Before taking off to handle the UMW noodles, Peg baked melt-in-your-mouth scones for our breakfast…some chocolate chip, some with raisins, served with fruit, coffee and juice. We were packed up and out of Ames by 8:20, rested, clean, and happy.
Following Garmin directions to the Polk City address of our
motorcoach, we met up with Janet and Keith.
Brad, our contact with RV Roadtrip Adventures lives on a fabulous
property with a pond, several miles north of town with his beautiful wife and
four busy blonde boys. While Brad gave
the walk around inspection/training to Keith, the 2 to 10 year old boys,
wearing motocross racing gear and snow boots, told me their favorite place to
go in the RV is to Family Camp. (Not Disney World, as Brad expected them to
say!) They understand the business and
don’t mind at all that we are taking their motor home.
It’s a good thing Brad lives out in the middle of nowhere
because the 25 miles back toward Ames on county roads gave Keith a chance to
practice turns and stops with no traffic.
The first two stop signs found us skidding into the middle of
intersections! But, my brother learns
well and has wanted to drive a semi truck since he was 10 years old. We are now sailing smoothly through Chicago
suburbs on blue highways in a 36 feet long house bus!
Our first stop was back in Ames at WalMart for groceries,
and ease of parking. Then, we headed east, past a lot of tall corn and
beautiful farmsteads. We whined as Keith
drove right on by the Maid-Rite restaurants talked about in our books. It’s
sort of a family ritual to have ice cream at least once a day. We had to wait until the Rochelle, IL Dairy
Queen after our supper of sandwiches made on the go. I vow to encourage more event-appropriate ice
cream establishments from here on out.
It’s almost 9pm and we are still driving…in the dark,
getting slightly lost as the LH winds around and jumps between US 30 and
Illinois 38. Our goal is to get through
the Chicago metro area to Valparaiso, Indiana, making the morning drive easier.
This will allow less time crunch for the remaining sights and end purpose of
exploring Lyons , New York. It’s not
quite as bad as our too long push from yesterday because, Dad has had a good
nap, and…well, I am not doing the driving!
Highlights of the day:
This is the most impressive bridge in all the books, and
didn’t disappoint in real life
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We crossed the Mississippi and entered Illinois at Fulton
|
From the Lisbon Museum, a 1919 photograph on the old Lincoln
about a mile east of Ames, IA city limits.
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The team in uniform after our first night in the RV |
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