Miss Terry is still feeling pretty bad, so I wasn’t sure if she was up to traveling yesterday. But when we woke up she said that maybe her problem is not a cold, but rather allergies, and she wanted to get out of the area to see if that made any difference.

So we left Ray Behrens Corps of Engineers Campground about 9:30 a.m., drove north a few miles to U.S. Highway 36 and took it east to Hannibal. We crossed the Mississippi River and the road became Interstate 72 on the Illinois side of the river.

The weather had predicted scattered thunderstorms, and we had a few sprinkles as we were leaving Missouri, but they soon disappeared. Traffic was light and the bus was running good, so it was a great day for traveling.

We had talked about stopping in Springfield, Illinois to see the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site, but Terry was feeling so bad that about an hour into our trip she went back to the bedroom and laid down. She was still asleep when we reached Springfield and I didn’t want to wake her, so I just kept driving. Terry woke up about 160 miles down the highway, as we were passing by Rantoul, Illinois on Interstate 57.

We try to avoid driving anywhere near Chicago whenever we can, so at Gilman, Illinois we took U.S. Highway 24 east into Indiana and turned north again on U.S. Highway 41 and followed it until we came to U.S. 30, drove east again for ten miles, then got onto Interstate 65. It was a short jog north again to Interstate 80, and we followed it all the way to Elkhart.

Except for one short stop for a late lunch/early dinner at one of the service plazas on the Indiana Toll Road, we just kept on rolling, putting about 450 miles behind us. This is more than most RVers like to travel in a day, but sometimes we get out there on the open road and the miles just keep going by effortlessly.

It is always nice to pull into Elkhart Campground, which feels like home to us because we have been coming here so many years. We know all of the regular visitors here, and got lots of waves as we drove past. As soon as I stopped the bus in front of our regular site several fellows came by to say hello.

It always takes a while to get the bus set up when we arrive at a new location, and I told Terry to just let it go until she got to feeling better, but she likes things in order, so she insisted on getting organized while I hooked up our utilities.

After more than a week of very slow National Access service on our Verizon air card, it’s great to have four full bars of EVDO high speed internet again. We’ll be here for much of the summer, with some trips out to visit family members in Michigan, and maybe to a few RV rallies in the region. It’s good to be home again.

Thought For The Day – When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

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We have been enjoying our time here at Ray Behrens Campground on Mark Twain Lake near Hannibal, Missouri. The one drawback over the weekend was the many smoky campfires we had to put up with from weekend campers. At one point we had to turn off our roof vent fans because we were drawing so much smoke inside that our eyes were burning. But by Sunday afternoon most of them had gone back to their homes and jobs and the campground had really thinned out.

Our friends Ron and Brenda Speidel arrived Sunday for their month long camp hosting commitment at Mark Twain Lake State Park, across the lake from us. Once they were settled in the four of us, along with Bob and Molly Pinner, and Smokey and Pam Ridgely, drove a few miles to a restaurant near the little town of Perry called The Junction.

Ron had told us that the restaurant serves huge pork tenderloin sandwiches, so several of us tried them. As you can see from this photo, Smokey looked like he had literally bitten off more than he could chew!

Molly took a picture of Ron, myself and Smokey posing with our big sandwiches, and you can almost hear our arteries hardening when you look at it.

 Unfortunately, even when you live the carefree life of fulltime RVers, mundane things like chores and illness catch up with you. Terry spent the first two days we were here doing laundry and cleaning the inside of our bus conversion. With that out of our way, she has come down with a bug.

I had a cold at Escapade that kicked my butt for a couple of days, and now Terry is feeling bad, with a headache, cough, and overall aches and pains. She’s taking medication, and hopefully it will run its course and she’ll feel better in a day or two like I did.

Our friends Ron and Jerrie Lea Hopf arrived at the campground yesterday afternoon, and once they were set up, Jerrie Lea came over to say hello. Not too much longer after that Ron and Brenda arrived, followed a few minutes later by Smokey and Pam, for a cookout hosted by Bob and Molly. Terry was feeling a bit better, so we walked across the road and joined in the fun.

If you’re not following the common thread in all of this, RVers love to eat, whether it’s dining out or just a group of good friends gathered around a picnic table enjoying good food. I don’t think any of us ever go hungry!

Thought For The Day – Forget health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

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We have enjoyed our time here at the Higginsville, Missouri fairgrounds. Higginsville is a friendly little town, and everybody we have met in the stores, restaurants and post office has been friendly and made it a point to welcome us to their town.

Yesterday evening we had dinner at the local Pizza Hut with Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour, and when we arrived there was a big old black dog lounging in the shade by the doorway. Of course I had to stop and get my puppy fix, and I made it a point to tell Jim and Chris (who live with a poodle, of all things!) “Now, this is a dog!”

Inside, as the waitress was taking our orders, I asked her whose dog it was. We learned that it lived at a nearby farm, but spent most of its days hanging out at the town’s fast food restaurants, where everybody was always feeding it. Now that’s my kind of dog! Any mutt that hangs out at restaurants mooching free food can’t be all bad.

I mentioned that Jim and Chris have a poodle, a lovable enough mutt if you like poodles, and I do have to give Odie credit. Every time I have ever gone to their rig he comes to the door to bark a greeting at me, and every time I tell him “Hey, Odie, shut up, it’s not like you’re a real dog!”

I think Odie has decided to shun me in return. When Jim and Chris pulled into the fairgrounds the other day, I walked up to the driver’s window, and Odie was in the passenger seat looking to see who it was. Once he realized it was me, he did an about face and looked in the other direction!

The other day I went over to talk to Jim and Chris, and Odie just stayed in his chair and ignored me. But as soon as Miss Terry walked over, he came right to the door to see her. Hey, Odie, I’ve gotten the cold shoulder a lot of times in my life, it’s not gonna work!

Today we’ll leave Higginsville and go over to Sedalia to get parked and set up for Escapade. Along the way, I hope to find a truck wash to get the bus cleaned up. It is covered in oil and road grime and really needs a bath. Usually I can con my pal Smokey Ridgely from Dri Wash N Guard into cleaning my stuff at rallies to demonstrate how good his product is, but the lazy dog is workamping over near Hannibal, Missouri and won’t make it to Escapade. That’s pretty darned selfish if you ask me! What kind of friend is that? I’m seriously thinking about sending him the bill for getting the bus washed!

Thought For The Day – Would a fly without wings be called a walk?

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