Author: livingthedreamwithsallyandvic

We ended up staying at Rend Lake Rest Stop 4 days mostly due to bad weather coming up on the next stop and also in Florida. I had a migraine one day so that factored in. It was a great place to be stuck!

We left there Sept 29 and spent that night at Nashville-Franklin Elks Lodge #72. It was convenient and there were no issues.

Sept 30 we set out for Jackson Lake Island in Milbrook AL. We expected to like it enough to stay 2 nights – there is supposed to be wildlife there, at least some birds. About 60 miles from the destination we had truck trouble. Vic thought it was U joints. Whatever it was we knew we had to get off the highway and deal with it. We had been driving south on I-65 and had run into a couple of spots of congestion. Another one was coming up so we took the next exit, pulled over and started looking for a place to stop for the weekend. It was Saturday after 12 so we might not get anyone to look at it until Monday. Might as well get comfortable. Found an RV park combo conference center, and cabins. No one answered the phone but we went there anyway. The office was closed. We drove around the park and found a big empty parking lot. No sooner had we stopped than a woman came out saying there would be an event that night and we shouldn’t park there. We talked to her and found out it was a 90th birthday party for her mom. She said 100 people were coming!

She softened her stance when we explained our situation. We pulled off to the side to leave as much room for the guests as possible.

Vic was able to find a garage nearby, they diagnosed the problem and it turned out to be an easy fix. When we were driving over some rough road we hit one place just right to split a front truck tire. They fixed him up with a tire and problem solved. Yay!

We thought it would be nice to bring a gift to the birthday girl so Vic picked up a gorgeous white orchid on the way back from the garage. We took it over and met Ollie having her 90th birthday. She was set up in the place of honor with a silver tiara and a beauty pageant style sash proclaiming her age. The place was decorated to the hilt. Out of the 100 people there about 85 were relatives and she said she had great great grandchildren. wow.

We stayed there just the one night. This morning we drove to Tallahassee Antique Auto Museum where we are now. It didn’t work out to stop at Jackson Lake Island – another time.

In the morning we will do the last leg and then we’ll be back in Clermont FL.

We will sit in place for a while. We have the camper painting coming up and we have someone lined up to put disc brakes on the camper. We will get back to birding at Lake Apopka, Black Point Drive and other places. We want to see my sister Holly and her husband. Daughter Kelly is visiting for a few days in October (hurray!). I will continue to post about our future adventures.

We have visited 20 states and gone 17,000 miles. Whew! Hope you all have enjoyed following us around the country.

XOXO

Rend Lake Rest Stop in Illinois

This is everything the last stop was not. After 5 hours on the road we stopped at a rest stop. Looked around at how beautiful it is, lots of trees turning color and grassy areas and it’s on a lake!!! We watched a group of white pelicans on the lake fly off and talked about what a lovely spot this is. Vic talked to the maintenance guy and found out it’s allowed to stay up to 4 days!!! So here we are at Rend Lake, there is a state recreation area nearby but this is all ours and free. We couldn’t be happier. We will stay 2 nights.

Next stop is South 40, a farm in Franklin TN.

This is a distillery. It’s closed now but they have tours and tastings. The best thing about this place is the name. Reviews unanimously said it was great, a little road noise but otherwise great. Those people must have been drunk when they wrote their reviews! We are 50 ft from the interstate, semis roaring by all night. Can’t wait to get out of here. We were going to stop at a Walmart next (our first time) but after this we may actually stay at a campground! Poor Zoe is totally intimidated by the noise.

Safe travels!

After a weekend in the parking lot of Elks Lodge #26 in Kansas City MO we leave in the morning. Next stop a distillery called Wood Hat Spirits in New Florence MO.

Last night I tried to retract the awning only to have it come off the support and end up on the ground. We tried to fix it last night in the dark but realized only one screw was holding it in place. The others came loose and fell off somewhere along the way. This morning one of the Elks members came out and the guy was amazing. He went to the hardware store and got more screws then brought out a step ladder. We have a very nice stepstool but it wasn’t high enough for this project. He and Vic managed to get it retracted completely. We’ll make a nice donation before we leave tomorrow morning.

