Calvert City, Kentucky

 

We are now in Kentucky!  We got on the road yesterday morning about 9:30.  Such a nice day for driving! Sun is shining, and it isn’t 99 degrees!

God Bless America!

We are coming up to the Ohio River, about to cross over to Kentucky!

Lots going on there on the river.

Welcome to Kentucky!!!

God Bless America!

This is the office area where we checked in to Cypress Lakes RV Park.  Such a beautiful and huge park.  There are a lot of full timers, but everything is kept nice and neat.

Look at all the trees! I woke up this morning to many different birds singing outside my window.  Birds that I’m not familiar with, but they still had some great songs.  And the weather? Oh, the high was about 72, and low was about 45.  Perfect weather.  No rain.  I absolutely love Kentucky!  This is really a beautiful state as far as I have seen.  The rolling hills, the horses, what’s not to love?!

There is catch and release fishing here, but if you go to the bigger lakes, it is blue gill and cat fish.  And those lakes are near by.

A lot of the residents have put up covers over their trailers, added gardens and patios, and so much more.  Such an enjoyable place!

I saw about 3 eagles frolicking near the waters edge.  I’m not sure if they were fighting over a fish or just playing.  Let’s go with playing…

We called Tiffin this morning to make sure we knew where to go to get full hookups on Monday.  He explained where to go, select any site, and then let him know when we get there.  It will be nice to have a full kitchen again!

Last Day in Brownstown

Well, we went exploring yesterday.  The closest ‘bigger’ town near Brownstown is Vandalia.  (Brownstown has, I think, about 800 residents.)  So Vandalia is a bit bigger, where all the stores and restaurants abide.  The town also has a little something for visitors!

Yes, they have a dinosaur!  Well, wait. It isn’t a dinosaur, it is the Kaskaskia Dragon.  

This town is also the place where Abraham Lincoln began his political career.

We took Tully for a walk around the pond.  Lots of smells, including skunk!

Do you see what we see?  Honestly, I used to hate these birds because they feed on fish.  Anybody’s fish!

Yep, a heron.  He wasn’t even afraid of us.

I love the reflections in this photo.  Even though it has been cool, like 64 degrees, it has been sunny and you can see some leaves start to change color.  Now I know I’m always talking about how I can’t wait until the weather cools off but fall is not my favorite time of year.  The commercials are always talking about how it’s almost fall, go get a pumpkin latte.  Well, I did that about 7 years ago. And OMG!! I mean come on! I love pumpkin pie!  But it was like they put a slice of pumpkin pie in the blender, whipped it up and gave it to me.  I almost gagged.  Ewww.  Maybe it was the thought of drinking my pie that I had problems with…a texture thing that I couldn’t deal with.  Never again. And by the way, spring is my most favorite time of the year.  I do love fall but only with warm clothes on, in front of the fireplace, with my soft cozy blanket and my Tulls.  I’ll get that in Texas!

We found this tree on the other side of the pond.  I’ve never seen this kind before.  Can you take a guess?  I’ll give you a hint…it is a fruit tree.

Do you recognize the fruit?  It is a persimmon.  Folklore says that when you cut open a ripe persimmon, it can tell you what type of winter you will have in the area where you picked the fruit.  This year the residents found out that they are supposed to get a whole lot of snow.  Something about how the seeds look when they cut the fruit open.  I’m glad that I won’t be around for all the snow they are supposed to get!

We walked down a gravel road behind the pond and there were a couple of trailers parked.  It kind of looked like long term campers.  Road Hog noticed what they had on their roof.  Yep, that’s starlink.  We have seen so many starlink dishes on our travels.  It’s getting pretty popular.  We haven’t had any problems whatsoever.

Driving The Back Roads of Illinois (A Country Song?) 😛

 

We got on the road about a quarter to ten.  We had a short drive, just over 2 hours, so we weren’t in a hurry. As you can see, we missed the morning rush hour traffic!

Yes, Illinois has oil.  These oil pumps though are so little!  Not as big as the ones in Texas, these probably are about 4 feet tall.  Baby ones?  There wasn’t a whole lot of them, but just enough to say how cute are they?!

Some of the roads we went on have a lot to be desired!

I couldn’t believe how many flags we saw.  God Bless America!

We went through some little towns that had American flags on every pole, maybe 10 flags on one side of a block.  Everyone is flying their flags, showing their solidarity?  God Bless America!

What kind of name for a town is Effingham?  Was it a dirty word at one time? Do we even want to know?

Here is our set up.  It’s so nice and quiet!  We were to close to the freeway before this place so we had lots of road noise.  Not here.  We have heard a train or two, but that is ok with us as long as we aren’t staying right next to the tracks.  It was 66 degrees when we arrived, and low tonight is 45!  Now this is camping! 😂

This campground has a pond stocked with bass, catfish and blue gill.  The camp has everything you need to go fishing, catch and release only.  How awesome is that?

There are trees here called Bald Cypress.  The things in the photo above are called “knees”, which are grown around the tree.  😂 

We are way back there.  Not a whole lot of campers here, which is fine by us.  

We are going out to explore the town tomorrow, and we will be here until Thursday.  

