St. Louis, MO

We were up and on the road by 7:30 this morning. Today we only traveled 200 miles before stopping for the night so that we could tour the Gateway Arch here in St. Louis.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Trip

Nancy and I are finely on the road again on our winter trip south for the winter. We left Oconto around 8:30 this morning and made it to our first stop where we pulled into a truck stop in Minonk, IL around 4:00 this afternoon. I've been to this truck stop many times on my way through here. Tomorrow morning we'll head towards St, Louis. MO.

Clarksville, TN

We got an early start this morning and was on the road by 8 AM. Our destination today was a 330 mile drive stopping at the Harrah's Casino parking lot in Metropolis, IL to visit the Superman Museum.

Nancy hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days. We both haven't been feeling our best since our week stop in Georgia. Last night she had a bad cough and was having difficultly breathing. I asked her if she wanted me to take her to the hospital but she turned me down saying I needed to get some sleep so I could put in a full day of driving.

We had great driving weather and the traffic wasn't bad until we got to the east side of Nashville. A large house boat was being moved and got stuck under a low bridge blocking I-40 for several hours. I found a way to get around it and came upon another slowdown because of road construction on I-24 north of Nashville.

After getting through all the slowdowns around Nashville I stopped at the Welcome Center/Rest Stop on the Kentucky side of the border for lunch. I asked Nancy how she was doing. She was feeling worst and this time agreed to let me take her to see a doctor.

I disconnected the truck from behind the motorhome and punched in HOSPITAL in the GPS. It took us to Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville. Nancy was diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctor told us that she needed to be admitted and may be in the hospital for a couple of days.

While driving back to the motorhome where it was parked at the rest stop, I passed a RV park along the highway. Back at the motorhome I made a sandwich and looked up the RV park on the computer. I called them and they had a space available. I hooked the truck back up behind the motorhome and was checking in by 6:30 PM. Afterwards I went back to the hospital to see Nancy when they finely had her settled into a room for a couple of days. Looks like we won't make it home by Easter as planned.

Clarksville RV Park & Campground

Minonk, IL

We pulled anchor at 9:00 this morning on our way south to warmer weather for the winter. We stopped at Waynes for breakfast and over to Holtwood Park to dump our tanks and was on the road by 9:40. Our first stop was for fuel at the Flying J Travel Center in LaSalle, IL, then in Minonk, IL to rest for the night. We drove 337 miles today and took on 48.6 gallons of diesel costing $153.61. Our next planned stop is at the Flying J travel Center in Waddy, KY for the night.

Paw Paw, IL

We had a nice visit in Moberly, MO the last couple of days. This morning started out great getting on the road by 8:30. Stopped in Minonk, IL for a late lunch and took on 62 gallons of diesel costing $190.87. We've stopped for the night in Paw Paw, IL to get some rest after driving 324 miles today. One more day on the road and we'll reach our summer destination in Oconto, WI.

Hannibal, MO

"I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people than to travel with them."

---Mark Twain

Barb and I have been traveling together for 6 years now and we still like each other.

We left Kieler, WI around 9:00 this morning on our way to the Mark Twain Cave & CampGrounds in Hannibal, MO. We travelled in 4 states today, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois & Missouri, and crossed the Mississippi River 3 times. We went through towns named Dubuque, Key West, Davenport, Roseville, Tennessee & West Point. We'll be here for 2 days leaving out Sunday for Grove, Oklahoma.

Mark Twain wrote...
Tom Sawyer: "By and by somebody shouted, "Who's ready for the cave?' Everybody was. Bundles of candles were procured and straightaway there was a general scamper up the hill. The mouth of the cave was up the hillside - an opening shaped like a letter A. Within was a small chamber chilly as an ice-house and walled by nature with solid limestone that was dewy with cold sweat." -excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Barbie is home

Barb made it home today flying from Oklahoma City to Green Bay with a stopover in Chicago on United Airways. Home is wherever the motorhome is parked.

Greater Chicago

I planned on getting an early start this morning. Got up at 3AM, made coffee and breakfast, checked out the motorhome got it ready to go, cranked up the engine at 4AM, NO HEADLIGHTS. I traced the problem to the dimmer switch. The dimmer switch was not making a good contact and overheated ruining the switch. Here it is 4AM on Sunday morning and I need a dimmer switch to make my headlights come on. I waited until sunrise at 5:30AM and headed 333 miles to my next stop. Greater Chicago I-55 Travel Center in Bolingbrook, IL. I'll be here until Monday morning and if I can find a dimmer switch, I'll try again to get an early start before the Chicago traffic starts. Only 251 miles to go to get to Oconto, WI.

