The Woodall's in the Midwest in April and May

         We have had wayyyyy too much fun to keep up with this blog!  The last time we “chatted” we were headed northeast from Oklahoma with central Illinois, Fairview, and family as our ultimate destination.  

     

     April 18 and 19, travelling east through Iowa, we stayed overnight at two state parks, a  significant departure from our usual plans.   We had been leery of using state parks for two reasons.  Usually the sites don’t have the facilities that we need and the trees in the park aren’t well-trimmed to accommodate our tall selves.  Our first state park was Green Valley State Park in Creston, IA.  It had been rainy so we had the park to ourselves.  A walk around the little lake required tromping through the mud but the views were gorgeous.  Those were clouds in the background behind Jerry, not snow covered mountains, as you might think.  

     The next night, after drive on US 34 through peaceful farm country, we were in eastern Iowa at Geode State Park, just outside of Danville.  We chose this park so we could visit with Debbie and Brian Kennelly.  We had spent a couple of weeks with them in Phoenix/Mesa and wanted to see their home and meet their family.  Geode had installed a GFI system that caused lots of problems for many RVers.  We thought, “No problem, we’re almost new and our electrical system should be perfect”.  Nope!  It all worked okay once we shut off 3 breakers (washer/dryer, engine heat, and center HVAC unit)!  Good thing they didn’t control anything vital, but it sure was discouraging to find another problem with Abe.

         We spent a day in the Amana Colonies and southeastern Iowa.  You won’t be surprised to know that we found a microbrewery!  I was just as delighted as Jerry, Debbie and Brian, although you cannot see my smile.

 

 We had dinner at the Bonaparte Retreat Restaurant in the little town of Bonaparte.  The Des Moines river ran through this area and the old bridge had a walking path through the rotten planks.  The two engineers did a close inspection, as a mother goose kept an eye on them.               

        Have you been to the Amana Colony?  Wikipedia gave good info: 

The Amana Colony is made up of seven villages on 26,000 acres located in Iowa County in east-central Iowa. The villages were built and settled by German Pietists, who moved from New York State in 1856. For eighty years, the Amana Colony maintained a communal, almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little from the industrializing American economy. The Amanians adhered to the specialized crafting and farming occupations that they had brought with them from Europe, passing skills and techniques on from one generation to the next. They used hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture, clothes, and other goods.  Today the area is a popular tourist destination. 

         The four of us wandered through the shops, bought preserves, cheeses, and enjoyed jaeger schnitzel for lunch (one of our favorite German dishes from our time

 in Germany in the 70’s).  We discovered that Brian and Debbie are red-hot pitch players and we spent a couple of intense evenings trying to out-psych each other! 

     Friday, April 22, we arrived in the Mother-land…Illinois!  We crossed the Mississippi River at Burlington, Iowa, curious to see the river’s water level and barge traffic.  I managed to capture a shot of the lift bridge up to accommodate the transit of the pusher and tow as we zoomed across the bridge.

         We parked at the Galesburg East Campground, which was really east of Knoxville, IL, to prep Abe for a long stay away from hook-ups in Fairview.  This was one of our favorite campgrounds…convenient, woodsy, and usually not very busy.  The campground was a short drive from Galesburg and Iron Spike Brewery and Restaurant, the old converted fire station that I’ve written about before.  We stopped at the brewery and now in early spring we still saw signs of winter remaining in their vestibule.  This snow removal equipment gave me the willies!  You can tell the serious snow removal sidewalk brigade when the tool of choice is a scoop shovel and not the (much easier to use) snow shovel!

         Saturday, April 23, we were once again settled and parked at 75 Park, Fairview, at a friend's house.  Let the Midwest Fun and Games begin!  The photo above may seem like an odd one to include, but it shows you how creative Jerry can be!  To extend our stay in Fairview, it helped to keep our black water tank empty so Jerry created a "facility" in the basement of the house Chuck was remodeling.  Not much privacy, but effective!

