The Wandering Camels: Trip to IL & Summertime in IL

March 25-September 10, 2024

Yes, we’re still around, seeing as it’s a repeat of the last 4 summers it’s hard to get motivated to blog. But here’s a brief update since we left the Gulf Coast of TX.

Our first stop, 234 miles, on our way to IL for the summer was one we’ve been to many times. Spring Creek Park in Tomball TX is our go-to park in the area. Dave’s Uncle Ray lives on the northwest side of Houston and this park is just 20 minutes from his home, and it’s free to stay. This time we had site 8, the trees are getting larger since we started coming here and the satellite signal is getting hard to receive in other sites.

Site 8

Soon after setting up, we headed to Uncle Ray & Aunt Beth’s home. We hadn’t seen them since the fall of ‘22 so there were many things to catch up on. Since Houston is such a foody town we ate out all 3 nights. Between Dimassi’s Mediterranean Buffet, Gringo’s Mexican, and the Campioni Restaurant we had some great meals. JT if you’re reading this, thanks for the wonderful Italian dinner, hope we get back again. Of course, we walked around Old Town Spring TX where we enjoyed the nice weather and lots of window shopping. Dave and I were on a quest to find some good bagels, our first choice left something to be desired but our stop at 4 Brothers NY Bagels brought us back to our NY days. We’ve since been ordering bagels online from New Yorker Bagels and have been very pleased with them.

The reason we go to Houston!!

It was soon time to head to our next stop at Magnolia Ridge COE campground, a short 123-mile ride, we always enjoyed our stay there and once again had site 27 which was perfect for us. Dave was able to get his crawfish fix at Pops Kajun Kitchen in Jasper TX. Our time there was spent walking, sitting by the shore, and watching life go by.

Site 27

Our next stop was Clear Spring COE park, near Texarkana, 203 uneventful miles and we were pulling into site A17. One thing from our ride today, it turns out that while traveling through Marshall TX someone saw our blog address on the back of the RV and commented on the blog, i’ve always wondered if anyone visited the blog after seeing it there. While at Clear Spring Dave got another crawfish fix from RR Crawfish Shack which he thoroughly enjoyed. This is our fourth visit to this park, next time we’ll try a different campground on the lake. No one appeared to be cleaning fire pits or picking up garbage, our fire pit and site had many cigarette butts and while walking the roads we saw garbage.

Site A17

Our next stop was a place we went to in the first couple of our years on the road, after 185 miles we were pulled into Toad Suck Campground and found our way to site C10. Still a wonderful little campground on the Mississippi River, we enjoyed watching the boats go by. Nearby Conway has everything you need in a town, including a great Verizon store. Dave’s phone, one of my old ones, was having trouble charging so we thought we’d see what he could get. A few hours later Dave walked out with an iPhone 15 Pro Max and I came away with an iPhone 15. No more listening to Dave go on about his hand-me-down phone. Our 3 nights at Toad Suck went by quickly.

Site C10

262 miles and we were pulling into Hinton RV Park in Sikeston MO for an overnight. We were here in April 2020 when we made a mad dash to IL when everything was shut down. With laundry on site, I got that chore taken care of, and we then headed to Lamberts for dinner.

The next morning we headed to Gun Creek Campground only 101 miles away. We chose this spot to enjoy the 2024 Solar Eclipse. What a great place to watch the eclipse right from our site.

Site 90

While there we also met with friends Laureen and Terry who will be going to Lake Carlyle to volunteer for the summer. Not sure where the pictures from the meet-up went, oh well.

The morning after the eclipse we were up early and left just as the sun came up, we wanted to avoid any crazy traffic the morning might bring. A 113 miles later we arrived at the Lake Shelbyville Visitor Center just as they were opening up. A quick stop to get our keys and 19 miles later we were pulling into Forrest W Bo Wood Campground where we’ll be until we leave after Labor Day.

Site 113 4/9/2024

6/30/2024

So what have we been up to since we arrived on April 9th?

Of course, we’ve been helping my folks with whatever we can, odd jobs around the house, getting them out to some of the bigger stores like Walmart and Menards. We’ve taken some car rides and visited some of our favorite restaurants.

My brother and sister-in-law came by for a short visit on their way home from a photography workshop in Maine.

And of course been doing our volunteer stuff: taking care of the life jacket stations around the lake, making sure our volunteer cleaners and mowers have the supplies they need, volunteering for a few events, and picking up garbage around the campground.

Water station for a bike race

We’ve enjoyed afternoons of gaming and eating, with our friends Vic and Phyllis, hope to get to Mission TX this winter to see them.

Our friends Curt and Glenda stopped in for a few days on their way to the Chicago area. Always a good time when we're together, no matter how long it's been since our last meet-up.

Getting to catch up with extended family is always fun.

We survived the outbreak of cicadas.

The hummingbirds are back and we’ve enjoyed watching them race around.

The real big thing that happened this summer, was we made a short trip to TN to become TN residents and to meet with our contractor to get some more work started on our property. We now have the shoreline stabilized, the area nearest the river has had landscaping fabric and gravel laid down, the area over our septic system has been seeded and hayed, and our driveway is just about done. While in TN we visited the company that will be doing our open pole barn. Next year the open pole barn goes up, and a second set of hookups will be put in. We will be heading to TN when we leave here, we’ll spend about 2 months there before we head to TX for the winter.