the town of Dubuque Iowa for three nights with only electricity followed by another 6 nights in Madison, Wisconsin (also with only electricity). So with 9 days of only electricity in our future we made the most of utilizing water and sewer hookups to make the rig spotless.

imageimage

Later on Sunday John and Jane wanted to meet up for one last time so we joined them for happy hour at Reds Ale House a place we would surely be regulars at if we were to live in this area. It sure was fun getting together with them one last time and we hope to see them again should our paths again later this summer or early fall.

image

When Monday rolled around I made one more visit to our black raspberry patch and was able to pick a couple more pints of this delicious treat from Mother Nature. Then it was back to the rig for breakfast and time to pack up to get ready for departure. By 10:30 we were rolling out of Sugar Bottom Park and we made a pleasant drive through the Iowa farmland, small towns and quaint farms to the town of Dubuque Iowa. We pulled in the Miller Riverview Park and Campground, located the park's potable water tap and filled up the rig with water.

030033

This does bring up a bit of a rant for me. Why is it that RV manufactures don’t make tank level indicators that work? Ours have never worked but we have learned to adapt by opening the vent cap and waiting for water to trickle out to know it is full. If we hadn’t adapted so well I am sure we would have installed the Seelevel Tank Monitoring System. Maybe one day I will order it and go through the trouble of installing it as it is the only tank monitoring system from what I've heard that actually works since it has the monitoring sensors on the outside of the tank instead of on the inside where they can get all fouled up!!!

017025

Well we had to wait for someone to leave our site since checkout wasn’t until 3:00 pm. This rarely happens but we waited in another vacant spot. We sat on a picnic table and looked out over the mighty Mississippi River and even spotted a pair of bald eagles hunting for fish along the far shoreline. Once they left our reserved site we simply moved on over to it and after we set up we went to town to do laundry. After laundry we decided we deserved a treat so we drove about 14 miles east into Illinois to a very unexpected surprise of a town called Galena. Galena Illinois is really a cool little former mining town which looks more like a town one would see in the hills of New York, Massachusetts or even Colorado. The mid 1800’s architecture is really fascinating so we walked around the town (even though most of the shops were closed that late in the day).

029image

We ended the day at the Galena Brewing Company for a few craft beers and must say we enjoyed all three we sampled (Oatmeal Stout, IPA and their Nut Brown). We are only in Dubuque for three days but just may have to return to Galena for a bit more walk around time!

11 comments:

  1. Our indicators in the MH and 5er never work. One reason we didn't boondock more. We never knew how full or empty we were. What a pain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where are you heading in the Madison area, we will be over that way this weekend by RIO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We leave this morning for Lake Farm Campground 3113 Lake Farm Rd, Madison, WI... there for 6 nights

      Delete
  3. They just don't work. We play a guessing game. Can't understand a 3PM check-out time. That's really, really late. Usually that's more like a check-in time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Curiosity has gotten the better of me. What color is Iowa?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Our in tanks sensors, still work somewhat, especially the fresh water no problem, the gray usually works down to 1/3 and the black reads 2/3rd until it is getting full. And the coach is now 17 years old. Now way to access any of our tanks HR built the coach around the tanks, hope we never have a major issue.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We check our levels but not sure why because like yours, they don't work. I always love finding those really neat little towns so unexpectedly.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's never actually bothered us that the sensors don't work. Actually, that's wrong. At the beginning it did bother us. But when we learned over time what our limitations were with regard to capacity, we don't even think about it any more.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. When I lived in Chicago, Galena was a favorite weekend getaway spot. I even considered moving there.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We have the SeeLevel ... but part of the problem with why our gauges have never been quite accurate is the actual shape of the grey and black tanks, which are slightly wedge shaped, so depending on which end the sensors are installed, they either show less than what's actually in the tank, or more ... no winning the sensor game I guess. We just know what our capacity is, and empty on a schedule instead.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We also love Galena and had considered moving there. FYI part of Field of dreams movie was filmed in the downtown area.

    ReplyDelete