Cerro Gordo, IL to Carterville, IL to Mountain Springs, MO – September 30-October 7

Monday, September 30, was our last day in Cerro Gordo, IL. We took a 50-mile round trip by motorcycle to Arthur, IL, a little town in central Illinois and home to an Amish community. 

Dick had to take a picture of "his" pharmacy.

This photo and the ones following are
of downtown Arthur. Quaint.

On the way we passed field after field of corn ready to be harvested, many belonging to the Amish, whose farm homes were close by. Following traditional Amish customs they do not use electricity or operate automobiles or modern farm machinery, using teams of horses instead. They travel by horse-drawn buggy, use propane to fuel their light fixtures and heat their ovens; they do not use any modern conveniences, such as radios or TVs, but will use telephones located outside their homes for business or in cases of emergency. In Arthur, we saw quite a few horse-drawn buggies, and many Amish on bicycles.

We passed this house on the way to Arthur; they had painted
the American Flag on the siding. Clever.

A dialect of German (Pennsylvania Dutch) is spoken in the homes and is learned before the kids learn English in school. Although many attend public schools, most children study in Amish parochial schools. The Amish children do not go to school past the 8^th grade because the Amish believe anything learned past that time is "worldly" knowledge and not required for the simple Amish lifestyle. They study math, social studies, spelling, writing and health. They do not study science as the Amish don't believe it's a necessary course of study.

Amish children begin working, at the age of 5, in family businesses and farms; as they grow, their responsibilities increase. Farms vary in size, but are usually about 100 acres. Each farm has approximately 12 Belgian horses which are used in the fields, as well as 2 or 3 horses used for pulling the buggies. Each family usually raises one kind of farm animal (chickens, pigs, turkeys, cattle or goats), sharing meats during “butcher day” when families purchase meat and divide it among themselves. Crops of wheat, oats, clover and corn are grown; Amish women often plant large gardens, and many also have orchards and berry patches.

We visited quite a few shops in downtown Arthur, many selling the beautiful handmade furniture and quilts for which the Amish are so well-known. Their workmanship is unbelievable. We purchased cheeses and corn salsa at one of the stores, which was also a bakery. Oh, the fragrances emanating from the kitchen!

One of the most popular restaurants in the area is Yoder's Kitchen, so we had to have lunch there. Featuring traditional home-cooked Amish fare, they serve locally raised chicken, fish and smoked meats, as well as thick and hearty soups and freshly baked breads. Then…there are the desserts. If you leave their restaurant hungry, it's your own fault! On each table are jars of Amish peanut butter (made with marshmallow crème) and home-made apple butter, that they invite you to spread on the complementary home-made wheat and white breads. YUM! All bakery items and condiments are available for purchase in their gift shop, or on line at www.amishbakedgoods.net.

Tuesday we pack up and head further south to Carterville, IL, to spend a few days with friends Marvin and Shirley, who own and operate Kamper's Supply, with their 2 sons John and Curtis. Temps were in the 70s, and the sun was shining…a perfect day for travel. We left Cerro Gordo a little after 9 a.m., arriving in Carterville by 1 p.m. Dinner that night, with Marvin and Shirley, was at Bob Evans. Good food, good company—what more could one want…

One of our reasons for stopping at Kamper’s Supply was to have 2 more slide toppers put on the trailer: the bedroom slide and the kitchen/living room slide. These help keep leaves and branches off the top of the slides, and helps keep water from accumulating atop the slides. John installed them Wednesday morning. That afternoon, the slide toppers were put to the test when a torrential rain storm hit dumping an inch or more of water in the area.

These guys are pros!  You can find no better place to have your RV work done.  I don’t think there is any service item they cannot handle.  Kamper's Supply is a full-line StarCraft dealer with complete RV parts, accessories, supplies for any RV need.  You can view their web site at www.kamperssupply.com. They are located in Carterville, IL west of highway 57, just off route 13 at 400 Plaza Drive.

Thursday Dick took a solo motorcycle ride, 50 miles round trip, south of Carbondale, IL (home of Southern Illinois University and the Salukis) to Giant City State Park with incredible rock formations, historic sites, and both hiking and horseback riding trails. Dick hiked  ½ hour up the "Stone Fort" trail to the site of a 285 foot prehistoric rock wall thought to have been inhabited by people around 400-900 A.D. As he left the park he toured the historic town of Makanda before returning. I stayed in the camper preparing dinner for Marvin and Shirley: wild rice casserole, corn on the cob, salad and brownies with ice cream. (Yup, I still cook and love to entertain!) After dinner, friends Randy and Jeri joined us for a rousing game of Pegs and Jokers. Although they were close games, the men came out ahead: 3:2. The week wasn't over yet, so the women were bound and determined to overcome.