Jackson, MO

We left this morning around 9:30 AM heading to our next stop at the Cherokee Hills Campground in Jackson, MO. Today was only a 170 mile trip and everything went fine.


Our route took us through the middle of Saint Louis, MO. We stopped in Barnhart, MO for fuel and bought 66 gallons of diesel for $238 ($3.60 a gallon) after driving 593 miles since our last fill up on May 1st.

After we setup and met the owners of the campground, Barb and I both fell in love with this place. This place is not fancy, but the spaces are large, it's quiet and peaceful. The campground hasn't been around very long and there are lots of work that still needs to be done. They have just received their license to operate a beer bar at the office and Barb & I were their first customers. There is free Wi-Fi available here at the office but it's a weak signal. Someone with my experience can fix that problem though. They would like to make Wi-F available throughout the campground but that may be next to impossible because of all the trees. We may come back next spring and workamp for them for a couple of months. Our next stop will be in Marion, AR just north of West Memphis, AR.

Please note: This is a rustic campground with some RV hookups, not an RV Resort. We stayed here under Passport America.

Litchfield, Il

We made it another 231 miles today to the Honey Bend Resort just north of Litchfield, IL on I-55. It was a nice warm sunny drive with no problems today. We have a nice shady spot near their lodge where the hot tub is. They don't have a Wi-Fi here and I really don't want to set up the satelite Internet so we don't have any computer connections. It's only costing us $10 to spend the night here because of our membership with Coast to Coast Resorts. Tomorrow we will continue on another 176 miles to Jackson, MO where we will stop for a day or two at the Cherokee Hills Campground.

Rockford, IL

We finely left Wisconsin this morning. We had planned for a 9 AM departure but we ran into a couple problems that set us back by an hour and a half. We had stopped for propane in Oconto and was going to hook up the pickup then. But after I got everything hooked up, there were no lights on the pickup. Then we realized that I didn't have the light bar, it was in storage up in Menominee, MI. So we unhooked the pickup and parked the motorhome there where we bought propane and headed 25 miles north to get the light bar. After I got back and hooked everything up again, everything worked like it was supposed to. After 247 miles we made it to the Blackhawk Valley Campground in Rockford, IL at 4 PM. We are staying here under Passport America. Tomorrow we head to the Honey Bend Resort in Litchfield, IL for a night.

Lake of the Ozarks

Travel plans changed this morning as we continued our journey until we got to the Cross Creek RV Park in Lake Ozark, MO. Our route took us back across the Mississippi into Illinois, down US67 to Illinois 100, I72, then down US54 back across the Mississippi, through little towns named Beardstown, Louisiana, Bowling Green, and even Mexico. Getting to the RV park was 2.5 miles down a narrow winding road then 1 mile down a steep dusty gravel road. The RV park is mostly on the side of a hill overlooking a small private lake. The spaces are somewhat level with lots of trees. DirecTV satellite is accessible in a few spots but we were not able to view our satellite Internet from the space that we were in. The RV accepts Passport America and has a very friendly staff. As we were getting ready to unhook our toad the battery was run down from leaving the steering wheel unlocked for 2 days. The park owner helped us out with a jump to get it started. This was a long 330 mile route down the back roads of America and we were both tired by the time we got here. Our next leg is only 227 miles of mostly 4 lane highways.

Great Lakes Naval Training Center

We took a road trip today along with our friends Frank and Jill to Great Lakes Naval Training Center (GLNTC) in North Chicago to checkout the area. Once there we went by the house where Barbie lived on base from 1964 until her father retired from the Navy in 1968. They were in the process of tearing it down to build new housing. Barbie's dad was a Company Commander for the Navy boot camp there. Frank also went to boot camp there back in 1956. Then we visited the Navy Commissary and the Navy Exchange. We then went to get on the base but we had to get a visitor pass first. Instead of the visitor pass I went ahead and registered our Dakota there so that we could get a permanent base sticker good at all the military bases. After about 45 minutes we were able to get in then proceeded to look for the base RV park and marina. After driving around awhile getting lost a couple of time we finely found the RV park. The RV park we thought was very nice. We then proceeded to find our way to the marina but ran into a road block. The Navy was conducting training maneuvers and the marina was closed to guest today. We'll have to come back some other day to checkout the marina.