A Shopping Day and CG Photos

Baraboo, WI.

54 deg. clear, N. wind @ 4 mph.

Forecast = Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High around 80F. Winds light and variable.


Yesterday, Jim and Linda took Big RED and headed towards Baraboo. Just before they came to the town, they stopped at Mark's Produce, which is a little roadside stand that has been there for years. Mark and his wife raise almost all the produce locally and every time Jim and Linda have been in this area, they've stopped and purchased some of the very fresh produce that he and his wife sell.

After leaving Mark's, they headed back this way and stopped at the Baraboo Candy Company where Linda stocked up on Sugar-free candy. This is another stop that they always make when in the area.

By this time, it was getting close to lunch time, so they returned back here to grab a bite to eat and to relax for awhile. (actually, Jim took a nap), ;-)

About 3:30, they left again and this time, went into Wisconsin Dells and to the "Trading Post", where Linda bought a new pair of moccasins. After leaving there, they drove through the downtown Dells Area to see if all the old stores were still there and if not, what had taken their places.

On the way back here, Jim and Linda stopped stopped at a Culver's  Restaurant and bought some chicken for dinner and then stopped again and bought Big RED a drink of that good old #2 diesel fuel.

Now, he's ready to head up to Warrens this morning for the reunion.

Oh!! Jim took a few photos of the Campground yesterday morning that I thought you might like to see.

The office/ store/ residence at Fox Hill Campground

Our site A-7 viewed from the office area

Not large sites, but sufficient. 

The bath house and rest of the park. The pull-through, full hook-up sites are in a large section behind the bath house.

A Point to Ponder : Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Woof!!!

Utica, IL To Baraboo, WI

Baraboo, WI.

57 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast = Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 74F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.


We left the Hickory Hollow CG near Utica yesterday morning about 9:20. From the CG we took County Road 43, North for  a few miles until we came to US 52. Then, we turned West on 52 and took it over to I-39. Once on 39, we followed it up to and around Rockford. 39 joins up with the Toll Road on the East side of the city, so you're pretty much forced to pay a toll. After paying the toll, ($4.00) we crossed into Wisconsin.

Wisconsin used to have very good roads, but like many places, they have really deteriorated over the last years.You may not notice it of you're in a car or large Motorhome, but towing a trailer made the ride really rough. There were smooth sections where they had blacktopped the road, but where it was cement, (most of it), not so good. :-(

Once we got North of Madison, Jim got tired of the bouncing and turned off on WI 19, heading West. 19 was quite rough also, but when we came to US 12 and turned North on it, it was pretty smooth going, the rest of the way up here to the Fox Hill Campground, which is just a little North of Baraboo.

It was 12;45 when we arrived, so it took us about 3 hours and 25 minutes to travel the 190 miles up here.

Fox Hill CG is a nice park. Well maintained, friendly folks in the office and a Passport America park, to boot, so we're only paying about $24.00 a night, including tax for a site with water and 30 Amp electric. That's very reasonable for the Wisconsin Dells area.

We'll stay here for 2 nights and then head up to Warrens, WI. for the reunion tomorrow.


Did you know that today is "National Toilet Paper Day"?

Woof!!!

A New Tire For Nora and Rantoul IL To Utica, IL

Utica, IL.

53 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 74F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.



We left Rantoul, right at 9:30 as planned and headed North on I-57. The traffic moved right along and the only construction we had was about a 5 mile section just before we turned off on the Ashkum exit. Meier Brothers Tire Supply is just off of I-57 on the East side, so it was just a quick drive to get to their shop.

It was right at 10:30 when we arrived and we had traveled 49 miles.

Meier Bros. Tire has been in business for many years and Jim and Linda have dealt with them in the past and found them to be honest and sell good products at a fair price. They may not be the cheapest in the area, but you can count on them to do the work right and be fair.

By 11:15 the tire had been changed and we were pulling out of Meier's lot and heading West on Rt. 116. 116 took us over to the little town of Saunemin, where we turned North on Rt. 47. 47 then took us up through Dwight and up to Morris where we turned West in I-80. 80 then brought us over here to exit 81 near Utica and to the Hickory Hollow CG.

Hickory Hollow is Passport America Park and we've stayed here many times before, on our way through the area. It's a nice park, very clean, well laid out and with the PPA discount, very reasonable.

It was 1:20 when we pulled up in front of the office, so with the little detour to get Nora's tire changed we were on the road or at the tire shop for 3 hours and 50 minutes and had traveled a total of 143 miles.

Oh, and we also stopped at the Love's Truck Stop here at exit 81 and got Big RED a drink of that good old #2 diesel fuel before coming to the CG. :-)

Today, we'll be heading up into Wisconsin. The plan is to go to a CG that we've stayed at before, which is near Baraboo, WI. Jim's not looking forward to the drive because once we get onto I-90 near Rockford, the traffic will probably be very heavy and stay that way at least to Madison and maybe even farther.