Friday as Dick was checking air pressure in the trailer tires, when he found very low pressure in one of the tires. John checked it out and found a nail at the edge of the tire. Yuk! He removed the nail, plugged the hole, and added air. Thankfully we discovered the problem when we were parked in the Kamper’s Supply RV lot, rather than driving down the road and having problems.

We had dinner that evening at La Fiesta, a local Mexican restaurant. Jeri and Randy joined Marvin, Shirley, Dick and me, as well as other friends Ron and Marguerite, after which we went to Jeri's and Randy's for a game of "Marbles," a variation of the game Pegs and Jokers. Men and women tied that evening at 1:1.

LtoR: Randy, Jeri, Marguerite, Ron, Marvin, Shirley, me and Dick

Saturday dawned warm and humid, with rain forecasted throughout the day. We began cursory packing, getting ready to head out Sunday morning.  After closing shop at 2 p.m., Marvin and Shirley took us on a driving tour of Southern Illinois, through the hill country. We stopped at “The Chocolate Factory,” located in Dixon Springs, IL, for ice cream cones. YUM-MY!  Although tempted, we did not buy any chocolate. Even though it rained for the entire tour, we discovered beautiful country.

The rain did not let up until late that evening. When we were returning to Carterville for dinner, we were hit with torrential rains, pretty much obscuring our ability to see beyond the windshield wipers. Just prior to the rain these gnarly clouds came scudding in.

The rain let up just enough to allow us to get indoors to Pizza & Pasta for their pizza/pasta/salad buffet. We were rather hungry, as we hadn't eaten since breakfast other than the ice cream cone. Afterwards, Jeri and Randy joined us at Marvin and Shirley's for yet another evening of Pegs and Jokers. I’m sorry to say that men won 3 of the 5 games we played. Dang! Tornado warnings were issued that evening around 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Rain continued to come down all evening, but thankfully, no tornadoes.

Sunday morning we finished packing up, and said our goodbyes to Marvin and Shirley. They have become such treasured friends; feels like home being with them. We hope to see them in Texas early in 2014.

Crossing the Mississippi from Illinois to Missouri

What a beautiful day to travel. We needed to drive 222 miles to our next destination: Ozarks Mountain Springs RV Park  in Mountain View, MO. Weather was perfect: temps in the high 60s, bright sunshine and clear skies with no rain forecasted until next weekend. We left Carterville around 10:15 a.m. and arrived at the park around 2:30 p.m. We’ll be here for 4 nights before heading to Branson, MO, where we’ll spend about a week. 

This park is beautifully located in the Ozarks, atop a rise, with shaded pull-throughs and full hook-ups. Every Friday night there is a "Gospel and Bluegrass Jamboree" in the park, but unfortunately we won't be here to experience it. There's a “Kountry Camp Store” offering fresh Missouri grown produce onsite, as well. We're still waiting for leaves to turn; they're just starting to turn here. The peak color season has usually been the 3^rd week of October—as you can see from this photo it'll  be later than that this year!

Our site at Mountain Springs RV Park.

We will look forward to hearing from you, to know what's going on in your lives. Please stay in touch.

We miss you, and would love to have you join us! Here's a map of our travels so far.

A. Cloquet, MN

B. Blackhawk Corps of Engineers Park, DeSoto, WI

C. Cerro Gordo, IL

D. Carterville, IL

E. Mountain Springs RV Park, Mountain View, MO

Hugs,

Dick and Gail

Blackhawk Corps of Engineers Park – Tom & Carols’ RV Park = Sept. 24-30, 2013

Located just 25 miles south of LaCrosse, Wisconsin along the Mississippi River and just 3 miles north of DeSoto, the park is very well-maintained by the Park Service and offers direct access to the river for the many fishermen who come to the area.

There is quite a bit of history in this area, dating back to the early 1800s, when skirmishes and battles were fought between the white man and Winnebago Indians over land rights. For about 100 years prior Winnebago Indians had migrated north and west across the Mississippi River to hunt, returning in the spring to their summer homes east of the river to plant crops. An 1831 agreement, most probably misunderstood by the Indians, had the Indians staying west of the Mississippi allowing the white man to settle east of that great river. In April 1832 about 1000 Indians, many of them women, children and the elderly returned to their homes east of the river only to find them destroyed and the land claimed by white settlers. Black Hawk, a prominent Winnebago war leader, moved his band of about 300 warriors north to try to obtain support from other Indian tribes in the area. Failing to obtain that much needed support, Indian raiding parties terrified the white settlers when they went seeking food from the settlements.  With no food, and after four months on the move, Black Hawk’s people began dying of starvation. Needing an interpreter, and none to be had, fighting broke out between Black Hawk’s band of warriors and the 1700 Illinois militia. Over the course of just a few months, Black Hawk’s people were decimated: 150 shot, 150 drowned (many were women carrying young children on their backs as they tried to cross the river), 30 taken prisoner. 300 were able to cross the river, but were killed by Sioux who were instigated by General Henry Atkinson. Not more than 150 survived to tell the tragic story of the Black Hawk War (The Battle of Bad Axe).

