We were up twice with Maggie during the night - she did wake us up to take her out, which was good. She seems better today but still lethargic. If she does the same thing tonight we will be looking for a vet tomorrow, but I think she's on the road to recovery. We've been feeding her rice with her dog food and no people food at all. Stay tuned.
As I do every night, I woke up around 3am and use the bathroom. Apparently I wasn't fully awake because when Rog got up at 7 and went in there the water was on in the sink. I washed but forgot to turn the water off. He had not planned to drain the gray water this morning, but since we now had a very full tank he had to.
He went outside to hook up the drainage hoses and discovered that the dude who pulled in next to us late last night (in the dark) hadn't properly hooked up his water hose. Now, the way the sites were set up - side to side - we shared a spigot. It was set deep in a terra cotta cistern-like thing. It was full and overflowing into our site and down the road. His site was dry, of course. What a mess. Water everywhere. Rog had to wade through it to get to our hookups. Then as he pulled the lever to let out the water, he discovered that our sewer hose was leaking. Fortunately he was only dumping gray water. But that meant he needs to repair or replace the one we have. What a way to start the morning. We got out of there fast before the owners came to work and saw the mess and then blamed us for it. All interstates in Illinois lead to or out of St. Louis or Chicago at very weird angles. Neither place is on our list of places to go or even drive through. We couldn't use them to get where we were going - Quincy, IL. We set out on US and state routes on a northwestern angle and wandered through beautiful farmlands, small towns, across rivers and lakes and we enjoyed it so much. SAL was of no use whatsoever so we navigated the old fashioned way with my three year old maps and we only made one wrong turn which we corrected right away. There was very little traffic - Sunday morning we passed many church parking lots full to the brim - they weren't on the road but in church! Middle/Central Illinois is strictly farmland and it is a powerful reminder of how many people do farm. We saw beautiful, large homes on acres of mown grass with outbuildings that Roger drooled over. He kept pointing and saying, "That would work for my shop." It really was a beautiful drive.
We did go through a town called Potaka that is the home to a Marathon petroleum storage facility. There are acres and acres of fuel tanks and pipelines out in the middle of the farmland. In a town called Coffeen there is a large prison facility, so that provides a lot of jobs in the area. Mostly, though, agriculture and related facilities (silos, processing plants, etc.) were the sights for the day. Oh, yes, we did see one (Yes, only one) wind turbine. It stuck out like a sore thumb.
Which reminds me - we have yet to find a place that recycles. Pensacola recycled plastic and aluminum but that was all. We are having such guilt feelings every time we toss something in the trash that we should be recycling. We haven't room to bring it all home, unfortunately.
We stopped at a Walmart and bought gaskets for the the sewer hose connector and we hope that does the trick. Rog hooked it up tonight and we seem to be dry.
After a round-about crazy way to get to our RV park tonight, past several grain processing plants on the river where barges were lined up to move it to another destination, we pulled in. It's not an RV park. It's a campground. Not exactly rustic as we have water, electric and sewer, but folks here are camping. We are at Driftwood Campground and RV Park in Quincy, IL (I should have realized what we were getting into when Campground came before RV Park in the name.) We are across the road from a city park, I think, that reviewers of the campground said was on the Mississippi River. That was one of the draws when I picked this place because I thought we could sit and watch barge traffic, but it isn't actually on the river. It's on a large bay of the river with a large peninsula separating it from the main part of the Missisippi. Bummer. The place is an old campground that is slowly being brought up to speed to accommodate larger rigs. No amenities to speak of. When I checked in I was given the wifi code but was told that it was very weak and where we were it was probably non-existent. Yep. He was right. I know campers don't care, so it really isn't a priority for them. This is not a place that travelers stay very often - just locals coming to camp. It will be quiet and I see few lights, so Maggie willing, we will get a good night's sleep.
We spent some time looking at the maps and checking for RV parks to see where we might go next. We think we will be heading towards Dubuque, IA as we are still planning on going to Calumet on the Keewanaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. We'd like to spend a few days on Lake Superior in the hopes that it will be cooler before we head west. Besides, we do want to see the area where Roger's Scandinavian fore-bearers lived and mined copper. Neither of us have ever been up there so it will be new territory.
We are planning a day of playing tourist tomorrow across the river in Hannibal, which is about 15 miles south of us. I hope it's cooler than today for walking around. Today was another sticky hot day. We turned the A/C on when we got here about 2:30 and it hasn't shut off yet and it's now 7pm. It just takes forever to catch up after it's been off and the place gets so hot. Glad we aren't paying the power bill.
The sun is getting ready to set behind the trees. I'll watch for fireflies tonight - through the window. Too many flying insects and still too warm to be sitting outside.
Please keep us posted on Maggie! Kinsey still talks about little Maggie!
ReplyDelete