On the Road Again

It is Friday, August 27 and we're headed east and then south. East for a couple of Rallies and eventually see family in New Jersey and south for the winter. Yes, a bit early, but Sandy says "No Lady Bugs this winter!" Tonight we're at the Flying J in Peru, IL and all was quiet until about 10 minutes ago when a fellow pulled in next to us and fired up his generator (old style) to run his AC. That is a bummer.

It was a very uneventful day on the road. We like them that way! A big let down was the Welcome Center just into Illinois on 80 was closed. No money. The restrooms were open and they had a rack of papers outside of the doors. I'm sure we'll see more of this this winter.

We have often driven by a canal in Illinois referred to as the Hennipen canal. So today we decided we had the time and stopped at the visitors center. Okay, a typical state boondoggle. Back at the turn of the century (1900), the local politicians convinced the big politicians to dig a canal to haul their grain to market because the railroads were too expensive. It did operate for 50 years and is now a recreation trail. Besides boating and hiking, they have primitive camping for a reasonable price of $8 a night. Plus no requirement to buy a pass like so many states have in place.

As we left the farm this morning, it looked kind of ratty. The grass was in need of mowing! But we kind of became lazy bums. I love to mow the grass, but twice a week was too much. It just grows and grows and grows some more. In the last week, we've seen our local doe and her fawn a couple of times. Two or three weeks ago, the local turkey hen paraded her brood of 5 chicks across the lawn and has never returned (to be seen). They were almost big enough to fly.

I've heard complaints that my postings are too long. So we'll shorten them and hopefully do it more often.

Gene