1038 September 11, 2023 Illinois

It was pouring this morning and barely daylight when I woke up.  Tim had already had two cups of coffee, exercised, and was ready to roll.

I was disappointed that it was raining.  Tim found a trailhead to the Ice Age Trail.  This is a 1,000-mile hiking trail that traverses Wisconsin.  It follows the path of ancient glaciers.  I had been looking forward to walking a portion of it.

The rain stopped as we made our way.  There were lots of trucks and lots of traffic all day long.  After we crossed into Illinois, there was a lot of road construction. 

We stopped at a rest stop for breakfast.  Our steps had been misbehaving for several days.  Tim had looked at them and sprayed them with lubricant when he couldn’t see anything else wrong.  Today, they quit.  Tim had me look for a place where we could do laundry.  We stopped in the cute little town of Mansfield.  I went for a walk on Oliver Street while the clothes were washing.  Tim pulled a step motor out of his toolbox and fixed the steps!

We took a couple of breaks in the afternoon and Tim drove another 400 miles today.  While he was driving, I was perched in my Queen’s chair taking care of business.  I found a place in Atlanta where we will store the RV.  I took care of our Jeep registration renewal.  I looked for a place to stay tonight.  It seems like more cities now have ordinances disallowing overnight camping so Walmart was out.  We did find a Cracker Barrel in Marion, Illinois where we could stay.  We had dinner in the restaurant.  Afterward, we sat in the rockers out front, enjoying the warm air.  I challenged Tim to a game of checkers and he beat me handily!

Two more days!  We expect to arrive in Atlanta on Wednesday!