Did you know that on this date in 1916 - The National Park Service was established as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior?

Woof!!!

Getting Ready To Travel and A Response To A Comment

Rantoul, IL

63 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast = Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High near 80F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.


We're almost ready to leave here tomorrow morning. Jim and Linda have been working on getting everything put in it's proper place for travel and checking everything out. The weather guessers are forecasting rain off and on for today, so yesterday, Jim dumped the tanks, re-organized the basement compartment, re-organized the back of Big RED and stored all unnecessary hoses and outdoor items.

Inside, Linda worked on getting all cabinets, drawers and closets organized for travel and put away all the things that she and Jim have gotten out during our 2 month +  stay here.

The plan is to leave here around 9:30 tomorrow morning, head up to Ashkum, IL to get that tire on Nora replaced and then head up to Utica, IL were there's an RV Park that we'll stay at for the night. Then on Tuesday, we'll head up into Wisconsin and probably stay at a park in the Wisconsin Dells area for a couple nights before heading further North for the reunion on Thursday.

Oh, while I happen to think of it, I received a comment the other day from Dione. She was wanting information on the CG where Nora was parked this last winter. She and her husband  stay in that area at times during the winter and said that she was having problems finding any info on the CG and wasn't sure just where it was. So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  I did some research and even though the CG doesn't have a web site of it's own, I did find this Link to a web site that tells about the Paradise Lakes Travel Trailer Park. It also includes their phone number, directions, a map and the address, so hopefully it'll help.

Paradise lakes is an old park. Many of the RVs are permanent but we found the folks staying in the park very friendly and the prices were about the best in the area for a monthly rate. The roads are sand and not real smooth but this keeps the speed down. The electric was good as were the water and sewer. There's no pool and they don't have a lot of amenities, but they do have holiday meals and potlucks in the pavilion.  It is a gated park and you have to have a code to get in, so there aren't strangers just driving around in the park.

Basically, we like the park and will probably end up there again this winter. Hopefully we'll be able to spend more time "camping" this winter, than we did last winter. Maybe we'll even get to meet Dione and her husband!!  :-)

Did you know that Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbor Henri Nestlé?

Woof!!!

Rockin' And Rollin'

Rantoul, IL.

68 deg. light rain, SW wind @ 10 mph.

Forecast = Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then partly cloudy during the afternoon hours. High 77F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.


The eye doctor's appointments yesterday morning went well. Linda got the injection and Jim got the scan. It took awhile though as the doctor's office was backed up. ;-(   By the time they left the doctor's office it was getting close to lunch time, so they stopped at the Urbana Gardens Restaurant in Urbana to eat before coming back here to the park.

Being that it rained in the morning, the humidity was very high yesterday. That, along with a high temp of around 87 made things down right uncomfortable. Then, around 8:00 PM a thunderstorm came through the area and we started Rockin' and Rollin'!!!!

I don't know for sure how strong the wind gusts were, but it sure made Nora move around a lot, and things got pretty scary for a little while!!!! That's one thing that I liked about the big Motor Homes we used to have, (Myrddin and Emrys), they didn't move around much at all in a storm.

We're OK though, and I don't think that there was any damage in the park. Just a few very small branches down.

This morning, Linda has to go to her primary care doctor over in Fisher, IL for her annual check-up and to get new prescriptions for her meds. She'll also be getting a blood test, so she won't be able to eat anything before she and Jim go. That means that they'll be stopping at the Blue Star Restaurant when they leave the doctor's office. ;-)

The weather guessers are saying that we should have very nice weather for the rest of this week. They're saying that it shouldn't rain or even be very humid until Sunday. I hope their forecasts are right as that will give Jim and Linda decent weather to get some shopping done and get everything ready to travel next Monday.


A Point to Ponder : A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Woof!!!

Getting Excited About Reunion, A New Flag and Doctors Again

Rantoul, IL.

67 deg. rain, NW wind @ 14 mph.

Forecast = Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.


We're all getting excited about our up-coming trip to Wisconsin for Linda's family reunion. Reservations have been made, where deemed necessary and we'll be leaving here Monday morning to head up there.

Our first stop will be the tire shop up in Ashkum, IL to have Nora's tire checked out, (and probably replaced), and then we'll head over to Utica, IL, (where there's a park that accceptes the Passport America card for a 50% off discount), for one night. From there, we'll head up into Wisconsin, probably staying in the Wisconsin Dells area for a few nights, before heading a little further North for the reunion.

The reunion is in Warrens, WI, which is a little North of Toma, Wisconsin and will start on Thursday and last until Monday morning.  It's located at a Jellystone Park complex and while we'll be staying in the Campground, the rest of the family will stay in one of the large Lodge vacation villas in the "Three Bears Lodge" area of the complex.

After the reunion, we'll head back down here to Rantoul, getting back  before the Labor Day weekend traffic begins.

