Ottawa, IL

Having been ejected from our prime real estate at 7:30pm we had no choice but to get to the nearest WalMart for the night. Saved us from having to back up and set up in the dark. The parking lot was full of RVs and semi-trucks. This is the first WalMart we’ve stayed at that was so crowded for the night. It was open 24 hours and very well lit.

Marseilles, IL

Ruthi’s Italian cousins arranged a special brunch for us and her other cousins’ in the same age group. It was great for Ruthi to see how they had and had not changed. Ruthi didn’t even recognize one of her cousins. The political conversations around the table were great. Traveling as we are, doesn’t always put us in progressive “blue” states/counties/cities. It was really fun to talk loud and clear about our pride in the president and our support for his agenda. No matter what the “right wing nuts” think, we were pretty much in agreement at our “Town Hall” meeting.

One of Ruthi’s German cousins had a cookout. Boots wasn’t able to attend as she had one of her intense headaches. So, between the cousins and Ruthi’s older brother, Bill, it was a busy time in the old home town.

Bill and his wife (Blanche) bought a Park Model at Wood Smoke Ranch. The whole park is a very unusual in the layout. The park models are all placed on the owner’s piece of land at angles to the road. At this park, there are none of the row after row of perpendicular mobile homes squeezed into a small strip of land. Their home is angled on a triangular piece of property with as stream in the back. They even have a screen room on the back side facing the stream.

It became apparent that our campground was poorly managed and maintained. They rented us someone else’s annual site. So, we were told that we needed to move to another site or leave. Well, we didn’t want another site, the whole process of breaking/setting camps isn’t worth it to move a couple of spaces in a camp with such incompetence and rudeness to ask us to leave at 7:30 at night. Remember this is in Illinois and sun set is 8pm. This was our first time hitching up in the dark.

Island Lake, IL

At the Camping World here, we had a power surge protector wired into our system. For the past year we have been concerned with some of the park’s abilities to provide consistent even power. In fact, at Volo the camp intro/rules handout specifically recommended power surge protection. That’s scary when the camp ground itself warns about “brown outs”. The protector takes about 2 minutes after hooking up to shore power to activate.

We also finally decided on a stationary satellite dish for installation on the roof. What with the A/C, antenna, sky light, vents and solar panels, we are running out of real estate on the roof. Now, we can get TV reception form the antenna, stationary Satellite or the portable dish. We really are “city mice” not “country mice” and need our media fixes.

We stayed in the Camping World parking lot a second night so all our RV systems could have their annual inspection – no work discoveries resulted. That’s always good news. Now after the Ford’s 30,000 mile checkup we will be ready for our trek back across America to California for Winter. While they worked on our rig we spent the days at Betty’s house.

Volo, IL

Large camp ground with a lot of new park models and permanent residents but the spaces are squeezed together like normal (old) trailer parks. The spaces are all perpendicular to the road ways. Trying to back-in at a 90° on your blind side is quite a challenge! Finally we brainstormed with a watcher and drove through the site to a dirt roadway. Then we did a 3-point turn and drove back through the space into a parking position.

Being so close to Betty (Ruthi’s sister) made it easier to see her around her work schedule. Her pre-school started right after we moved on to Marseilles. Karma met her ”cousin” Sunshine, Betty’s yellow lab, a few months older than Karma. They are about the same size/weight. Karma is so ball focused she really wasn’t interested in Sunshine as a playmate as much as “cousin” with a large yard to play ball in. Likewise, Sunshine wasn’t interested in Karma much either.

Betty’s son (Allen), his wife (Abby) and their newborn baby girl (Sophia Emma born 07-21-09) came by a couple of times. The baby is so delicate and beautiful. Betty’s other son (Michael) was also on hand to welcome us all to Crystal Lake. Michael’s fiancé (Mary) was sick and we didn’t get to see her this trip.

We saw a 5th 3rd Bank in North Carolina and thought hmm must be a Southern thing. But now here in Illinois there are more branches to the 5th 3rd Bank. Bet there is a story behind that one. Survived the 2008 bank crash so it much stable.

Think Ink Graphics
Wrinkled Page Used Book Store
Shape Rap N Roll Beauty Salon

We went up to Kenosha to visit with one of Ruthi’s best friend/sorority sister and the town. We both like Kenosha better than Madison. They have done an amazing job of reclamation of beach (Lake Michigan) property that previously housed an industrial complex. There are condos park land etc. Maybe next time we’ll stay longer in Kenosha and enjoy the beach parks and see more of Lynda (Williams Ryan) and her family.

Madison, WI

“Nachos Momas” is Mexican restaurant
“Art Gecko” is an art gallery

As would be expected, there are miles and miles of bike trails in Madison. The county park we are staying at even has wire mesh cages for “BLUE” bike to be rented. Of course, there never seems to be any rangers at the office or the camp hosts to ask questions of.

St Paul, MN

In our travels, we have found the best drivers in Michigan (not the upper peninsula though) and the worst rude drivers in Minnesota. While Michigan’s citizens drive close to the speed limit and politely allow others to merge and or turn against rush hour traffic, The drivers in Minnesota are unbelievably RUDE. We never once saw anyone allow another driver to merge or turn across traffic. The rule about leaving intersection open must not apply in the Minneapolis/St Paul area because again we never saw any one do it even when we did.