Relaxing In Carlock, Illinois

 

We are currently in Carlock Illinois, at a KOA called Kamp Komfort.  It’s a nice camp but way too close to the freeway. Today we got up to 75, so much nicer then that hot stuff we have been experiencing!  And the mornings are cool enough that we have to run the fireplace to take the chill off! How exciting is that?  To get here, we had to cross the mighty Mississippi River.  A first for me!  (And it’s all about me isn’t it? 😂)

Here is a sign that I will never follow! Chicago!  Road Hog says that he wouldn’t want his little sweetie to get shot.  🤮. Yeah, I bet there are times that he would love to drop me off in the middle of that city!  😂

Here is our set up.  It’s just so nice to sit and relax.  Let me tell ya, there would be heads rolling if the kitchen slide that broke was preventing me from accessing the fridge, but thank goodness that isn’t the case!  I can still cook on the stove top but can’t use the oven.  No big deal though because we have a toaster/conviction oven that we use.  

Here is Ethel Louise.  She is all nice and friendly, starts licking my hand then attacks it with her teeth.  See that wild look in those eyes? 👀

Tully saw that we had new neighbors with a big dog.  She is so funny.  She thinks she is so smart finding out how to look out the windows.  Little miss nosey.

Then there is Lucy Lu.  She found the best spot to relax in. 

Where are we going?  We have had to cancel a couple of places.  On Monday we are traveling to Okaw Valley Campground in Brownstown, Illinois.

On Thursday, we will be traveling to Cypress Lakes RV Park in Calvert City, Kentucky.

And when we leave, we will be staying at Tishomingo RV Repair, in Tishomingo, Mississippi.  We aren’t sure how long we will be there, but as far as I know we will get to stay in our home.  We will get there Oct. 3, and I think they will get started on the 4th.

Cindy, how did that pony tail work out for you and Dave?  Did you say any of Judge Judy’s favorite sayings?  “Remember, a Trojan is more than a horse.”

“I eat liars for breakfast.”

“Don’t try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn’t work and it annoys the pig.”

Change Of Plans!

 

Our plans have changed! So the RV repair guys that were here yesterday told us that they could fix our slide but we would need to wait for weeks for parts.  So we were going to order the parts, and have them shipped to a repair shop in North Carolina.  But, a very nice guy called from Tishomingo RV Repair in Mississippi and he will squeeze us in on Oct. 4th. Daniel will fix us up and he double checked to make sure he had the parts.

The shop has full hookups for customers, and it shouldn’t take but a couple of hours to fix. Daniel said that they wouldn’t even need to take out the slide to fix it.  So, we are canceling a couple of camps and getting a new itinerary going.  Daniel works for Tiffin, Vanleigh, and as busy as he is, he says that he will be able to get our slide fixed!

Now, as many problems that we have had with this fifth wheel, we love the floor plan, and love just how strong and stable this fifth wheel is.  We pull it without any problems, and we go up and over passes with ease.  Yes, it is a big fifth wheel, 42 feet, but we have lots of room and lots of storage.  If we ever give up full timing, or give up this fifth wheel, it will be for another Vanleigh product.  

Other good news is that it only got up to 70 degrees today!  We will be able to sleep tonight with windows open and no air conditioner! We are still leaving in the morning for Carlock, Illinois.  Stay tuned….

Waterloo, Iowa = Problems, Bugs, and Hot Sunshine!

 

We left yesterday about 9:15.  Man, Iowa is almost all farm land.  It also has some beautiful farm houses.  The roads are icky!!!

We are staying at Lost Island Waterpark KOA Resort.  I think the water park is closed for the season though.  I don’t know why….it’s so dang hot here!  High today of 99!  Ewww!

You can’t tell by the above photo but one of our galley slides wouldn’t come out.  It is a totally different problem that we had from the other galley slide problem.  We called Vanleigh, then called the manufacturer, Lippert, and then called RV repair!  RV repair came out this morning and gave us some bad news.  The motor rose up and the spur gear missed the track.  (Vanleigh didn’t use a set screw to hold the motor in place when building this trailer.). We contacted Vanleigh again to let them know the problem, and we have a call into North Carolina RV repair to see if they would be able to do the work. We will be in North Carolina for 3 weeks, hopefully the work can be done sometime during those three weeks.  In the meantime, our kitchen is a bit smaller! Hey, if I can’t laugh about it, I’ll cry! 😭😂  For right now, it won’t stop us from traveling.  I might say something different next week though!

We had some thunderstorms come through last night.  Why don’t the storms immediately cool down the air? Come on man!  And what is with these stupid little bugs?  They are about the size of a pin head and they bite!  Everyone that we have talked to in Iowa about these bugs know what bugs we are talking about but the people don’t go outside in the summer so they aren’t bothered by them!

Now, some good news! We found diesel for $4.01! Can you believe it? Oh but one little thing…it’s at Sam’s Club.  So yes, we joined! We have found that down this way there are more Sam’s Club, then Costco’s.  

We are here until Thursday, then on to Kamp Comfort in Carlock, Illinois.  Today is supposed to be the last of the hot days, then it gets down to 70, then 65 the day that we leave. I can’t wait!

Last Night in North Sioux City

Yesterday, we needed to find a store.  We found one four miles away.  To get there, we had to leave South Dakota, drive into Iowa, go a mile or two, then….

We had to cross into Nebraska!  Four miles and we were in 3 different states.  Tomorrow we go into Iowa to our next camp.

I don’t even want to know what Lucy is thinking….she is all legs.

Somebody found a way to see what is going on out the windows.  There are a lot of red squirrels out there.  She watches but doesn’t bark.

We had chicken and dumplings for dinner today.  It was a warm day but it still hit the spot.  Come on fall!!

We will be traveling to Waterloo, Iowa in the morning to Lost Island Waterpark KOA Resort.  Let’s hope it is fall there!