May 26, 2005 (Thur)
Hickory Hollow Campground #G1 w/e/s $15.00p B+
Decatur, OH to Utica, IL (273/965 miles) Q013279
It gets light early here. This morning the dawn woke us well before 5:00 and we lay in bed and watched a beautiful sunrise reflected in the windows of Ed and Kathy's motor home. After a 2 mile walk and breakfast we broke camp and were on the road headed west by 8:15 (65.5°).
Indiana is really quite beautiful. The roads west from Decatur, US-224 and US-24, go through miles and miles of flat farmland sprinkled with occasional industrial complexes. In Markle, IN we saw a huge blue smiley face emerge from behind some trees. It was the town water tower. In Huntington we resisted the temptation to stop at the Dan Quayle Museum but instead enjoyed seeing the wonderful old houses as we passed through. There were many and most were beautifully restored and maintained. A restaurant in Monticello, IN had two doors. A sign over one read Granny's Kitchen. The other lead to Grandpa's Still. In Illinois we found I-39 and turned north.
This is a small campground (75 sites) off I-80 just east of the intersection with I-39. It is very nice - quiet and well maintained. We can see I-80 out our back door but it is far enough away, across a large corn field, that the traffic noise is subdued. It probably won't be tonight though.
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May 27, 2005 (Fri)
Camp Wamart Prairie du Chien, WI B
Utica, IL to Prairie du Chien, WI (243/1208 miles) Q013522
"The Great River Road" was our destination today. This is really two roads - one on each side of the Mississippi River. All sources describe it as scenic and beautiful. We picked it up where it crossed I-80 at Le Claire, Iowa. The first part of the road was where you'd expect it to be - along the Mississippi River. It was beautiful, as advertised, but there were few other close views. Much of the road is normal highway (US-67 and US-52) with small cites and towns breaking up what really was a beautiful drive.
North of Dubuque, IA the scenic byway leaves US-52 and winds through hilly farmland far above the river. We could see it off in the distance occasionally but the main attraction was the view. At one point we were driving along the top of a ridge with great views on both sides.
In Le Claire just after crossing the river into Iowa we saw gas prices as low as $1.88. We vowed to fill up the tank before leaving Iowa at the end of our day's run. The price kept going up as we drove north. Here it's $2.09 and the tank is about empty!
There's a Buffalo farm south of Dubuque and a few llama "out standing in their field" along the way. There was a painting of a violin covering a whole grain silo, a Laundromat named "Scrub Pub" and some concrete lawn dinosaurs - that we resisted buying to bring home!
There's no hope of finding campground space on Memorial Day weekend so we've found another Walmart Parking lot to roost for the night.
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May 28, 2005 (Sat)
Camp Kohl's Rochester, MN C
Prairie du Chien, WI to Rochester, MN (139/1347 miles) Q013661
Between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1300 Woodland hunter gatherers raised thousands of conical and animal shaped earthen burial mounds on bluffs above the Mississippi River. Effigy National Monument was established to preserve these national treasures. Before starting out this morning we went with Ed and Kathy in their toad (their towed car) to pay a visit to the site. Of the 15 miles of hiking trails in the park, we took the shortest (2 miles) and most popular to the top of one bluff. It was an interesting and educational walk - and grueling.
The drive up WI-35 (part of The Great River Road - east side) was much more what we'd expected yesterday's to have been. We went right along the river most of the way. Beautiful! We stopped at Lock and Dam #9. No boat traffic but a 97 car train went by on the tracks beside the parking lot. Goose Island County Park was our venue for lunch. It was huge with camping, picnicking, and recreational areas. The camping area was packed solid - we drove through it - but we found a place to park right on the river in boat launch area to eat our salad wraps. I-90 was typical interstate.
The Rochester, Minnesota Walmart parking lot was crowded and busy. There was no place to park a couple of motor homes, much less spend the night. Before we got here, Ed had gotten permission from the Kohl's (next door) manager for us to use his lot. He said sure, for one night, so here we are. We're next to the highway though. We hope it will quiet down overnight.
West to Rochester, MN - #52-02
Meeting Ed & Kathy - #52-01
May 23, 2005 (Mon)
Camp Walmart, Bucyrus, OH B
Home to Bucyrus, OH (563 miles) Q012868
We wanted to beat the commuter traffic into New York so we set our alarm for 4:30am. We were both wide awake and ready to get things started before the alarm was to go off so we got up. As we ate breakfast we looked at the kitchen clock and it read 3:45. What? Something was wrong! It turned out that the time on the bedroom clock had been changed when the alarm was set. We were an hour an a half ahead of schedule! It didn't make much sense to go back to bed so we continued the countdown from there.
Red Bank is very quiet at 4:30 in the morning. Hardly any traffic at all. For those who are interested in such things, we went north on the GSP, west/north on I-287, west on I-78, north on US-33 to I-80, then west (of course).
The trip was relatively uneventful. It rained off and on - sometimes quite hard. It seems that they haven't finished building I-80 - or, I guess, rebuilding it - but we seldom slowed below 55 mph.
Henry suggested two Walmart supercenters for our overnight accommodations. The first - and preferred distance wise - was in Wooster, Ohio but the parking lot was small and crowded. We drove on. This one in Bucyrus seems quiet and we are out of the main traffic lanes. There is another motorhome here - a big class A with jacks down and slide out - so we have company (sort of).
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May 24, 2005 (Tue)
Sullivan RV Service parking lot #7 e $5.00 not rated
Bucyrus, OH to Decatur, IN (138 miles) Q013006
It wasn't a bad night for the first on the road. We rose more or less rested and, after breakfast, headed west on US-30 toward Decatur, IN where we were to meet Ed and Kathy. The road across the rest of Ohio and into Indiana was mostly new 4 lane highway through flat newly plowed farm fields. The sun was a pleasant change from yesterday's rain.
Ed and Kathy have a new motor home that will have some needed warranty work done tomorrow. For $5 a night we are allowed to camp (w/30 amp elec hook-up) next to them, as their guests, outside the authorized Fleetwood factory service facility. Their stay is free because they are customers. After the necessary paperwork was taken care of, we all went into town to a Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. This afternoon we just hung out on our own reading and napping. In the evening we got together again for a rousing game of dominos.
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May 25, 2005 (Wed) #7 e $5.00 not rated (2)
The folks from Sullivan RV Service came by and knocked on Ed and Kathy's door at 7:10. By 7:30 their big class A motor home, with two cats aboard, had disappeared into one of the big repair bays. Ed and Kathy took their two dogs and disappeared into the visitor's lounge. At 8:30 Mark and Ed took off for the Fleetwood factory while Joy and Kathy stayed in "camp" to read, knit, and baby-sit the dogs.
The morning factory tour at Fleetwood was of the assembly line where the American Motor coach line of motorhomes (American Tradition, American Eagle, American Heritage, and Ed and Kathy's Revolution) are built. The afternoon tour, not taken, was of the line where the other diesel motorhomes built by Fleetwood are assembled. It was a huge facility with raw chassis - basically two steel "I" beams on wheels with a steering wheel at one end and an engine at the other - comes in one door and leaves through another a full fledged motor home ready for the retail lot. Absolutely fascinating!
Lunch was a Chinese Buffet (we've got to stop eating this way!) on our way to the local quilt shop. It was a small shop run by a very nice lady. She had an American Professional long-arm quilting machine (newer than Bertha) and was struggling to finish up a poorly made customer quilt - the borders were too long and it wouldn't lay flat. It brought back memories of some of Joy's jobs.
