Day Two was virtually identical to our travel day on June 30, 2008. On that day, we departed a Thousand Trails park, and zoomed across all the "I" states, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa and stayed overnight at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Coralville, IA. You can read about that day, three years ago, here. The only difference is, we started at a Thousand Trails in Ohio instead of Indiana. What more can we say...it's deja vu all over again.
This morning, we slept in a bit. Myron needed to put air in one of the rear coach tires because he neglected to
check the pressures before leaving home. It sure is handy having an on-board air system. Matilda and I took a short walk around the park and decided it would be a nice place for a longer stay. We stopped for breakfast at the 73 Grill, a sports bar we spotted on our way in. Our timing was perfect since they only serve breakfast Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our expectations for breakfast were not high since there were more TVs tuned to ESPN than there were breakfast patrons and the six foot high beer cooler was longer than our coach. We ordered our usual coffee, eggs, bacon and hash browns (what are grits?) and were pleasantly surprised how delicious everything was. When we return to this Thousand Trails we will definitely check out their signature "Fat Boy" burger and get a brew.
The drive was uneventful and unremarkable (see link above). The weather continued to be clear and crisp, beautiful driving weather. The rivers and creeks were swollen and muddy from recent storms. Ironically, Iowa River and Cedar River had experienced devastating floods when we visited this area three years ago.
Matilda has recently adopted a new travel habit. Previously, as soon as we started the coach, Matilda would go to the back and bed down in the far rear corner of the bedroom. We would not see or hear from her until we made a stop. Lately, she has changed her favorite travel position. Matilda has been hanging out up front with us. She moves between the entry door stair well to under the driver's seat and steering column. Basically, she lays under or on Myron's feet while he is driving. It's OK as long as she stays left of the steering column, against the outside wall, but it gets tricky when she moves between Myron's feet and the pedals. We enjoy her company and having her up front, but we need to work on training her to stay in a "good place".
Today we had our first "breakdown" of the trip. The latch on the refrigerator door broke, allowing the door to swing wide open. We duct taped the door shut so the milk and eggs would not fall onto the floor, but that proved inconvenient due to Myron's frequent requests for "cool ones" LOL. We then removed the duct tape and secured the door with a bungee cord strung from the door handle to the stove top. This proved to be a better temporary fix. We were discouraged about easily finding a replacement part. Myron had known the latch was failing and had tried to located the piece in FL, but no one had it in stock. However, we saw an RV place off the interstate, R & S Sales and Service in Mahomet, IL. We exited, pulled into the place and viola! they had the latch we needed. Within in minutes, Myron had the new part installed, and we were back on our way. The cool beverages were happy once again.
This morning, we slept in a bit. Myron needed to put air in one of the rear coach tires because he neglected to
check the pressures before leaving home. It sure is handy having an on-board air system. Matilda and I took a short walk around the park and decided it would be a nice place for a longer stay. We stopped for breakfast at the 73 Grill, a sports bar we spotted on our way in. Our timing was perfect since they only serve breakfast Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our expectations for breakfast were not high since there were more TVs tuned to ESPN than there were breakfast patrons and the six foot high beer cooler was longer than our coach. We ordered our usual coffee, eggs, bacon and hash browns (what are grits?) and were pleasantly surprised how delicious everything was. When we return to this Thousand Trails we will definitely check out their signature "Fat Boy" burger and get a brew.The drive was uneventful and unremarkable (see link above). The weather continued to be clear and crisp, beautiful driving weather. The rivers and creeks were swollen and muddy from recent storms. Ironically, Iowa River and Cedar River had experienced devastating floods when we visited this area three years ago.
Matilda has recently adopted a new travel habit. Previously, as soon as we started the coach, Matilda would go to the back and bed down in the far rear corner of the bedroom. We would not see or hear from her until we made a stop. Lately, she has changed her favorite travel position. Matilda has been hanging out up front with us. She moves between the entry door stair well to under the driver's seat and steering column. Basically, she lays under or on Myron's feet while he is driving. It's OK as long as she stays left of the steering column, against the outside wall, but it gets tricky when she moves between Myron's feet and the pedals. We enjoy her company and having her up front, but we need to work on training her to stay in a "good place".Today we had our first "breakdown" of the trip. The latch on the refrigerator door broke, allowing the door to swing wide open. We duct taped the door shut so the milk and eggs would not fall onto the floor, but that proved inconvenient due to Myron's frequent requests for "cool ones" LOL. We then removed the duct tape and secured the door with a bungee cord strung from the door handle to the stove top. This proved to be a better temporary fix. We were discouraged about easily finding a replacement part. Myron had known the latch was failing and had tried to located the piece in FL, but no one had it in stock. However, we saw an RV place off the interstate, R & S Sales and Service in Mahomet, IL. We exited, pulled into the place and viola! they had the latch we needed. Within in minutes, Myron had the new part installed, and we were back on our way. The cool beverages were happy once again.
1 comment:
I love the picture of Matilda -- Duchess (Sunshine's sister) does exactly the same thing. She's hidden so well before under the seat I've actually stopped the car on the side of the road to find her to make sure she didn't get left at home!
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