It Comes Full Circle - Back to Paducah, Springfield and Chicago

But we aren't ready to move out of this rig yet! We love this new home!

Thursday, May 7th

Well, as noted in our last blog post, after a few false starts trying to find a campground in Southern Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, we decided to stop again in Paducah, Kentucky - back to where our "East Coast Leg" of the trip began. After searching for awhile, we decided on a known entity. We like Paducah, we liked the (new) owner of the campground - he needs the business, and we (Neil specifically) like the fact that there are 2 disc golf courses within 10 minutes of the KOA.

We are up and out of the campground in record time! We are getting pretty good at moving...The trip across Tennessee is pretty uneventful until Neil decides that he wants Taco Bell for lunch. No problem, right? We are on the interstate, and it looks like there is a Taco Bell in about 5 miles, and then another in about 15 miles.

As we roll up to Taco Bell number 1, it is a left hand turn into a pretty full parking lot that doesn't look like it has a lot of space to turn around. Anne mentions this, and as Neil makes the left turn into the lot he spouts "too late now I guess" with the vision of Chalupas and Cinnamon Twists in his head. We get into the lot, and even Neil is immediately worried. Keep in mind that we can't back up. at all. And this rig swings pretty wide also. Neil sees a path out, and he just has to wait for one car to move up into the drive-thru. We can't help but wonder how many people were laughing at us, because it looked like we were waiting for the drive-thru - we would NEVER fit or even come close. Lol. We swing a U-turn by the narrowest of margins. Phew.

Undeterred and cursing Taco Bell parking lots everywhere, Neil is hellbent on checking out the next one. Apparently, his craving is deep. Anne literally google maps the next Taco Bell and is telling Neil about a road next to it - maybe we can park there. As we pull up to Taco Bell number 2, the parking lot is a no-go. Even though Nachos Bell Grande sound good right now, we can't repeat that last lot. We got lucky. Turning up the road, there really is nowhere to park. Neil whines and cries a little, cursing Taco Bell for their apparent lack of hospitality towards RV's at ALL Taco Bells. He has given up, and decides that he will settle for another cold-cut sandwich. We decide that truck stops are the best option for stopping - they are just made for rigs like ours.

As we see signs for the Pilot and a slew of truck friendly places, Neil spots another Taco Bell sign, and triumphantly say that he will make this one work. Score. He does a drive by of Taco Bell #3 to assess the parking lot. Too tight, but there is a large parking lot across the street! After going about a half a mile down the road to just turn around, we are back at the parking lot of a closed business.  Neil parks, dons his mask to get takeout, and crosses the 5 lane road towards Taco Bell (Run for the border!). Mission accomplished! Anne is utterly amazed at the lengths to which Neil will go to get Taco Bell on this day.

We arrive at the Paducah KOA, and we pull into our spot. The gravel is a little loose, and when we go to level the rig, it is completely lifted off the ground, and the leveler is flashing an error message. It doesn't like this surface. Luckily, we bought these stackable bases for under the leveler arms, and they do the trick. We are getting pretty good at this! We are even able to get in 18 holes of Disc Golf before the sun goes down at the 2 local courses we both know.

Especially when we are playing! Watch out!!

Friday, May 8th

It's Friday, we wake up in Paducah, and it is raining :(. Although we both enjoy a quiet, lazy morning, we are both feeling the end of this section of the adventure - we want to do some fun stuff! We both know that there is a bunch of work still waiting for us in Chicago with the closing of the house scheduled for May 29th. The good news is that the rain looks like it will end around 1PM, and then it is supposed to clear up for the entire weekend. Awesome.

