Thursday, June 4th
Excited to hit a campground for the weekend, we set sail from Peoria after a nice walk around the vineyard and packing up our house. We have gotten pretty good at taking down the house to drive. Neil sort of does the stuff outside (puts the bikes on, reattaches the car, etc), and Anne usually takes care of the inside (putting things away, bringing the bump-outs in), and we are on the road. It is about a 1 hour drive to the campground at Comlara County Park in McLean County near Bloomington, IL.
We pull into the lot at the campground and we are excited that we got the last camping spot that was available for the weekend, but it turns out that it is spot 1 - the first spot coming into the campground. We are pretty sure that we have both electric and water for the weekend, so it should be a little easier than being off the grid the last few days. However, after inspecting the site, we realize that there is only electric... No water.
Planning to go to the campground dump station anyway to dump from our 3 days in Peoria, we are excited to see that there is actually potable water as well that we can use to fill our tank. So - we fill the 55 gallon fresh water tank, and go with it. Now we know that we can last for at least a few days off the grid, and at least we have electric! Now it's time to set up the rig and level it off for the next couple of days.
We just barely fit into the site without taking the car off the back (we don't need it while we are here), and it is definitely the most un-level spot that we have encountered thus far. We utilize the stacking blocks that we got at the beginning, and level it off. Neil spends the next 3 hours worrying about the rig (and re-leveling it about 6 times), because BOTH of the front wheels are off the ground. It looks like it is hanging off the edge of the hill. After much research and comforting by Anne, we leave it setup and take our chances... We head over to visit our friend Laura at her campsite and hope we don't come back to a disaster!
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| The rig setup - can you see the front wheel off the ground?!? |
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| Not a bad view of the lake from our campsite... |
Phew! After the trip over to Laura's site, we come back to cook dinner, and the rig is still in the exact place that it was when we left. Good news. Jay and his son Clayton have now shown up, and Jay does the cooking tonight. With burgers on the menu, we have a great dinner and spend the rest of the evening around the campfire.
Friday, June 5th
After a great night of sleep in the RV, the plan for the day is to hang out with Laura and her little ones this morning, and then get on the water this afternoon. The adults sit and visit while the littles play and play and play. They are so cute, and it is great to hang with Laura and Frankie (Laura's oldest daughter). After a few hours, they are out, so we decide to head down to the boat docks to rent some kayaks. We were hoping to rent a pontoon boat - but the front office said that it was not quite ready yet when we asked yesterday.
We arrive at the boat rental place to find out that they only have 2 kayaks. We need 3. Bummer. For kicks and giggles, Neil and Cade ask again about the pontoon boat. The kid behind the desk says that it is almost ready, but not quite yet. Then he sort of says that his boss is over at the dock working on it - we can ask him if we want. Turns out that he actually was able to get it fixed, and decides that we can be the first to rent it out! Score! We pay for a 2 hour rental, and we are psyched.
One thing we have found out is that this is a no swimming lake, but we figure we might be able to swim from the pontoon boat at least. The person that we rent the boat from reminds us that there is no swimming. Ok. Then, the boss who said we could be the first to rent it reminds us there is NO swimming. OK. Finally, the ranger of the park with a badge visits us as we are leaving and reminds us that there is NO SWIMMING. OHHH KAY! Guess we won't be swimming off the pontoon boat.
As we take off, we realize that this pontoon boat is definitely more geared towards fishing as we top out at about 7 MPH. And we can't swim. Sweet. However, we get out into the lake, drop the inflatable kayak into the lake, and just drift for a bit. It is quite nice. Then, we pull the kayak back into the boat and cruise the entire lake. It is a beautiful day, and it is just great to be on the water. After the 2 hours is up, we bring the boat back and head back to the campsite.
Jay has arrived again, this time with some extra wood for us. Neil is on cooking duty tonight, and we have brats and hot dogs. We light an awesome campfire and have a great last night in Illinois next to the campfire. We will sure miss the people in Illinois.
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| We're on a boat! |
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| No swimming, Cade! |
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| Jen and Camelia in their own boat! |
Saturday, June 6th
Well, all good things must come to an end as well, so we pack up the campsite and hang for one final morning. After saying our goodbyes, we hit the road and head North. We have booked the night through Harvest Hosts at an apple cidery and winery near Grand Rapids. After about a 5 hour drive and losing a hour, we arrive at the winery. We have a great spot, nice and level. Also, they let us know ahead of time that we could run our generator here if we needed. It is great when we run the generator, because it gives us full electric. Amazingly, Neil is still able to have his normal poker night and Zoom with the guys in the Grift. We are just here for a quick stopover and we will hit the road in the morning with the goal of getting all the way to the top of Michigan. We are planning on spending the next 2 nights near the Straits of Mackinac - where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron.
We are bummed, because the winery is closed when we arrive, and then it is closed on Sundays. We even tried to see if they would sell us something over the phone and leave it out for us so that we could give them some business, but they said no big deal. I guess we will need to make another stop here - it looks pretty cool. If you are ever near Grand Rapids, it is called Robinette's Apple Cidery and Winery, you can give them some business.
We are off in the morning, and I think we have about a 3.5 hour drive, and we will be about 35 minutes South of the Canadian border. Thanks for following along, and until next time...
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| Kind of nice to be out in the middle of nowhere! |
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