Still at South Marcum

October 28-31, 2015

Turns out the best travel day will be tomorrow (Sunday).   We'll have mild overnight temps and cloudy weather for the drive.    We'll be doing a big push tomorrow to take advantage of the good weather, non-trafficy weekend and lack of good RV parks at the normal mileage limit.

While here, we've taken the dogs on walks, gone for a bike ride, seen lots of turtle wars, gotten lost on the way to Walmart, played with the animals, gave each other haircuts and just generally enjoyed passing the time.    Missy scouted out a premium view lakefront spot that she thinks we should try to get if we stay here again.   (Site 83).

Tomorrow we're leaving early and planning a 6-7 hour travel day.   We're excited that we're headed into the Eastern Time Zone just at daylight savings ends, so we won't be impacted at all.  Yay!

South Marcum COE, Benton, IL

October 24-27, 2015.

We had a rainy day at Kent Park in IA Friday and a super windy and cloudy day on Saturday.   I would have stayed longer, but the best day to travel was Sunday.   So even though it was lovely and sunny and warm, we packed up and headed south.   After a hike around the park first.

We went about 200 miles to Bowling Green, MO.  We just picked and easy-on, easy-off park.  It was confusingly laid out and we ended up going the wrong way for a pull-thru.  And then the park had strict rules and signs posted about where your dogs could pee.   I don't know any dogs that will ignore perfectly good grass right outside the RV first thing in the morning and agree to wait to walk across the park.   Hmph.

Monday was another 200 mile day to South Marcum COE in Benton, IL.    We actually stayed here on our way north back in May.   We snagged a non-reservable full hookup site.   The park closed on Sunday.   I've agonized over routes and travel plans, but nothing seems easy.  I hit some wind on that last day, and boy does it suck driving in a cross wind.   So avoiding windy days will again be my first priority.   Looks like we'll leave on Friday.   It's really lovely and woodsy here, but so close to the freeway that it's annoyingly loud even inside.  

Tuesday: rainy day.  Good day to catch up on piratron.

No pictures of our current spot because of the rain.  So here are some shots from the last walk in Iowa.

FW Kent Park, Oxford, IA.

October 22, 2015

We dumped tanks and stopped for gas at the Flying J and were underway by 10.   Due to arrive in Iowa at 1:15.   It was a smooth ride with almost no traffic.   Mia and Oscar actually snarlpussed while en route.   How awesome are my aminals?  (answer: sooooooo awesome).  

We hit a snag about 4 miles from the campground.   At a 4 way stop, I was concentrating on traffic and didn't notice that the GPS actually wanted me to take a left.  Sigh.  I had thought the RV unit was sophisticated enough to give a dingdong when you have to make a turn to stay on the same highway.   But I guess not.  Luckily we routed through a nice neighborhood with wide side streets and got straightened out.

This campground is amazing!   It's run by the county.  Has about 90 spots with 50amp and free wifi. Only $20/night.   And it's prettier then a lot of state parks.    It's all first come first served.  With only about 5 others here, we have our pick.   We backed into one spot and then hopped in the toad.   I decided we should stay at the top of a steep hill and take advantage of the empty park and stunning fall leaves.   This is definitely one of the best views we've had in this camper.  

Missy was concerned about being able to get level.  We backed into our 2nd spot, but I didn't like the tree blocking the view in the front, so we moved to our 3rd spot.   Then we spent quite a bit of time trying to get level from left to right.   We got as good as we could and still had quite a lean.   I said it was livable because of the great views.  

I hooked Mia up and headed for a walk.   Just a short hike to a hidden path that led to the lake in the valley.  Man, the fall colors were premium.  The lake was like glass, so it mirrored the bright orange, yellow and red trees.  The walk around the lake was neat, because this park had saved and installed a bunch of old trellis bridges.  Love it here!

October 23.

Well.   Turns out sleeping unlevel is not fun.   When I had the dogs out for their morning constitutional, I happened to notice that our parking pad was more level than we thought.   We had just stupidly parked to far to the left, where it started sloping down.  Sigh.   So when Missy got up, we moved it over to the right and now it's perfect.

Went for a walk with the dogs before the forecasted rain.   Lovely path, and we got to let the dogs off leash.  We made it back to the rig just before the rain.  I'll have to keep an eye on the weather.  I'm hoping we can be here a week before the cold drives us on.

Oh.  This morning I got to watch three GIANT swarms of swallows migrate past.   20-30 seconds long of undulating, swirling, swooshing bird swarms.   Amazing!  

Hooray!  Finally have a cat in my dash!

Focus on the lovely view and not the stupid unlevel side we picked.

Myre-Big Island State Park, Albert Lea MN

October 19-22.  Highs in the 60s,70s.  Lows in 30-50.

We arrived without any problems.  The office was closed, so we unhooked the toad and drove around to pick a spot.  We rejected all the spots in the first loop and headed for the second loop.   That loop had nice lake views, but we didn't think we could fit in the available spots.    So we headed back to the first loop, where we realized we made a mistake in our first evaluation.   We rejected some spots because they were too close to other spots.  But...there's no one else here.  Duh.  So the spots are lovely.  Lots of fall foliage and marshland.

The next morning after checking out the forecast, I picked leaving after 8 nights so we'd be traveling on a low (relatively) wind day.    Then I headed out with the dogs for a hike while Missy went and got us registered.   The trails are just lovely.   Too bad there's endless loud noise from nearby 35.

Oct 21.  Missy and I spent a couple of hours using Good Sams trip planner and review sites to come up with the next 3 stops on our way to FL.   Then we took a break and I checked the weather again.   Grrrr!   Now my lovely travel day has forecast of strong headwinds and passing thunderstorms.   After looking at the 10 day, the only low wind day was the next day.   So I called the state park office to see if we could get a refund.  I had to leave a message, but luckily the ranger called back and said we could get the refund.   So now we're heading to Iowa tomorrow to a highly reviewed county park.   We'll probably stay there for a few days.  Again, we'll play it by ear to see when the weather will be best to continue on.

Missy took the dogs on a walk.  Since no one is around, they got to be off leash.  Lucky pooches!   I got out and did the bike trail.  I had thought it would be all paved, but abut half was on gravel or grass.   Luckily the trails are very nicely maintained so it was a fun ride.

That's about it.  Happy, Jeremiah?