Sunday, April 1, 2012

Indiana Rest Stop

After getting a good night sleep at the Flying J in Missouri, I woke up and took Skruffy for her early morning walk around 6:30 a.m.  After a few barks and squats, I put her back into the RV and went into Flying J to get some coffee, and to sign up for their RV rewards program.  They have excellent service for RVers.  They have separate pumps for the RVs from the cars and the trucks, along with dump stations for the waste, and you can also fill up with propane.  With the reward program, you get a few cents off the cash price of fuel, and every penny helps when you have a 100 gallon tank.  You also pay for 5 coffees, and get the sixth cup for free, as long as you scan your RV reward card that you get when you sign up.  They also offer discounts on some items in the store with your card, but I have not seen any signs letting you know what gets a discount and what does not.  You also get a discount at Denny's which are attached to a Flying J.

Today's travel was fairly easy for most of the day, but in the middle of Illinois, they shut down all but one northbound lane, much like they do when you go from Little Rock to Memphis.  It caused a large backup until everyone gets down to the one lane, then it moves fairly well.  But it took over an hour to go just a few miles before it opened up again.

About 2 weeks ago I purchases a Rand McNally TripMaker RVND 5510 5-Inch RV GPS from Amazon.  I like it, it tells you if you are speeding, it tells you when you are coming to a lower speed limit.  It is easy to use, and so far, very accurate.  Of course, not "everyone" likes the GPS, because somebody thinks that they are the navigator....

As I got close to Champaign / Urbana, the GPS had me turn east on Hwy 36, and then north on Hwy 49.  It was shorter,  very peaceful, a quiet way to go....very little traffic, very little of anything, as shown below.
 Of course, if there is farm land, that means that there are farm houses and barns.  These next two shots are for my fellow Rotarian Joe, who loves to take pictures of barns and old farm houses.  Of course, he does not take them out the window while going 50 mph down the highway....Joe, when you run out of farms in Arkansas, you will find a bunch of them up north. I missed the shot of the best one...but I did not want to block the highway stopping so that could run back and get it...a real old barn but it was in good condition.  Sorry Joe...I will try harder next time.
 
Finally we made it to Indiana, staying at a Rest Area.  Now when you have a large RV like this, you stay where the big trucks stay...and they like to keep their motors running all night long.  So I have found that what you want to do is park next to some landscaping, or at the very first or last spot, so that you won't have stereo engines running in your ears all night.  Tonight we have found a very nice spot....we will get a good nights sleep without a problem.
Tomorrow the lift gets installed, and then the drive down to Florida.  As long as I can get through the big cities when it isn't rush hour, it should go fairly well.

1 comment:

  1. Dave, thanks for the updates. I'm putting that area on my bucket list.

    ReplyDelete

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