          One of the prime spring activities in central Illinois was morel mushroom hunting.  This entailed stomping through the woods, just as the poison ivy was awakening, and searching under old, moldy dead trees to find these delicious mushrooms.  Sadly this was all we found.  The weather had been too cool and too dry to produce many.

        We spent a delightful Saturday exploring the banks of Turkey Creek.  A huge old cottonwood had fallen across the creek and Jerry found half of the mushrooms in the roots of the old tree.  We inspected the beaver dam but saw no other signs of this industrious creature in the pond We did see several turtles out for a swim, above the dam, though. 

     We spent an afternoon "down in the timber" helping Dad and Don (Jerry's brother) move an old tree.  At one point I thought we had a tractor rodeo!

     Not to be outdone, Dad ran the chain saw.  At almost 89, he was still going strong.

         The annual inspection on Chuck’s plane had been completed in Pekin, about 30 miles away, and was ready to be brought back to Canton.   While Jerry drove Chuck’s truck home, I rode back to Canton in the plane with Chuck.  Wahoo!  He was an excellent pilot, knew the plane very well, and wasn’t above a tight turn or two.  It was great fun to fly with him.  In the photo you can see the weather was less than pristine before we took off.  Fortunately, all we had was a gusty head wind.



This part of Illinois was heavily strip-mined for coal.  In fact I can remember sitting in chemistry lab in the high school in Fairview and feel the building shake as the mined blasted away!  The result of all that destruction was many small, narrow lakes.  The rich farm ground was destroyed but habitat for wildlife was created.  

     We flew over several little towns, Fairview included, as well as some of Chuck’s family’s farms.

         Our stays, in Illinois were always all about getting together with family and friends.  Of course we saw lots of Jerry’s folks, my brother Charlie and his wife, Suzanne, and my sister Carol and her family.  One Friday we attended a high school track meet and watched our nephew James compete.  While he didn’t win, he did achieve a new personal best.  “Run, James, Run!”

         Carol, now a Grandma, was absolutely gaga over sweet little Zelda, and I can’t blame her!  Zelda is 1 1/3, walking all over the place and doing a fine job of keeping Cole, the black lab, on his toes.  Carol said Zelda could walk up to Cole, pull the dog treat out of his mouth and Cole wouldn’t bat an eye.  Amazing!

        I cannot remember ever being in Illinois for Mother’s Day.  Our kids’ school schedules plus my teaching schedule would have precluded an appearance in Illinois in May.  This year we were delighted to celebrate Jerry’s Mom and her dedication to her family.  In the photo you see Mom and her three kids:  Jerry, Becky Woodall Yurkovich, and Don Woodall. 

         Friday, May 13, we convinced Don and Sally Woodall to join us in their fifth wheel to travel to northern Illinois to see Becky.      She lived on a farm outside of Paw Paw with her SO Mike.  These two were one of the “Farmers Only. Com” success stories!  As we attempted to depart, the steps on our motorhome would not retract!  Difficult to drive down the road with the steps out!  The day before we were caught outside in a downpour and had left the motorhome door open.  We attributed the whole problem to a damp switch, pulled the fuse to de-power the steps in the “in” position and took off.  When we returned from this trip Jerry installed a new door switch, but we were again disgusted at the poor engineering that resulted in this problem.

      Our route took us across the Illinois River at Lacon and across one of the old steel bridges.  

        There were no typical campgrounds from which to choose for our two-day stay in DeKalb County.  One choice was a yoga retreat, run by a young lady who resided in Chicago during the week.  She insisted she had plenty of room “out in the grass” and if we couldn’t get near a power box, she thought we could always run an extension cord.  I got the sense that she had not had a 40,000 pound, 40’ motorhome parked at her retreat!  Don and Jerry weren’t too keen on parking at a yoga retreat facility anyway!

         Our other option was to park at the Sandwich, IL, fairgrounds.  You might remember that last summer we parked at the fairgrounds in Green Bay, WI, and had a great experience, so we were game to try fairgrounds again.  We had the place to ourselves!  Although the facility had a grass campground we parked on the fairground street.  We were concerned we would sink like boulders due to all of the recent rain.  “Jerry” the maintenance person was amazingly helpful and made this an easy stop.

