Back In IL

On April 1st we started our trip back to IL. With an eye to the weather we headed east, our first stop was 348 miles away at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Truth or Consequences NM. Our first winter on the road we stayed at this same park, 8.5 years later it’s still a nice park. As with many places the water levels are way down.

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The next morning we were up and on our way, 324 miles later we were pulling into the Tucumcari KOA. We overnighted here in the fall of 2018, while here then we had visited a nice Mexican Restaurant, once again we enjoyed a meal at Del’s, nice to see they are still around.

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The next morning we were up and on our way, with storms coming behind us we east to Foss Lake State Park in Foss OK. Our friends Curt and Glenda recommended this place and what a beautiful park this was. We stayed in the Cedar Point Campground, with some awesome lake views from our site. We stayed two nights here, the storms came through and we were thankful not to be driving that day.

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All too soon our two nights were up and we were once again making tracks, an early departure, and 384 miles later we were pulling into the Springfield/Route 66 KOA in Springfield MO. A decent place for an overnight.

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On 4/6 we hitched up for the last leg of our trip to IL. Our friends Vic and Phyllis were a few hours ahead of us, so they were tasked with getting the gates open for all of us. 353 miles later we were pulling into Forrest W Bo Woods in Sullivan IL, the gates were locked but our friends saw us arriving and soon had the gates open for us. This year we have a different site, we are in site 113 with lots of privacy. 

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                        

traditional first night back pizza

          

scrounged up some firewood

So what have we been up to since we got here?

Of course, there are flowers to be bought and planted.

flower garden started

                                                                                            

                                                                             

We are the back left site-lots of privacy

                                                                         

                                                                            

                                            

                                                                                            

There are birds galore.

                                                                                        

We enjoyed them until late April when the IL DNR put out a bulletin asking folks not to feed the birds in an attempt to combat the Avian Bird Flu. So the feeders are down until the end of May, though we do still have all the hummingbird feeders up, IL DNR said those feeders are okay. 

We have spent time with my folks, we’ve been making dinner for them once a week and leaving the leftovers at their place. We had to take my mom to Saint Louis to a glaucoma specialist, she will be having surgery in both eyes, separately, this summer. So there will be a few more trips to Saint Louis this summer.

Of course, we’ve been volunteering. Our title here is JOATS, Jack/Jill of all trades, are two main focuses are making sure the cleaners and mowers have the supplies they need, and our loaner life jacket program-making sure there are life jackets at all improved boat ramps and all beaches. Our other jobs are working on the butterfly garden and filling in where needed. It’s been hard to get the garden cleaned up as we’ve had so much rain this April, but little by little we're getting there. After getting our life jackets and supply inventories done, it was time to get everything out where needed. Two of the USACE Lake Shelbyville campgrounds opened on 4/21, so we’ve been making sure the volunteers have the supplies they need. The boat ramps are now stocked with life jackets and we’re getting ready to open another one of the campgrounds on 5/5. The last two campgrounds will open in mid-May. 

Plans have been made with our friends Vic and Phyllis to get out and explore a few places around here. We know friends have plans to come through the area, and we're looking forward to seeing all of them. 

One of the days in April I turned 62, I now qualify for a Senior America the Beautiful pass, which gives us 1/2 price camping at COE parks. That's cause for celebration!!

 Until next time...