Monday, central Illinois

We hope no one was too disappointed when we didn’t have a blog to report yesterday. After a tough driving day on Saturday (rough road and rain), we took Sunday “off”. Sounds hard to believe that while being on “vacation”, one would need a day off. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous (in South Central Illinois) and the little campground was nestled in a grove of trees. The temperature was around 80, the humidity in the low 40% - and a nice breeze blowing. So we sat back and basked!

Today we crossed more of central Illinois. Pretty farm lands with lots of folks growing corn – many signs advertising Ethanol from corn. Guess they haven’t gotten the word that the chicken, turkey, hog, and cattle growers are fighting mad that the cost of corn (their feed for their animals) is going through the roof!

Tonight (Monday) we are between Bloomington and Peoria, IL. We have decided to stay here a few nights and explore the area. We plan to drive into Peoria one day and Bloomington the next. This evening we did some grocery shopping in the local Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s keep getting bigger and bigger. This was the first one I’ve seen with a decent wine selection AND a distilled spirits offering. The grocery department also offered several things we haven’t seen before.

Today’s photo is from an Amish shopping store near Champaign, IL. Margaret was disappointed. Other than the furniture, which was nice, the rest looked pretty much like every antique (junk?) store we’ve seen this trip. There was an Amish Buffet but it looked pricy and we didn’t want that much food at lunch so we took a pass.

Driving today was difficult with gusty winds and scattered down-pours. Guess the drought hasn’t visited this part of the country.

Loose ends:
During the Grand Ole Opry visit, we noticed a couple on the stage signing for the hearing impaired. Not sure why someone that is hearing impaired would attend a music concert. I don’t know much about hearing impairments. Guess it could be folks can hear music but have difficulty with words? Or possibly they had listened to the Grand Ole Opry in the “old” days and just wanted to visit. But it seemed a little strange.

The folks in the motor-home next to us this evening are from Hilton Head, SC and are on their way to Dawson Creek, Alaska, to join a group of RV’ers headed for the back country in Alaska. They plan to be back in SC by start of the school year.

Another couple (yesterday) were from the Williamsburg, VA, area. They were on their way home after their first trip in an RV. They had been boaters for years and swapped their boat for an RV this year. They started out in April and visited the Yellowstone, Tetons, Grand Canyon, etc. Their complaint: the cold weather. They missed the start of Spring and caught the end of Winter. They hadn’t seen a 60 degree day since crossing the Mississippi in April until they crossed back coming home.

Also last night, a family pulled in next to us. Because they were sporting California license plates, I asked what part of California they were from. They weren’t. They were from Germany (parents and 3 teenagers!) and had rented the motor-home in Florida and were on their way to Chicago to visit relatives before flying home. Small world.