What a Horrifying Experience…

We were only in Missouri for one night and the next morning we continued on northeastward. Our route leaving Missouri into Illinois was crossing the Cairo Bridge on highway 62. What a mistake this was!

We crossed that bridge into Illinois which we soon realized no one driving a large RV or fifth wheel should ever drive across! I mean NEVER EVER!!! This cantilevered through truss bridge over the Mississippi River on U. S. Highway 60 / 62 between Birds Point, MO, and Cairo, IL is not meant for large rigs yet truckers cross it daily.

Each lane of the bridge is 10 feet wide but with the bridge trusses straight up from its edge it really leaves each lane with about 9 feet to work with. As we approached this white-knuckler bridge we prayed we see no Semi Trucks on the nearly mile long length. 

Well we had no such luck and as we approached the truck I squeezed as far right as I thought humanly possible and when we passed the truck I’d be surprised if one could  fit a thin dollar bill between our two mirrors. We are still shocked we didn’t lose a mirror on that bridge.

Now you think we would relax after crossing that bridge but noooooo… there is another bridge just like it crossing over the Ohio River leaving Illinois just a few miles after crossing the first one. The second was a clone of the first bridge but was even longer and the first half of it was under construction forcing us into a single lane!!!

Again we prayed to see no trucks but yet again we were denied our prayers. The first truck we passed we were again greatly relieved not to have hit mirrors with and then just before we were exiting the bridge another Semi-Truck was coming onto it it. There is a slight turn off the highway onto the bridge so when this truck came on its tail end was across the middle line in our lane.

I have absolutely no idea how we didn’t get side swiped only to surmise that we must have had our prayers answered after all. It took a good while after crossing these bridges before either of us could calm down. Be advised - DO NOT EVER CROSS THESE BRIDGES… I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if we didn’t have 10 years of RV driving experience behind us!

A few hours later we pulled into our next site at the KY Corps of Engineer Canal Campground in Grand Rivers, KY. We will be staying for three days and hopefully by the end of our stay we will forget about this horrifying experience…

NOTE: We are currently in the Shenandoah Valley near Woodstock Virginia until who knows when…

Visiting RV Friends in Illinois…

Our next stop on our way to North Carolina was a small diversion south to visit RV friends in Newton Illinois. The drive on the back roads of Illinois was a bit rough but we came through it unscathed and eventually found our way to Mike and BJ’s farm near Newton. Mike was there to greet us and to position us in front of his barn.

After hugs and greetings we hooked up to electricity, water and sewer… That’s right! We had full hookups at their farm. How sweet is that! We plan to stay two days but will keep an eye on the weather as we are in the mid-west and weather can change in an instant.

Mike and BJ built a small cabin adjacent to their farm. Why would they do this? Well there is a pond on the property so they figured building a cabin in the shade of the trees near the water would be a nice place to be in the afternoon and evening. Kind of like a getaway right next door. It is amazing because it does feel like a getaway while sitting on the porch enjoying the breeze  watching the water and sipping an adult beverage .

While we didn’t do a whole lot but relax and eat a lot of great food, it sure was exceptionally nice to sit around and chat with our friends. We built a nice camp fire nightly and one thing I loved about the cabin was sitting on its front porch staring out over the fire to the pond… very serene. Another bonus was the cabin has lots of fishing poles set up and ready to use. This allowed me to partake in one of my passions as I fished everyday we were there and caught a lot of crappie and bluegill as well as a few large mouth bass. What fun!

The day we were supposed to leave it was raining and rain was in the forecast for most of the day all the way to our planned next stop in Indianapolis. So we stayed one more day and called a campground in Indianapolis only to find it booked for the upcoming Indianapolis pre-season football game. We will have to find alternate plans while inside our RV this rainy day which will be perfect for planning our next move.

As luck would have it by us staying one more day we were able to also see more RV friends as they were back from Florida and came over to the cabin for dinner and drinks. It was great catching up with Diane and Steve even though we won’t see them on the road anymore since they recently sold their RV and bought a place in The Villages in Florida. It was interesting to learn about the villages through their experiences. Sharon wants to visit to see what it is like firsthand.

Finally the next morning we had good weather and pushed on to a longer than normal distance as we drove about 260 miles (normally takes us three days to drive this far). We pulled into Rising Star Casino RV Park for a one night stay. We enjoyed their really nice park and the pool/gym/spa facilities accessible to us as guests. We were only there one night then moved over to Cincinnati, Ohio for a three night stay at the FMCA campground.

NOTE: We are now at the FMCA Campground in Cincinnati Ohio. We will stop for one o more night in Ohio before crossing the state of West Virginia…

Enjoying a Boat on Lake Shelbyville, IL with New Friends…

With another weekend looming we were fortunate to find a cancelation near Sullivan Illinois at Bo Woods Campground, a COE park. We snagged three days there, filled up with diesel and drove the short distance southeast through the Illinois corn and soybean fields. When we arrived we found our large site with a slight lake view and set up camp. Man, we love the COE parks as the sites are always spacious and very appealing. Not to mention with the “old farts card” (America the Beautiful senior pass) we also can camp at half-priced rates!

Immediately after we set up I received a notification on RVillage. RVillage is kind of like a Facebook for RV’ers for those not familiar with it. Anyhow Rick and Sonya sent us a private message welcoming us to the area. We have received many of these types of private messages in the past from people in or near the campground after checking in on RVillage… but this one was different.

In this message, Rick and Sonya wanted to know if we would like to go on a boat ride with them since they were close by. How could we turn down such a nice and wonderful offer. So we said sure thereby making a plan to do what we always told our children not to do… go somewhere with complete strangers!

