#11-36 Springfield, IL, St. Louis, MO–Sept 28 thru Sept 30

After leaving Elgin, we headed south and west.  Our first overnight stop was in Springfield IL  Todd and Rachael had raved about the new Lincoln Museum, so we made a point of visiting.  We could only take pictures out in the lobby, but there was much more to see.

You go through the log cabin where Lincoln was raised and back into the display rooms telling about his life before he became president.

Statues of the Lincoln Family.  They were in the middle of the lobby.

Inside the “rotunda” were replicas of many of the dresses that Mary Todd Lincoln wore during their time in the white house.  Then on into the presidential years and many displays showing the Civil war soldiers and then the assignation of Lincoln. 
By the time we viewed the displays in those two areas, it was time to leave.  The museum was closing.
The next day we headed south and west toward St. Louis.

It was a beautiful day and as we drove through St. Louis I snapped a few pictures of the Arch.  We are on our way to Branson and decided to just drive straight through.  As you can see, the Arch can be seen even before you see St. Louis. 

#11-35 Elgin, IL–9-14 thru 9-28, 2011

We arrived at Paul Wolff campground in Elgin on the 14th of Sept.  This campground has been enlarged since we were here two years ago.  We have a nice large camp site with 50 amp and water at the site.  There is a new dump site with much easier approach.  We paid $25.00 a night.  We like this campground because it is so close to our son and daughter-in-law.

Lots of spaces during the week and on weekends people come in to camp and it fills up, even now after school has started.
We got together with Todd and Rachael as soon as we could.  They are busy people.  Rachael is auditioning for a play, Todd is putting together a business plan and doing some remodel work.  But, Todd found time in his busy schedule to build us a roll around cabinet for the kitchen and to put some electric lights in the dark cabinets we had in the bedroom.  He even found a broken board under our bed that the repair shop didn’t fix.  He rebuilt the broken frame and now it is better than new!

Broken board and base under the bed where the slide comes in and out!

New roll around cabinet for kitchen. Thank you, Todd!

We took time to go out to dinner.  It was almost October and all around the town they were advertising Octoberfest dinners.  We first went to an English Pub (first picture), but it wasn’t very authentic German food, so we left—we ended up eating Italian!  The next time we did find a real German restaurant (2nd picture), but ended up driving about half hour.  Good thing Todd knows his way around!  The food was great and we all had a wonderful time.
Rachael put together a dinner party one evening, and we were able to meet some of their friends.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone brought something, so food was delicious.

While we were out running around one afternoon, we ended up at the little restaurant right around the corner from their house.  Rachael was home so she rode her bike and met us for lunch!

The picture above is from another ride she went on, but it shows her and her bike!

We finally left Elgin on Sept. 28.  We could only stay 2 weeks at the campground, and our time was up!  We will miss you kids, and we had a wonderful time.

#11-34 Cutty’s, Grimes, IA 9-10, 11-2011

Above is a map of the route we took once we left our friends in Missoula, MT.  It took us 3 days to get across MT.  North Dakota was cool to us.  Had to get out the sweat shirts!  North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska along the Missouri River are still dealing with the floods.

		Floods along the Missouri VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Almost all of these pictures were taken as we are driving down the highway.

The sandbags were big gravel bags all tied together for miles along the road.  Trees and fences are all still standing in water.  One of the highways was closed due to the fact that the river undermined the highway and it looked like big pieces of concrete just thrown down every which way.  Thank goodness it wasn’t one of the roads we had to drive on.  We saw the picture of it in the paper.  We turned onto a different highway just before the closed section.
We stopped near Des Moines, IA in a little town of Grimes and stayed at Cutty’s.  It was a big park, lots of campers (it was the weekend) with a store, band stand, lake and plenty of ducks!

We only had to step out our door and this was our view!  The weather was beautiful.  Warm and sunny.  Below is a view of the moon rising the first night we were there.

That evening we decided to drive to the little town of Muscatine, IA and have a Maid Rite hamburger.  Our neighbors at the previous campground told us about these hamburgers.  The meat is just ground meat, not a patty.  It was interesting to eat and to find out that Mark Twain had lived there at one time.  He is quoted on the menu as  saying “I’ve never seen a sunset as beautiful on either coast as they are here in Muscatine over the Missouri River.”
Below is a couple of shots of the sunset we saw as we drove the 15 miles back to the campground.

We left on a Monday after spending two nights at Cutty’s.  The drive through the Midwest is really pretty.  Miles and miles of corn, soybeans and other crops.  Farm houses with big silos behind in picture perfect spots.  The picture below was taken from the window, the tree hides the three big silos in back of the farm house.  A nice flat drive through the prairie's.

On to Elgin, IL to visit son, Todd and wife Rachael.  We will spend some time there.  At least a week!

#11-33 Nebraska, Iowa 9-9 thru 9-10

We had to go through a small part of Iowa to get to Fremont, NE.  I found a State park for us to say at near Sioux City, IA.  Thinking that the State Parks would be like those we have on the West Coast, we headed to Stone State Park.  I had called to find out if the campsites were big enough for a 40’ RV.  They told me that all the sites were back in, so we knew we would have to un-hook the car.  The road into the campground was very narrow, covered with trees, and going up hill most of the way!  We were very happy that we did not meet any cars coming down!
The campground was all grass and only had 30 amp electric.  No water hook-up.  We were back in the woods and were the only ones there until later in the evening.  We were the only one hooked to electric.  Most of the campsites were primitive.  We found probably the only site in the campground where we could get satellite service, but no internet reception.  We were surrounded by hills and trees!  It was a beautiful campground, but getting into and out of it was a real challenge.  Only $16.00 a night!

Nebraska, number 48 out of 50 states that we have visited!

The next night we drove into Nebraska and again stayed at a state park.  This was a huge campground surrounding a big lake.  The people at the park were so helpful and put us in a pull through spot in a quiet part of the campground.  Because it is a Friday night, there are a lot of weekend campers.  It was a very well used campground with over 250 sites.  We had a space with 30 amp electric, but no water hook-up.  There was a fresh water fill station right across the road from us, so if we needed water we could get it.  Getting in and out of this park, Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area, was easy, but it is located right beside the railroad track.  We think there must have been a train every 30 minutes.  One other camper told us that this was a main line and there would be trains all day and night, and, of, course, there were RR crossing that the trains have to blow there whistle for.  At least 3 of them for each train!  We only spent one night!  This campground was $22.00 a night.  Not bad.

#11-32 Aberdeen, SD Wylie City Park–9-7-2011

Wylie City Park was an amazing place to stay.  Nice campground with full hook-ups and a big park surrounding it.  It is the home of Storybook land and we were wishing for our great grandson, Eldon and grandchildren Aubrey and Alex to share this experience with.  Below are just some of the sights that we saw.

The Yellow Brick road leads us right into the Storybook Land!

		Storybook Land VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Can you name the nursery rhymes that go with the pictures?  I remembered most of them.
In case you can’t remember, I took pictures of some of the plaques by the displays.  This park was all done by volunteer donations. 

The three little pigs.  Look on top of the house built of bricks—it’s the big bad wolf!

For an hour or so, Frank and I were kids again.  We went through the castle and saw Jack and the Beanstalk with the Giant climbing down.

As we left Storybook Land, there was a unique drinking fountain and a fountain of storybooks. 

What a cool place to take your kids for a day of fun.  Even grandparents enjoy it.  We were fortunate to be able to go on a weekday after school had started and just stroll along looking and enjoying our selves.
Back on the road headed to Nebraska we had to go through Iowa.  Lots and lots of corn, and big rolls of hay right along the road side.

That’s a lot of corn!