This lodge supports the vets in a big way. They have 16 apartments they furnish and keep supplied for homeless vets. When the person gets a job and moves on they can take everything including furniture with them. There are plans in the works for more apartments.

Their event today is a back to school thing, they will probably have to reschedule since now it’s raining heavily and thunderstorms are forecast off and on all day.

Uh oh we were in the process of hooking up and having trouble getting one of the slide outs to go back in when it started raining heavily with thunder. We decided the camper batteries that power the slide outs needed to be recharged. We have a charger. It’s supposed to rain hard for a few hours so we are staying in place. Driving in the rain is something we avoid as much as possible. We have a great place to stay. The neighborhood is not the best but this elks lodge is an oasis – huge property with a large grassy area for Zoe. It should stop raining early afternoon. Too late to get on the road but we are safe here. We can rest and leave tomorrow weather permitting.

We are pretty tired, these have been long days of travel. Thunderstorm tonight.

Tomorrow we stop overnight at Righteous Rides, on the western edge outside St Louis. It’s a car dealership.

Still trying to get out of the way of bad weather (especially possible hail) coming to this area on Saturday.

Drake Golf Course, another Harvest Host, is our next stop. Ledbetter, Kentucky. If not there, someplace we can stop and take a break.

This is a Harvest Host – an establishment called Master’s Hand – Every Woman’s Dream Shop. They sell an assortment of stuff for gifts, there is a florist shop, a small-ish restaurant and best of all homemade candy!!! I got some amaretto truffles. Yum! They also have homemade cinnamon buns that are scrumptious. The women running the place couldn’t be nicer. We are parked in a grassy area on the side of the building.

We are about 45 miles from Omaha.

We are still concerned about the bad weather coming through this area on Friday and Saturday.

Today we go to Kansas City MO (252 miles).

People you would be amazed how much antique farm equipment there is here – 7 buildings the size of an airplane hangar worth, yeah! Each item had a paper describing what is was, who owned, where they bought it, etc.

Vic checks the weather every night and discovered we are on the fringe of a huge area of storms predicted for Friday. So now we are dodging that. We go 250 miles today. Tonight we will be in south Sioux City, Missouri.

We decided not to stay at the Wall because of the heat (high 90’s today) and it’s very dusty. Instead we took pictures of it and visited Wall Drug, a full block broken up into small browser friendly shops and all connected under cover and air conditioned. A lot of it touristy but Vic found me a turquoise ring that I love.

Then we went through Tidal Wave Auto Spa and got a car wash for $30 which is a little pricey but they include a ceramic finish at the end that makes it worthwhile. Truck looks like it just rolled off the showroom (almost).

That’s as close as we got to the Badlands. Oh well, there’s always next year. This is a crummy phone picture. In real time it’s spectacular. There are no designated spaces – it’s a free for all and available areas are along the edge a long long ways.

Tomorrow we will go 220 miles and stay in the parking lot of a farm implements museum. In other words a tractor museum haha can’t wait to see that.

In all our travels we have never met or even seen a camper with solar and lithium batteries and a mini split and a Starlink. Plenty of people have solar but usually it’s just enough to recharge their phones and other devices. So far we are one of a kind. Just find that interesting.

We will leave on Monday and head to “the Wall “. It’s a boondocking spot also called little Grand Canyon. Wait til you see the breathtaking views. Wall is also a town, home to Wall Drug. We drove past Wall Drug today during our scouting trip. It’s a huge block long building with everything under the sun for sale.

Meanwhile we had dinner Friday night at the Grille, the restaurant run by the Elks Lodge. We enjoyed outdoor seating and watched the golfers. The special that night was prime rib which of course I had. Yum!! Excellent dinner – tender and delicious meat with Yukon gold mashed and veg. I had to share my prime rib with Zoe, there was no way around it, she was obsessed. 😊

I have to admit I am looking forward to ordering from Panera again, I do love their bowls.