Jim has been trying to figure out a way to mount a new flag on Nora and he finally decided on a way to do it. Nora doesn't have a ladder on the rear, so he couldn't mount the flag there as he's done with some of our Motor homes, so he had to come up with another idea. he finally decided  what to do and now we have a nice large flag mounted on the front of Nora.

I think I like it!! :-)

Today, both Linda and Jim have eye doctor's appointments. Linda to have a treatment on her left eye and Jim to get a scan of his eyes to make sure there's no damage from the glaucoma. Both procedures will be done at Dr. Gandhi's office and the results of Jim 's scan will be sent to Dr. Anderson who he will see again right after we return from the family reunion.

A Point to Ponder:   If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!

Woof!!!

More Eye Treatments and Still No Definite Travel Plans

Rantoul, IL.

62 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. High 83F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.  0% chance of rain.


Not a whole lot to report. Jim and Linda have just been doing  normal day to day things. Linda had an eye appointment early yesterday morning and Dr. Gandhi determined, even though her eyes looked better, that the best thing to do would be to give her another injection. Then, next week he'll do the procedure to the other eye.

Linda's vision has improved since we've been back here and has been getting the treatments, so I guess it's worth it to have them done every month. Dr. Gandhi also said that by the time we leave here around the end of September or first part of October he's thinking that Linda's eyes will have stabilized enough that she shouldn't have to have any treatments for a couple months, and possibly longer. :-)

So, when we get back to Florida in November, Linda will see Dr. Barnard and he will check her eyes and preform further treatments on them if necessary.

Jim and Linda still haven't made any definite travel plans after we leave here. There's a few different options and I think that they're having problems deciding on which one to go with. Part of the problem is that we still haven't heard anything from Jeff, who lives in Portland Oregon, as to if or when he will be coming to NC or Fl this fall. What he'll be able to do will have a large effect on  our fall travels.

Oh well, we've go another month before anything really has to be decided.

A Point to Ponder = Why do they report power outages on TV?

Another Week, A Little Excitement and Plans Being Made

Rantoul, IL.

67 deg. Overcast, NE wind @ 9 mph.

Forecast = Cloudy early, becoming mostly sunny this afternoon. High 81F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.


Well, another week has gone by since my last post.  Again, not much to write about, so I didn't.

We had a little excitement this last weekend. While Jim was using this computer, all of a sudden he got an e-mail saying that all of our gigabytes for the month had been used up and that they were adding an additional gigabyte, (at a cost) so that our service would not be interrupted.

Just 30 minutes before that, Jim had noticed that we still had almost 3 gigabytes left, (plenty for normal use for the rest of the time period), so something used 3 GB in less than 30 minutes!!!

Well, to make a long story short, after calling the Florida PC Doctor who had set this computer up originally and has a way to access the computer from Florida, (with Jim's permission). scanned the hard drive and checked for viruses and malware. He decided that  evidently a large update had automatically downloaded and that's what caused the whole problem.

He cleaned up the hard drive, changed the settings so that wouldn't happen again, and now, we're good to go again! :-)

Whew!!! Didn't need a computer problem right now!!!

Jim and Linda have been making plans to head up to Wisconsin later on this month. Linda's brother, Glenn, and his family are getting together at a resort about 50 miles North of the Wisconsin Dells and we're planning on heading up there to see them.

Kind of like a little "Family Reunion".

We'll stay at a CG up there and then Jim and Linda will go to the resort during the days to visit with them. Being that we'll still be in the peak tourist season at that time, Jim has made a reservation at a park near where they'll be staying so that we're sure to have a site.

Ever since we've left Florida, there has been a tire on Nora, that has been losing air. Not much, but it's been bothering Jim because he felt that something just wasn't right. Well, one day he crawled under the trailer to look at the back side of the tire and he did not like what he found. :-(  It seems, although this is a new trailer as of 2014, and we've never had a flat tire, there is a plug in the tire on the inside of the tread area. :-(

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , Jim called a tire place which is North of here in Ashkum, IL. (that we've had dealings with before), asked if they had a replacement tire if necessary, and made an appointment to head up there on the day we'll be leaving here to head to Wisconsin.  It'll be a little out of the way, but Jim feels he can trust the people at this place, so it'll be worth the detour and time spent to get it repaired properly or get a replacement tire.

So, the plan is to leave here on Monday, August 24th, head up to Ashkum to get the tire repaired / replaced and then continue up to Wisconsin from there. The "Family Reunion" starts on Thursday, so we'll have plenty of time to get up there. In fact, we may stay someplace around the "Dells" for a day or two, depending on how the trip goes.

After the "Reunion", we'll head back down here to Rantoul, arriving sometime before the Labor Day weekend. (Don't want to be out on the road over the Holiday). After returning here, we'll probably spend most of September here, but that part is written very lightly on the calendar in pencil, and of course, Jim still has that big eraser. ;-)

Did you know that today is "National Root Beer Float Day"?

Woof!!!