Wrapping Up

After such a long Monday of travel, after tire trouble and the heat and an extra day used to rest (Tuesday), we had decided that we were all ready to go ahead and start our travels back home. It has been a great trip, despite being unplanned. It has given the three of us quality time together, if doing nothing more than relaxing outside or watching a movie together in the camper. I'm glad that we took this trip. We decided to wake up before dawn on Wednesday morning and try to drive as far as we could while it was cool in the morning. We made it through St. Louis and into Illinois before having our third camper tire blowout. By this time, Daniel had become a pro at changing out the tire and we were back on the road within 15 minutes. And thankfully once again, the next exit we stopped at had a tire center, right off the interstate. We were able to continue driving soon after getting the bad tire fixed. We came into some construction traffic near Metropolis, Illinois which was just a few minutes before our exit. We had to wait about 25 minutes in that traffic and it was so very hot! We stopped once again in Paducah and stayed at the same RV resort we had stayed in on the front end of our trip. We knew that we would have full hookups and they had a good laundry room where we could wash our clothes.

I saw this sticker in the gas station after the tire blow out. I felt it was kinda fitting.

Outside of the tire center. I guess new camper tires were becoming the souvenirs for this trip.

While driving during the hottest part of the day, the sun was coming in on my side of the truck. I have a passenger's sunburn.

We were so happy to pass over the Mississippi River and into Kentucky! Once we got set up in the camper and cooled off, we doordashed some Chinese food to the camper. Best decision of the day!

We did not get up as early to leave out on Thursday. We knew we had about 4 hours to go until we would make it home. But we also know that it would take us longer than that in our truck, pulling the camper. But the plan was to get home and hopefully with no blow outs!

Crossing into Tennessee was another welcomed sight!  That just means we were that much closer to being home.  We stopped at McKay's in Nashville and enjoyed perusing the store in the AC.  Afterwards, we made some sandwiches from the camper and then got back on the road.

Pulling into our driveway at around 5PM on Thursday, July 17!  Home Sweet Home!  And we made it with the one OG camper tire still intact.

Daniel bought this puzzle at one of the thrift stores we visited.  He worked on it several nights in the camper.  When we traveled, I would wrap it up with saran wrap so it stayed in place.  He finished it the last night before we arrived home.

We enjoyed stopping at several thrift stores and antique stores in the various places we visited.  Here are some of my finds.  The casserole dish is a large deep dish by Paula Deen that I paid 3.00 for.  We also got a few utensils and things for the camper as we discovered we needed them.  I found a Pampered Chef slotted spoon in great condition for .50.  The little precious moments figurine was at a shop in Yankton.  It has the year we got married on it.

And before I end writing about this trip, I really need to brag on Amelia.  There's not many 17 year olds that would tag along with Mom and Dad, in a hot truck pulling a camper and especially do it without complaining.  She did not complain once.  It was so very good to spend the two weeks with her.  She is about to begin a busy senior year of high school and who knows what after that.
Until next time......

Resting up and a Burlington Visit

It was nice to just wake up and hang out at the camper for a while this morning. I enjoyed my coffee outside while spotting a few deer and writing scriptures.

It wasn't long before Daniel came outside and discovered another camper tire had gone flat overnight. We had heard a loud pop sound last night but couldn't figure out what it was. We think now, that was it.

We loaded up the bad tire and took it into town to get a new one. Daniel dropped Amelia and myself off at Dick's where we found us some Iowa/Fever gear. Then we drove back over to downtown Burlington and went into a few of the stores there. I just love the look of the old buildings.

By this time, it had already gotten very hot and we were hungry. So we went back to the campground to eat lunch and relax the rest of the day. Amelia and I rode over to the park's beach area to check it out. It seems like it may have been a popular park at some point but just didn't seem to be now. There were some guests but it seemed like it wasn't well frequented. We ate pancakes for supper and watched the Indiana/Connecticut women's basketball game. We had decided to pack up as much as we can tonight and wake up early in the morning to drive as long and as far as we can back home. We hope to make it into Kentucky, near Paducah possibly before we stop for the night.

Traveling Through Iowa

On Sunday morning, we packed up the camper and left the Lewis and Clark Lake area and headed back into Vermillion. There we worshipped with the Vermillion church of Christ, a small congregation of about 25. They were very nice and all spoke to us. We met the McClurg family who told us they had family who lived in Alabama now. And what a coincidence when they told us that their family were members at West Huntsville! It was neat talking to them and sharing our connections with West Huntsville.

We continued traveling, leaving South Dakota and back into Iowa. So many cornfields everywhere! You just cannot fathom that we would ever have a shortage of corn. We also drove through an area where we were pretty close to some of the wind turbines. I had to take some more pictures, of course.

 We came to Indianola where we found an RV Park amongst the corn fields. It was close to Des Moines so after we got all set up, we drove into the city to look around. We were able to see the capital building which was neat.

On Monday morning, we packed up and left Indianola with plans to ride east a couple of hours to visit Iowa City and the campus of the University of Iowa.  After passing through more farmlands (corn and some beans) we came through this small city of Kalona where we saw several horse and buggies.  According to Google, it is is the largest Amish community in Iowa.  

Just a few more miles up the road, we came into Iowa City, which was much larger than we had anticipated.  With only a few minor almost mishaps with pulling a camper through a large University city, we were able to find a parking lot amongst the practice fields on campus.  We parked the truck and camper and then walked over to the Carver-Hawkeye Arena where Iowa basketball (gymnastics, volleyball and wresting) occur.  This is where Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin (both in the WNBA) played in college.  We have enjoyed watching women's basketball with Amelia so this was fun to visit.  We didn't get to see much but did use the restrooms there which was a huge relief.

We also walked over to the track and xc facility.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the truck and camper, fueled up and headed back onto the highway with hopes of reaching Missouri before stopping for the day.

Throughout the trip, we have prayed for our safety during travels (and thanked God upon reaching each destination).  Thus far, we have not had any issues.  But as we were about an hour out from our next stop, I noticed out my window and in the mirror black pieces of material flying up from the camper. Then seeing smoke, I told Daniel immediately that it appears we may have a tire blow out.  He carefully pulled over onto the shoulder, in a grassy area and we got out.  Sure enough it was a blow out.  He noticed just a few more feet away, there was a gravel road that led to a barn in the cornfield.  He was able to pull up so that he could use this more level surface to change out the tire.  Daniel was able to successfully and safely change the tire out and it really didn't take too long to do so.  We were only about 5 miles from a city and after googling, we found a Goodyear Tire Center.  We were able to get the blown tire replaced in just a short while.  After all that and because we were hot, exhausted and overall drained by the experience, we found a state park with a campground to stay.  Prayers were definitely answered and it is easy to see that when you look back on it.  Although it was a negative experience that we would have wished to avoid, we were blessed in that it happened so close to that gravel road, on the side away from the highway and so close to a city where we could easily get the tire fixed.  So thankful that God was taking care of us!

After setting up camp on our spot in the Geode State Park (Danville, Iowa), we ate supper and rode over to the next closest city.  West Burlington was a newer city with all the major shopping, stores and restaurants.  Just a little further was Burlington which was older.  Burlington was discovered in 1805 during the mapping for the Louisiana Purchase.  It is on the banks of the Mississippi River and has many old business and church buildings.  We rode around the downtown area and saw so many pretty buildings and homes.  We also saw Snake Alley, which according to Wikipedia, is the most crooked street in the world (picture taken from Wikipedia because I didn't get a chance to take the picture myself).

It was good to be able to sleep well last night and take it easy this morning.  I'm not sure what our plan is from here.  Just thankful for the provisions and spending time together.