Long Day, but Marcia Enjoys Visit With Her Niece

 

Looky, Looky, I See Some Doggies!

After leaving Gas City Indiana at 6:30 am, we arrived at the Amana RV Park in Iowa at 4:30...and that is AFTER gaining an extra hour.  That is an ELEVEN hour day!  Except, we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Joliet Illinois for two hours for Marcia to visit with her Niece Jamie, whom she had not seen for over 20 years.  In fact, Jamie was the flower girl in Marcia's first wedding, and she is a Niece through her first husband, daughter of his brother.  They had a wonderful visit, while I remained in the motorhome with Indy due to the hot weather (90 degrees) in the Chicago area.

It took us FIVE hours to drive the first 200 miles today.  To get from Gas City (which is on I-69) west to I-65 requires a drive on highway 26...a two lane highway which has numerous stop signs, a stop light or two, speed limits of 35 mph through many little communities, AND a road closed detour which took us north on other similar highways for an hour just to hit another road closed causing another 20 minutes headed north on a two lane highway.  It was nerve wracking since we had a 10:30 appointment with Jamie that we wanted to keep.  We arrived at 10:15, and so did she...it all worked out fine.

We did pass over a couple of rivers ...

...and through a forest or two...

...but for the most part is was more Soy Beans...

...and Corn Fields.

And when we did get to I-65, and then I-80...we get Trucks, and ...

...more Trucks along with construction.

And then the dreaded double barriers which I hate to drive through...

...and it seems to go on and on and on..

The stop at Cracker Barrel was refreshing on my mind, but by noon (central time) we were back on the road headed for Iowa.  We had a little over 200 more miles to get to the Amana RV Park, and all but the final 17 miles was Interstate driving.  About six miles west of the Cracker Barrel the Illinois roadway became surprisingly smooth, with only an occasional bump here and there.  From 15 miles south of Gary Indiana all the way to the Cracker Barrel the road was some of the worse we had experienced since we left the Yukon back in 2016.  Had we not lost our Microwave-Convection Oven to an Atlanta pot hole, we would have lost it today for sure!

The rest of the drive through Illinois was full of trucks, but fairly uneventful until we got to the bridge over the Mississippi along the Quad Cities by-pass (Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline in northwestern Illinois.)

But even that wasn't bad since it was around 2:15 and the traffic was light.

By the time we got to Iowa, we were both pretty tired.  I got a coffee from Pilot, but it ended up having coffee grounds in it, so I dumped it and opened a LaCroix Sparkling Water from our fridge.  Ninety minutes later we were settling in at the Amana RV park in Amana Iowa, a Passport America park which cost $20 per night, plus tax, for a very large full hookup site.

 

 

You can see just how long we have.  This is really two different sites in one, but since we are here for only two nights, he said we can have the entire site...so I parked right in the middle.

We are also in the most north-eastern portion of the park, so we don't have but one camper near us, and that camper holds the lady who checked us in and her husband...I don't think we will have any trouble with noise while we are here.

Speaking of noise...last night we probably would have been better off staying in the Cracker Barrel parking lot despite the heat until it cooled at midnight.  This park (not giving the name since they let us in at the last minute) is along the freeway, and we heard traffic...loud traffic...all night long.  Both of us suffered from lack of sleep today.

Tomorrow I hope to share more about the Amana RV Park, and the communities of the Amana Colonies.   And YES, the Amana brand was started right here in the colonies.

Here is a close-up of what had Indy's attention.

 

 

She is suppose to be out doing her business...but when something gets her attention, well...

Sometimes she will get up on her back two feet and can remain up there for a long time.

Hey dad ... I think I can stand up longer than you can!

Thanks Indy...you are proud of your little joke, aren't you?

YEP - HA HA HA HA HA!