HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY, CAROL & TED!!! ENJOY THE CELEBRATION!!!
Day 225 – Beginning of Week 33. Mostly sunny and nicely warm this morning; wish we could stay here longer, but we have to be at Oskaloosa, Iowa Tuesday afternoon. The campground host was still not at his trailer, so while Rob was dumping tanks, getting more fresh water & throwing out the trash, I went over to the Park’s Office and paid for last night. They didn’t know he was gone, so we’re wondering who’s minding the shop now, LOL.
195 miles
Illini State Park, https://36yrdream.com/2017/09/17/saturday-september-16-2017/. We’ve stayed at this Park before, so see the link for the campground review. The only changes would be that this time we were in site #16 on the Illinois River, it wasn’t crowded there, and it was $18 per night for electric hook-ups, water & dump station nearby.
We departed at 10:20 a.m., 55 degrees, and drove from Illinois into Iowa, crossing the Mississippi River yet again. That River goes thru SO many States! Even though it was the same route we took last September, the scenery seemed quite different at this time of year. Then, we were amazed at all the corn. Tall corn stalks EVERYWHERE. Now, the huge fields are being mowed under to ready them for planting another season’s crop. We did encounter smog and heavy traffic as we skirted Chicago. Fortunately our route took us around the huge City, not through it.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
After we got off I-80W and onto Route 151 heading to the Amana Colonies, we were reminded of the extremely rough & bouncy road we’d encountered in September. Rob set up his App & we took a couple of test recordings of this road so we could compare it with a test recording after the RV has the Air Ride suspension installed. We arrived at the Amana Campground at 2:05 p.m. We stayed at this campground for a couple of days last September and met up with friends, Mark & Donna, who live north of there. We found it convenient to use as a stopover this time & we hadn’t forgotten the incredible fresh bread we’d bought from town previously. We’d been wanting more! The campground was quite different this time. There were only a few campers there. When they’re busy, all you see is RV’s and campers for miles. The town was fairly empty, too. We were assigned site #P3, full hook-ups, $19 for the night with the Passport America 50% discount. No one was parked anywhere near us.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
The high was 75 degrees, mostly sunny, breezy. We went into town for dinner and stops at the wonderful Bakery and the General Store, a great place to browse. The Bakery had closed for the day & the General Store was getting ready to close, so we decided to come back to both tomorrow morning before leaving for Oskaloosa. We went out to dinner at the same restaurant where we ate with Mark & Donna in September, Millstream Brauhaus. Again, it was excellent. They have very few vegetarian choices, but the Black Bean Veggie Burger was great. We split it along with the Spaetzle & Macaroni w/4 Cheeses, same dishes as we had last time. Back to the RV to find the girls comfortably lying around in the RV, without an inkling that we’d soon once again be having work done to the RV (and this time, they were NOT getting out of the bedroom). Also, of mention, we saw several small critters scurrying around the campground, then disappearing into holes. The picture we got wasn’t great, he was moving so fast. They looked like large chipmunks, but their faces were a little different. They were “Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrels”, aka Squinny, according to the internet.
13-Lined Ground Squirel (Squinny), Site P3, Amana RV Park, Amana, IA