Anne finds a great bike trail that is about 45 minutes away in Illinois called the Tunnel Hill Bike Trail that is confirmed open. It is part of the Rails to Trails program in Illinois, where they have turned miles and miles of old railroad beds into bike trails. We load the bikes on the car and head up to the trail head. It's an amazing parking area and the trail runs right through it in Vienna, IL - you can go either North or South on the trail. Anne spots a nice lady loading her bike and asks her the best direction to go on the trail. She recommends North, because the big tunnel is that way, and it's a 3% grade uphill, so it's much easier when you come back. Also, there are more trestles and bridges to look at. Sold, and we are off.

As we get on the trail, we notice that the tunnel is 9.3 miles away. Seems a little far for us, but we will see what happens. At the first stop we make, about 4 miles in, Anne mentions that she is not sure whether we can make the bridge. This trail is definitely uphill, and it seems very far off. Neil fully supports that hypothesis, but is now completely sure that Anne has a strong goal of the tunnel in her head. At mile 6.5, we stop again. It seems now that Anne believes it is more likely that we could make the tunnel - I mean we've come this far... We are totally going to make this tunnel.

9.3 miles to the tunnel.. we got this!

Lots of tressels!

Bikers welcome - An "on your honor" store along the trail, but it was closed by the time we got there.

After 9.3 miles uphill, the tunnel does not disappoint. I believe it was over 500 feet long. It really didn't look very long until biking through the tunnel. It was crazy, because it was really pitch black and a little freaky in the middle, even though you could see the "light at the end". We were both hoping the trail had no potholes, and that there wasn't a sudden rush of bats!

We made it to the tunnel!! 9.3 miles!

Who's afraid of the dark?? Bats, rats, spiders, potholes??

We made it through the tunnel!!  I ain't afraid of no ghosts, I mean dark.

We have both calculated that when (if) we complete the ride back to the car, we will have shattered our longest ride on this trip. Neil keeps yelling that we have trained for this moment, and we are ready for the easy coast back to the car. Only, it's not an easy coast! I feel like an old person, but we both agree that there was a lot more uphill spots on the way back than what we anticipated. I think we are both overly tired, and we both thought we would be coasting with the brakes on the entire way home. Oh well. We made it back in one piece, our butts and legs maybe a touch sore. LOL. We hobble back to the RV for another night of games and relaxing - this time we really deserve it, and our biking adventures are over for this leg of the trip!

This is supposed to be our exhausted face after biking 18+ miles, but looks like we just ate a bug!

Saturday, May 9th

We both sort of feel ok when we wake up. I mean we both decide that an activity other than biking is in order for our last day, so we decide on a walk/hike to finish it out. Neil has already booked us a KOA in Springfield, IL for Sunday night. We will store the RV back in Pontiac, and this gives us a nice, short trip on Monday and we can get everything cleaned up for storage over the next few weeks. After looking around and figuring that some hiking trails might be pretty wet, we both find a public trail, the Greenway Parkway, in Paducah that goes from a park outside of town all the way into downtown. Perfect.

As we set out on the trail with Hamilton in tow, there are definitely a few people out and about with the same idea as us. That said, it was easy to stay apart from people - just less easy to control Hamilton when a biker passed. He is really a stickler for social distancing, and he will not let anyone within 6 feet of us, that's for sure. We find out that the first mile is through the woods to another park, but then the trail extends another 3.5 miles into downtown Paducah. We are game. The first part of the trail is awesome. A nice gravel path through the woods. Score.

Hamilton says "Enough with the selfies! I have bikers to bark at!"

As we get through the woods to the next park, the Greenway opens up a bit, but we decide to keep going. The trail definitely becomes a bit less exciting, and we realize that this is definitely a better trail for biking. It is essentially a 3.5 mile sidewalk that leads us along the Ohio River (we can't see the river though) with no tree protection on a super sunny day. Oh well, we DID get to see the Paducah/McCracken wastewater treatment facility. Score! I think Hamilton is the only one who liked the smell we got for a few minutes. Along the trail, we decide that we will probably walk the neighborhood back to where the wooded trail ended.

