Day 13 - Boondocking Challenges

We drove about 8 hours, had an excellent dinner at Cindy's Diner along I39.  We called and made plans to overnight at a Love's truck stop just beyond Bloomington.  They even had a dump for our tanks.  Got there at 7:30 and they were packed!  Had to be over 100 semis, no space for us.  Made 2 passes around lot and gave up.  

Tried to call Walmart in Urbana to get permission to overnight.  No one would answer the phone.  On impulse pulled into rest stop along I74 about 20 miles before Champaign - also very busy but we were able to get a spot on the end!  We checked, this is legal in Illinois 



Should be home by noon or so tomorrow.  It's been a great trip, I sincerely hope you readers are entertained by our adventures.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7 - Fort Wilkins State Park

Image
About 4 hours drive to Fort Wilkins today.  It's about 1.5 miles from Copper Harbor.  Very nice campsite: After setup we got on our bikes and rode the trail to Copper Harbor.  Got confused halfway and got onto a rugged trail, not good.  After correcting for that we got to town and saw where to board our boat tomorrow for Isle Royal.  Then went to Brickside Brewery, very nice IPA's: Copper Harbor has no cell phone service.  But the state park and the brewery have wifi. We rode bikes back to trailer after beers.  Leftovers in trailer.  Then drove back for a Bluegrass concert in the park.  Fundraiser for local kids.  It was fun. After the concert we drove down just past Fort Wilkins.  We knew this is where Hwy 41 starts.  Sure enough, found this about one mile past the park:
Read more

Day 12 - Madeline Island, biking and bears

Image
Today was a biking adventure.  We rode about 1.5 miles to town, all downhill.  Went to waterfront and bought tickets for us and our bikes for the ferry to Madeline Island.  This is the largest of the Apostle Islands, occupied year round, ferry takes 20 minutes, with 3 ferries you don't have to wait long for the next one: Arrived at La Pointe.  Checked map and picked a six mile bike trail to Big Bay State Park: Very flat, trail is along road but almost zero traffic.  Went into park and took a short hike along the eastern shore: Then planned our route back to La Pointe.  Decided on a longer route along north side of island.  About half way back in a wooded area a small black bear ambled across the road in front of us.  Probably adolescent.  I wanted to stop and take his picture.  Diane said heck no, and she used the zoom feature on her ebike to vacate the area.  So no picture.  : ( Checked out lunch options in La Pointe, decided ...
Read more

Day 9 - Down Day

Image
No excursions, no travel.  Instead we started the day by doing laundry - how exciting! Next was a short hike at a peninsula called Hunters Point: More natural beauty.  Then we visited Fort Wilkins.  They have confederate re-enactors here this weekend at the Fort giving presentations on a variety of topics - music, fashion, medical, from that time period.  Enjoyed it.  Hopefully the panorama picture works in the blog: Then our friends the Borres from home arrived.  Our travels will overlap for the next 3 days.  We had an awesome meal of grilled Whitefish, sautéed vegetables, corn on the cob, and stick 'o butter rice.   They left after dinner.  Diane and I took one more walk around the campground before we leave tomorrow.   Diane caught me being contemplative: We are very impressed with the natural beauty of the UP.  Tomorrow it's off to our last stop, 3 nights at B...
Read more