The "I"s Have It

Yesterday afternoon we reluctantly departed Thousand Trails Horseshoe Lakes and within 5 minutes had left Indiana and were in Illinois "The Land of Lincoln". We spent the day cruising across northern Illinois. About dusk we crossed the Mississippi River near Moline and then the Cedar River and the Iowa River near Davenport, IA. We passed through only "I" states on this day. The Cedar and the Iowa Rivers were in high flood a few weeks ago, but seem to be largely back within their banks now. We spent the night at "Camp Wal-Mart" just outside Iowa City. Wal-Marts are great places to stop for a quick layover. They are often convenient to the interstate, relatively safe and secure (most have parking lot cameras and security patrols) and the price is right. We usually drop much more $$$ in groceries than we would have spent at a campground. When we park overnight at a Wal-Mart (or any other similar establishment) we try to be inconspicuous. We make it a point to arrive after dark and do not put out slide rooms, chairs, or anything else that might make it look like we are "camping". We park on the fringe of the parking lot, usually with a small group of other RVs.

We are now parked at Amana Colonies RV Park, in the heart of the Amana Colonies. We are attending a 20th aniversary reunion rally of Safari International, the social organization for Safari motor homes. We no longer own our Safari TREK, but have many good friends who own TREKs and still attend TREK rallies. One of the trademark features of Safari products was a wildlife mural on the rear by one of the members of the Dame family. Our TREK had a family of snow leopards created by Dennis Dame. Dennis is here doing custom murals for $1900 a pop. In this photo he is painting over an older mural and creating a new custom mural because the owners wanted something different. For $1900, I'd go for a whoop-ass solar array instead. There are about 200 coaches registered for this rally. We are looking forward to exploring the Amana villages, but it will be difficult to find time between all the rally activities.

Matilda is doing fine. She will be twelve weeks old on Thursday. She is still chewing, but now is chewing less on us and more on inanimate objects (carpet, chairs, shoes, etc.) . She is very frisky and is the star of the rally. Everyone thinks she is precious. Fortunately Matilda is on her best behavior when greeting her "fans".