         One of the highlights of our visit with Becky and Mike was exploring an old octagonally shaped barn on the 100-year-old farm where Becky and Mike live.  The core of the barn was grain storage and the outside perimeter was open to store equipment or get livestock out of the weather.  Above the grain storage was a second floor where hay was stored.  The place was huge.  Unfortunately, the roof was deteriorating and the owners had been unable register the barn as a historic site.  This old landmark may not be there much longer.

         We found this old two-bottom plow sitting on that second story.  We weren’t certain of the make, but thought we saw some “John Deere green” on it.

         The photo of Jerry, Don and Becky gives you an idea of the size of the beams used in the construction of the barn.  I don’t think we grow trees like that any more!

         Our tour of Mike and Becky’s farming operation included a peek at all kinds of big and little equipment, but if you’ve seen one giant tractor, you’ve seen them all!  What caught my eye was this little corner of one of the equipment sheds, with several transportation modes.

         A trip to northern Illinois would not be complete without a stop at our long time friends, Jerry and Sue Hipple.  Jerry H was Jerry W’s college roommate, fraternity brother, and best man.  Jerry and Sue recently completed a beautiful new home and they graciously let us stop by with Don Sally, Becky, and Mike.  In the photo, Jerry and Jerry were working on a computer problem..

         Sunday, May 15, we pulled up the jacks and headed east to Shipshewana, Indiana.  We wanted to visit the Entegra factory in nearby Middlebury.  Little did we know that this area was heavily populated with Amish families and lots of pretty little farms.  The factory tour was a huge success and we were quite impressed with the workmanship.  Do we want to trade Abe for an Entegra?  Stay tuned….the jury is still out!

         We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the countryside and admired the Amish farmers for their dedication to simpler farming techniques.  In the photo a farmer is walking a team home from the field after a morning of plowing.

         On our return to Illinois we stopped overnight in Crawfordsville, IN, and searched valiantly for a microbrewery, but none were to be found.  We did find Barefoot Burger in downtown.  This little restaurant offered craft beers from the Indianapolis area.  Don and Sally were good sports and joined us in the tasting!

         Our last few days in Illinois were full of visiting with family and friends.  We had dinner at the Packinghouse in Galesburg with my brother and sister-in-law Charlie and Suzanne and my aunt and uncle Marilyn and Lowell Rask.  Uncle Lowell is my Dad’s younger brother and the last remaining member of that generation in my family.  At almost 86, he’s still working, offering advice, and reminiscing about my fourth Christmas in 1951 when he dressed up as Santa Claus and I was totally enraptured.

         We enjoyed a cousins' lunch at the Landmark Café on Seminary Street in Galesburg.  I spent many summers visiting back and forth with cousins Sandy and Judy, on the left.  Cousin Kathy, third from the left, was just enough younger than I that we weren’t close.  The little girl between us is also a cousin and the great-granddaughter of my aunt Marilyn.  I cannot begin to calculate that relationship!  Between Aunt Marilyn and Jerry is Nicky, my first cousin once removed.

         We attended Trinity Lutheran Church in Canton on our last Sunday in Illinois.  This lovely little church has become our home-away-from-home congregation.  We will miss all these wonderful folks.

         Monday, May 30, Memorial Day was a day to visit cemeteries.  Charlie, Suzanne, Jerry and I made the rounds…Canton to see the grave of our brother Roger and his wife Linda; on to Lewistown to visit the graves of Suzanne’s parents and grandparents, and finally to Oneida to visit the graves of our parents.

         We had a pretty, warm May day and the cemeteries were beautiful, decorated in flags and flowers.  The Lewistown cemetery (made famous by Edgar Lee Masters) had a Civil War monument worth exploring.  I had a bit of an epiphany while we wandered through these old cemeteries (all had Civil War veterans among their residents):  these were great places to see amazing old trees.  No one had logged these spots and the trees towered above us. Yet another reason why wandering through cemeteries is a favorite pastime.

         Time to bring this to an end…until next time!  We will begin our trek west to California and Washington on May 31.  There are more stories to come