That was a switch! Bob got up at 6:00 and let me sleep until 7:00. He said we might be driving into some rain today, so we wanted to get going as soon as possible. In between eating breakfast, I worked inside the trailer putting things away and securing everything for departure. Auggie got his walk and Bob had everything outside ready to go in no time. We pulled out at 8:30–a full hour ahead of schedule. Once we got on I-39/90, we ran into construction and traffic slowdowns until we crossed the Illinois border.
Skies were overcast with a temp of 74 degrees. Traffic was heavy–until Rockford, IL. The condition of the highway improved markedly from Wisconsin, but we were on I-39 in Illinois which is a toll road, so maybe that was the difference. Mary had given us her I-Pass to use for this trip for all the toll roads we would encounter going out East. Thanks, Mary! That should save us some money. We finished listening to the last CD of our book on tape. We had less than 2 hours to go. We enjoyed the book by Lee Child, entitled
Make Me. We passed the Belvidere Assembly Plant for Chrysler which was massive before we made a stop at the Belvidere Oasis for a restroom break and trailer check. Traffic was lighter on the toll road, but it got windier. We checked the radar and the line of storms was closing in on us. We did finally encounter rain, heavy traffic, and rougher roads as we drove south on I-294 around Chicago and the armpit of Lake Michigan–Gary, IN. We crossed the bridge over the Vulcan Quarry operation. It’s the largest quarry I’ve ever seen. The picture doesn’t show the expanse of this quarry, but it is HUGE.
We crossed into Indiana just before noon and it began to rain harder.
The rain let up as we arrived at our destination for the night at 1:00 –Michigan City Campground. We checked in at the office and got our assignment.
We had pull-through site #82, so we could keep the trailer hooked up to the truck. We donned our raincoats and set up camp as it rained lightly.
 Michigan City Campground site 82 |
(This campground had sites like no other we’ve ever seen before in all our travels. Two campers set up face-to-face sharing the same cement pad placed in the middle between them, however each camper had their own table. If you’re traveling with another camper, it could be nice. If not, it’s no so private with the doors facing each other.) Just as we finished setting up, the rain came down harder. Good thing we were done by that time. We relaxed in the camper while we listened to the rain on the roof. It rained until a little after 2:00. I think about our tenting days and so appreciate our trailer on rainy days like this. We just hung out and tried to unwind after a crazy-traffic day. Drives like that make a person a little tense. Auggie got a walk around the campground as the sun came out. The campground was pretty full with permanent campers, but more transient campers arrived throughout the afternoon. They had a nice pool and other facilities.
I really liked this smiley face at the bottom of the pool made with the dark blue tiles.
We had burgers on the grill for dinner. We would move on tomorrow to stay on Catawba Island in Lake Erie for a few days and check out Put-In-Bay.
Lucky you left today. We’ve had over 6 inches of rain and many of the roads around our house are flooded/closed. Many stalled cars. The retaining ponds across from Memorial High Schools have totally flooded and closed down Mineral Point Rd. It took me 2 hours to get home from Windsor (usually a 30 minute drive) with all the detours and road closures. The worst part is that it’s pouring rain again – maybe another 2 inches. I can hear the fire department sirens going right now – most likely another water rescue. I thought this storm was heading east – watch the weather forecast – this is one nasty storm.