Driving through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois

 
Friday, Aug. 3, 2018

I don't know why I'm even writing a blog today-- all I needed was a title! This is all we did. Drive through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. All day. For a long time. For 524 miles. It was a LOT of driving.

We got back on the road a little later this than I'd hoped-- 10:20 a.m. We woke up a little later than usual, and had to dump our waste tanks and fill the fresh water tank, which added to the time before we could actually leave. We also topped off the gas tank, which was not quite half empty, because we didn't want to have to stop too soon for that. And then we just drove.

One thing we noticed was  how many triple-trailer trucks there were on I-80. I hadn't noticed them so much yesterday, but we saw about one truck every 2 minutes which was at least a double, if not a triple. I am thinking it's because of how many people shop on line now-- these trucks are moving stuff all over the country a lot more. Most of them were UPS and FedEx trucks. It used to be very rare to see even a double trailer, but today the triples were out in force. When I decided to photograph one for a Facebook post, it was less than a minute that one came by so I could take this photo.

Our planned big stop was in Elkhart, IN. We needed groceries, and by then we were going to be needing gas too. So what with stopping for a very quick lunch--only 30 minutes, it was still almost 3:30 when we got to Elkhart. We went to Martin's, a very nice grocery store we'd shopped at back in May when we went to the RV rally in Elkhart. Then we had to track down some gasoline, shocked by the difference in price over Ohio. It was a full 22-cents/gallon more in Indiana ($2.77 vs. 2.99.)  Anyway, that took us 90 minutes. Luckily, we got 60 of those minutes back about an hour later when we crossed into the Central Time Zone.

We were very happy that Google Maps routed us around some of the customary traffic tie-ups in the Gary, Indiana area south of Chicago. Supposedly the route we took saved us about 30 minutes. We did have one 20-30 minute back up just over the state line in Illinois, but it was the only really bad spot (it was way better than the traffic we hit back in May on our way to Wisconsin.) After that, more driving.

As soon as the traffic stopped being so bad, we started thinking about where we could spend tonight. It was obvious we would not make it to Dubuque, Iowa (where I have some fun planned for tomorrow morning). So I decided we should stop in Davenport Iowa, down the river about 1 hour's drive from Dubuque. This required a lot of searching through apps, books, maps, and even last year's travel log (I keep a written travel log with each night's stop). We did have some issues-- the Cracker Barrel and one of the Walmarts in Davenport (both potential free sleep-over sites) were listed on our "RV Parky" app as not allowing overnight parking. We found another Walmart that was supposed to be ok. We called the campground we stayed at last year, just on the Mississippi River on the Iowa side, but were told it was full this weekend. RV Parky showed me a Corps of Engineer campground on the Illinois side of the river, and so I pulled out my new book of Corps campgrounds and we called them. The lady said she had just 2 sites available, but we were almost 2 hours away, so we knew we were pushing it to hope they'd still be there for us when we arrived. So finally, that was our choice-- the Corps campground or Walmart.

I should add here, we have a new thing this year making our lives SOOOO much easier! Joe got us a new phone contract from Google called Project Fi. We had to buy a Google phone to go with it (we got it used on Ebay), but it now acts as a wifi hotspot which will, over the course of the month's travel, cost a lot less than using our AT&T phones as a wifi hotspot, which we did last year. So we have it turned on all the time, and our AT&T phones connect to it and use it to access the internet, and my laptop does the same (right now, I'm typing on that.) Which means we have wifi access all day, even while traveling, and it does come in very handy. Joe is having fun taking photos of our night stops on his phone, and he sent me this map-- the blue dot is us!

So anyway, it was just about 8:30 when we got to Fisherman's Corner, the Corps of Engineers campground just north of Hampton, IL. It is RIGHT on the Mississippi, about 4-5 miles north (and across the river) from the campground we used last June on our way to Denver. It was just dark when we got here, and the nice lady we'd spoken to was no longer here. No one was in the booth. So we drove around to look hopefully for a site which was not already taken, and did not have a reserved tag on it.  Our Campground Angel was working for us again today-- we found an empty site. I got out to look at what the tag on the post said, and it said the site, although empty, was reserved from 8/2 through 8/7. But, that began YESTERDAY, and it was empty! Just then a woman walked over from two sites away and said, "I had that spot reserved, but I just cancelled it a little while ago. It was for our friends, but they called to say they couldn't make it." She said she had spoken to the ranger, and gotten a refund for the site, but the "reserved" tag was still on it. But, as she pointed out, her friends were not coming tonight. And she said, "If anyone asks you about it, we're over here." So we said, "YAY!!!  It's our lucky day!" and we pulled into the site. Tomorrow morning when we look out our windows, we will see the Mississippi River flowing right in front of us.

Meanwhile, it's quiet, it's a large level site, and we are very comfortable. Cassie was thrilled to get out of the RV to walk, and she and I found this cute guy in the grass. Well, *I* found it-- she didn't even seem to notice it! (Joe says frogs have almost no odor.) She was within a foot of it but never even sniffed it.

And that is that. It's now just 11:00 local time, 12:00 "body time", and I suspect when i finally lie down, I will be able to sleep with no problem! And hopefully, tomorrow will be a very fun day, with our first "touristy" stop upriver in Dubuque, Iowa.