Eleven interpretive markers indicate sites of skirmishes and battles between Black Hawk and the militia. Sad.

We noticed that most of the campers in the park were from Wisconsin and came often to rest, relax and fish. The upcoming weekend was the beginning of Oktoberfest and area apple festivals so the park was filling up gradually as the week went on. At the entrance to the park was a very eclectic trading post where one could pick up various sundries as well as fishing licenses, if needed.  

 

What a beautiful Tuesday morning in Blackhawk Corps of Engineers Park! We woke to bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-50s at 7:30 a.m., warming to the high 70s by afternoon.  No cell or WiFi, but we did have good TV reception. The closest WiFi was the very small library in DeSoto, Wisconsin, population 287.  

Wednesday brought dense fog off the river, until about 9:30 a.m., sometimes so thick you couldn’t see the trailer three sites from us! After the fog lifted, the temperatures warmed nicely so we could comfortable ride our bikes around the park: 2.2 miles through heavily forested areas and low lying boggy areas. The Mississippi River sort of divides in this area with small islands between the Wisconsin mainland and the main river, thus creating small ponds in the park.

Thursday we decide to take a motorcycle ride through the hills and farmland east of DeSoto, to Viroqua and Genoa, Wisconsin. The ride was about 60 miles through beautiful—and huge—farms, where Guernsey and Jersey dairy cattle and Angus beef cattle were grazing peacefully interspersed with field after field of corn and soy beans. Halfway through our ride we stopped at Culver's for a burger and fries, in Viroqua. As we were riding along, we passed a huge red barn, with the words “Uff Da” painted on the side. Wish we had stopped for a photo; we chuckled… That night we begin packing what we could for our departure Friday, to head to Illinois and our next stop.

Friday we finished packing up and get on the road by 9:15. We weren't definite on our departure date, and with no cell coverage, we didn't make reservations for our next stop, which we thought would be Mill Point Park, east of Peoria, Illinois. Once on the road, and when we did have cell service, we called the park to reserve a spot but were told that they were totally booked, as were all the other RV parks in the area due to a pipeline going through the area and the sites booked by pipeline workers. Now what? We contacted our RV clubs and were told the closest park with availability was in Cerro Gordo, Illinois, just 15 miles east of Decatur, Illinois—but 400 miles from where we were! Ugh!! (We like to travel no more than 300 miles at a stretch.) The only good thing about this is that we're only 175 miles from our next destination.

We arrived at “Tom & Carol's RV Park” in Cerro Gordo (population 1500) at 6:15 p.m. What an eclectic park! They have just 6 sites, with full hook-ups. Still no WiFi, but we do have cell service and TV reception. They have a garage converted into a club house, offering laundry facilities, games, and satellite TV. Due to their proximity to the fair grounds and high school fields, we were “entertained” that night by loud speakers announcing moto-cross races, the high school football game, marching bands, and fireworks. Oh, and at least hourly all day and night long, trains go through the town blowing their whistles. Thankfully all the noise abated—except the trains—by 10 p.m. so we were able to get to sleep without interruption. We were so tired (especially Dick) after driving that long distance. 

Saturday morning we met Cecil from Charlotte, North Carolina, who had the site nearest us. He and his wife Grace were in the area for his 65th class reunion. Unfortunately, we didn't meet Grace until Sunday morning when they were heading out. What a darling couple: she does ancestry research and creates photo notecards; he crochets. We hope to catch up with them again down the road somewhere.

Sunday was a day of relaxation. While I stayed around the trailer, Dick took another motorcycle ride around the area, about 50 miles, through Amish country. We plan to visit that area on Monday, so photos will be posted next week.

As I looked out the window this morning before we left Cerro Gordo, this rose was right in my line of sight. How beautiful; it brought a smile to my face, so thought I’d share it with you. 

Thanks for joining us on our trek. Next stop: Kampers Supply in Carterville, Illinois to see our good friends Marvin and Shirley. We leave for Carterville on Tuesday morning. Here's a map of our travels since September 23.

Hugs 'n' love,

Dick and Gail

.

A. Cloquet (my mom's)

B. Blackhawk Corps of Engineers Park, DeSoto, WI

C. Cerro Gordo, IL