One Day Closer To Home - Friday, June 24, 2011

One Day Closer To Home - Friday, June 24, 2011

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, VERA AND PAUL! (on June 24)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIC! (on June 22)

[Note: I lost the internet connection late on June 24 and could not post this blog until early June 25 before we left on the day's journey. I hope no one stayed up looking for it last night. :o) ]

I was awake several times early this morning but didn't get up until 5:45am. It was 59 degrees outside and didn't feel bad inside.

We had to move but took time to have a scrambled egg breakfast. But when Tom was ready to bring the van back to hitch the trailer to it the van wouldn't keep running. Tom has had trouble with the van a few times with starting on a cold day. Today wasn't really cold cold but it wasn't warm either. Finally the van cooperated and we were able to continue the process get the trailer hitched. We were still able to be on the road by 8:35am which wasn't bad. The ETA was 11:42am which was in about 3 hours.

The day was gray. There were big heavy gray clouds overhead and they were everywhere we went. The temperature when we started was 59 degrees.

Once when I looked out of the window there were rows and rows of low growing plants and people were bending over the rows of plants. Then I noticed on the side of a 53ft trailer at the side of the field was a banner which read: "upickstrawberries.com." Then I understood that these people were picking strawberries for personal use. I remember doing that when we lived in White Haven. It was like an annual pilgrimage. There was a man there that told my sons that they can't charge you for what you take home in your belly.

We were still in Wisconsin when I noticed that some of the county roads had the names of letters like "I", "V", "N", etc. I had wondered if they ran out of names for their roads and just started to use letters. When I saw the sign "Highway BN" I told Tom that if I saw a sign "Highway BK" he was going to have to stop the van and go get the sign for me. {Just kidding, officer. Just kidding.}

Then we crossed into Illinois. Very soon afterward we made a "Map stop" at the Information Center. It was closed, so the sign said, "due to budget cuts." The screen was down so the sign could be posted on it and many, many piles of information were left on the counter including the official state transportation map. I like to get them so that I know where I am and where I am going. The date on the map I picked up was "2009-2010." I guess they don't have the money to update the maps and a lot of other things just like a lot of other places.

We stopped at another rest area and was amazed at the Information Center building. It was a two-story affair because the cars when they were seperated from the trucks and trailers and tow vehicles went up a slope and everything else stayed on the same level. So the people from the cars went in the upper story and the truck drivers and everyone else who shared that same parking lot went in downstairs. If you wanted to change levels on the inside of the building you had to walk the stairs. There was no elevator.

As we sat and ate our lunch, we watched a man who tended the vending machines in the building. He came out of a door on the upper story with cart piled high with various drinks and snacks. He struggled to hold the cart back so that he wasn't pushed down the hill as it lead away from the building. Once down on the same level as the lower floor he struggled to pull the cart back to the building and get it inside. No one dared to help him. I just imagined him doing this job in the rain, the cold, and the snow. Not my kind of job, thank you.

We finally found the Hickory Hollow Campground but not without a few hitches; not the least of which was that the access road had been moved and no one told "The Man." "He" just didn't know.

We were escorted to our site and the escort waved good bye. Tom turned off the engine and I opened the door to step out into a mud puddle. He had to move the van. Luckily this is the only mud puddle we had to contend with. We were at the end of a row of sites and we were alone. I figured out later that we were there at the very end of the park because we wanted water and electricity but no sewer. And it is quite a trek to the washhouse.

Finally it was time to "crash" and it felt good. Tom got up before me and went for some things including bread for dinner and gas for our trip tomorrow.

Housekeepping, dinner and dishes filled a good part of the evening. The smells of the wood burning in the fire rings nearby really smelled good. This is truly a campground. Right next to us is a large expanse of trees in which tent sites are placed. It reminded us of the times that we camp and not "RV." We are lucky; now we can do both.

That final trek to the washhouse took too long. When I tried to sign on to my account which happened to be using Tom's login to the campground's internet I found that the login had timed out because I hadn't used it in a while. So this will have to be posted tomorrow. :o(  I will not awaken him for a login for the internet!

Tomorrow night we will be in Greenfield, IN in EDT! We will be able to stay put for two nights, Saturday and Sunday. And then comes Monday when, after some traveling, I will finally meet someone whom I've known only online and for a short time but whom I feel that my heart has known forever. Then Tuesday we will be Home. Ahhhhh!