The good news is that the trail ends on the waterfront in Paducah, and it is a beautiful day. One of the most unique things about this little city is the 12 mile flood wall that surrounds the city. It was erected by the Army Corps of Engineers after extensive flooding hit Paducah on multiple occasions. The flood of 1937 absolutely crushed the city, and we noticed a sign that the Red Cross provided over $1.1 million of relief. That's a lot of money in 1937. The coolest part is that the side of the wall that faces the city is adorned with a mural on every panel of the wall. Although absolutely NOTHING is open except the hardware store and the sporting goods store, this town has a unique charm to it. We both quite like this area and enjoy ourselves every time we are here.

Broadway back in the heyday

Broadway during the current times...

We decide to walk back to the park at the end of the greenway, and this time we opt for the neighborhood walk back to the park for a change of scenery and some shade. We walk through the Lower Arts District, which is a super cool little area. We so wish that some of these little shops, breweries and galleries were open - but I guess we don't have any room for anything anyway. What a cool place to be an artist, though.

After walking for what feels like an eternity, we both decide to stop for a break in the park that houses the greenway. We are both very excited to take a load off, so we find a bench at the edge of a great little pond in the middle of the park, complete with an island for birds. Hamilton is very interested in the swimming ducks, so he goes over to make some friends. These 2 ducks are pretty interested in him as well, and they end up following us as we walk away. We cross a bridge and they swim right under us, seemingly saying goodbye to their new friend, Hamilton. They glide through the water and we are ready to finish this epic walk. When we arrive back to the car we have walked almost 10 miles! We decide that we have really hazed ourselves on this final weekend with our longest ride, and our longest walk. We head back to Ronald Vincent Vega for some recliner time!

Hamilton makes some new duck friends in the park.

Kicking up the feet and chilling with Hamilton and Stella. 

Sunday, May 10th

We wake up, have a nice, lazy Mother's Day morning, and then we are off for the final long leg of driving. As we set out, the wind is blowing pretty hard. This is the windiest day we have had of driving so far, and even Neil is a bit freaked out. It is literally like driving the broad side of a barn, and Neil is fighting just to keep it between the lines... Anne makes it a point to just look down at her device and trust Neil's driving skills. Thankfully the ride is uneventful, and we even get a nice extended stop for a lunch and a Mother's Day call to Anne's mom (Don't worry, Neil called before we left). We make it to Springfield just before the sun goes down, and we are hooked up and ready to play one final game night with Jen and Jay. We also get some cleaning and packing done, as we will make it back to our (sold) house by tomorrow afternoon.

Monday, May 11th

Well, we arrive at Pontiac RV, unload Ronald Vincent Vega, and load up the car for the trip back to Chicago. Another uneventful drive from Springfield, and also back up to the house in Chicago. We made it back, the house is in one piece, and leg 1 of the mega road trip is in the books. Although it turned out to be a lot different than the original plan, we are so thankful for the trip and all of the other blessings we have received during the trip.

Closing on our house is still scheduled for May 29th (fingers crossed), and then we will start heading West, after some time in Peoria and St. Louis. We are planning on starting the blog up again once we hit the road in early June. Thanks to everyone for the views, the comments and the general love and support we have received about this trip. It was a tough decision to head out, but we still feel it was the right one for us. One of the hardest things for us was being in places near family and friends and not being able to stop for a visit due to these crazy times (Nashville, Chattanooga, Savannah, Florida and the list goes on). We hope to see you all someday! We will leave you with some stats from the trip, and until next time...

Stats:

Miles driven in Ronald Vincent Vega (not counting day trips in the car) - 2,288 miles

Gallons of gas used - 367.88
Average miles per gallon - 6.22 miles per gallon (ouch)

Money spent on gas - $498.61

Average price per gallon - $1.36 per gallon (unreal - gotta love these gas prices)

Number of states visited - 5

Number of disc golf rounds - 13

We took a bunch of day trips, but here is the path of Ronald Vincent Vega so far...