Well they came over to our campsite to get acquainted and chatted with us for a bit over an hour before they suggested we go for the boat ride. What super nice people they are. Locals to the area they grew up around here so they shared lots of stories and laughs with us as we meandered around Lake Shelbyville. Their two Shih Tzu dogs were experienced boaters who jumped in the water to cool off along with us. These two added to the fun because we both love dogs.

At sunset we arrived back at their slip and before we headed home they asked if we wanted to do it again the next day. Why, of course we did! Unfortunately the next day I had a bit of a stomach issue so we cancelled but certainly hope we run into Rick and Sonya again someday. Later that day my “issue” finally cleared up so we drove north so Sharon could checkout where I use to live near Rantoul Ill when I was in the Air Force there.

We toured the Champaign-Urbana area and took a long stroll around the University of Illinois. We have mentioned before how we love touring college campuses and the U of I was a very nice campus with lots of green space and interesting architecture. We stopped in at a local watering hole called the Blind Pig where we had happy hour before heading back to camp.

Our time went by fast and it was once again time to head further south and eastward…

NOTE: We are now at a COE park near Sullivan Ill and will stop to see friends of ours in Newton Illinois next before moving on to Indiana…

A Brilliant Display on Non-Native Plants in Illinois…

We said goodbye to our friends and left Hampton Illinois to head southeast on Interstate 74. We were surprised at how few trucks were on the road this morning and traffic overall was light which made the near 100 mile drive to just outside of Peoria Ill. a pleasurable drive. Did I mention that there is sure a lot of corn growing in Iowa and Illinois?!!!

We pulled into Carl Spindler Marina Campground in East Peoria, Illinois around noon. While in the Midwest we are always watching the forecasted weather and the next three day severe weather forecast looked pretty good so we are here two nights and will move south afterward.

We had a lot of laundry to do so most of our first day was taken up with getting it all done at the onsite laundry  We also needed a few things at the store so a quick trip to Costco to get what we needed took up most of the rest of the day. To end the day we decided to go to happy hour at Granite City Brewing and then we enjoyed the evening at the park.

We had plans to visit Peoria and the sights within the city until we accidentally discovered a really nice boardwalk and trail adjacent to our park. The boardwalk has seen better days but is still in good enough shape for hiking. Stunningly the fields of Purple Loosestrife with a smattering of Yellow Loosestrife and brilliant red Cardinal Flower made for an unexpected showy display in the heart of Illinois.

Purple loosestrife is native to Europe and Asia and was unintentionally introduced to the United States’ Great Lakes through contaminated solid cargo ship ballasts as well as through the deliberate importation of seeds. So as beautiful as it is it is actually an Invasive species and as a result an unwanted plant in our wetlands. Yellow Loosestrife is also a non-native plant from Europe but not nearly as invasive as its purple cousin.

Despite their presence here as unwanted plants they made for quite a spectacular floral display in the wetlands all along the banks of the Illinois River. We ran out of time to explore more of Peoria and will just have to come back another time to see the rest of it…

NOTE: We are now at a COE park near Sullivan Ill and will stop to see friends of ours in Newton Illinois next before moving on to Indiana…

Visiting Friends in Illinois and an Interesting Yarn Sculpture…

We left Cedar Rapids after having such a great time with our friends Jane and John. Next up was a 120 mile drive further east and we pulled into a nice Corps of Engineer Park called Fisherman’s Corner in Hampton Illinois.It was a pleasant drive through the cornfields of Iowa and into Illinois.

No sooner than we had pulled in when Cathy (a friend of ours we met in Bonita Springs Florida) pulled into our driveway to welcome us to Illinois! Yep, the best part of the fulltime RV lifestyle is the fact that we now have more friends than we ever had living our sticks and bricks home. We chatted with Cathy for a while and assured her we would come by their RV later for happy hour!

What fun we had chatting with Cathy and Craig at their RV park! Reconnecting with RV friends is the best! Even better the second day we visited their place (again for happy hour), Cathy’s daughter Salena (who works at a local brewery) brought over samples of the brewery’s beer for us to try. Wow! Two of our favorite things to do… happy hour with friends and sampling new craft beers!

During our stay we also checked out the towns of Moline, Ill, Davenport, IA, East Moline and Rock Island… all part of the Quad Cities. There are several casinos in the area so as newbies we did take take advantage of the new member “perks” by signing up with the new member clubs. As a result we did win a small amount but any win is a good win… Right?

We also visited the small private college in Rock Island, Augustana which had a few really interesting buildings. However, what really caught our eye was a tree we passed while driving through campus that we at first thought had been painted multi-colors. As we parked to walk over to see it up close, we discovered that the tree had been covered in a “tree-sweater” where local knitters and crocheters got together to put a sweater on the tree. very cool… To learn more check out this website.

As our last evening rolled by we headed over to Craig and Cathy’s RV once again for happy hour and we excited to see Marty and Mike. These are friends of Craig and Kathy’s who own a home on a golf course in Bonita Springs whom we met there last winter.  it was a treat to see them again to laugh and share stories! We hope to reunite with these lively folks again in Bonita Springs this winter. I had to borrow the above photos from Cathy because we forgot to take any. Anyway, we had to say our goodbyes because it is time for us to move on a little further east and a little further south to Peoria Illinois, our next destination…

NOTE: We have left Moline Illinois and are near Peoria, Illinois with our next stop planned at a COW park near Sullivan Ill, and then on to friends of ours in Newton Illinois…

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

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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).

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!