At 8 a.m. on Monday, when K&J Chevrolet opened, I called the service department and asked if my part had come in (squeaky wheel gets the grease).  They found out that it had arrived at the Nissan dealer in Centralia.   The parts driver told me later that he was on the road to Centralia by 8:10.

At 2:25 p.m. the service department called and told me that my truck was ready.  By 3 p.m. the parts driver picked me up at the campground in my Nissan, and I drove him back and took care of my bill.  It was just over $1000, and almost $800 of that was for the part.  There was no charge for the two trips back and forth to the campground, which was a good 25 minutes each way from Carlisle.  

I was originally hoping that the service department could repair the shifter, but I think that was probably unrealistic.  After 139,000 miles, it was plumb worn out.  Vibration had caused screws to back out, and brackets to bend badly.  It was an expensive part, but I feel better knowing that I probably won't have to worry about the shifter assembly ever again.  

I would recommend K&J Chevrolet to anyone needing service in the Carlyle, Illinois area.  The part delay was out of their control.  Once it arrived, they took care of me, knowing that I was in a difficult position. 

I was so sick of Lake Carlisle and the campground after 8 days of not being mobile.   But last night, the temperature was dropping, and the lake looked beautiful (now that I had my truck back).

I cooked the last of my hamburger (an 8 ounce patty) with Swiss cheese and a stale bun that tasted fine toasted and enjoyed knowing that I could leave any time I wanted.

This morning, I was up at 5 a.m. before first light.  After a quick breakfast, I made a thermos of coffee and hitched up.  We dumped (Callie watches carefully) and were on the road by 6:30 a.m.  It was a 7 hour drive home, and I could have broken it up into two days, but I was anxious to finish the trip off.  Allie is home for a short visit on her way to Montreal with college friends, and she will be leaving tomorrow morning.  

Tonight, it's rib-eyes, portabella mushrooms, and a glass of good red wine. 

 I’ve been stuck in this campground for eight nights now, and we’re feeling a little claustrophobic. The good beer is all gone, and most of the cheap beer is too.

Callie: “Not Miller High-Life?”

I called the auto service desk this morning when it opened, and they were eventually able to confirm that my part arrived at the Nissan dealer twenty miles away. Their driver has to go get the part, and then the service department has to work it into the schedule for replacement of the broken shift assembly. With good luck, I won’t need to pursue contingency plans for an alternative way to move the trailer by Thursday when my campsite is reserved for someone else. I’ll update this post when I learn more.

I had the best of plans to blog about our lovely stay at Thomson’s Causeway while I was staying at my next stop in south-central Illinois. But I fell into a bit of a funk, and here’s the post that explains why.

My next reservation was not very well thought-out. I basically went there to take advantage of my senior pass discount. A few minutes after unhooking my Scamp, I went to pull the truck forward, and then couldn’t get it to shift from drive to park.  I worked until well after dark to diagnose and fix the problem. Nissan has had trouble with vibration causing problems with the Frontier shift assembly. Taking everything apart and tightening a screw can sometimes fix the problem.

Unfortunately, my screw was missing, and the insides were badly bent. I am a long ways from auto service. The Nissan dealer couldn’t have the Nissan mechanic even look at it for over a week. If I had the truck towed there, no loaner car or shuttle service back to the campground was available. I would have had to hitchhike little-used secondary roads with temps close to 100 and Callie to deal with.

I had the truck towed to a Chevy dealer in the opposite direction who promised me that I wouldn’t get stranded there, although no loaner cars were available there either. Rentals were not available in either town.

At the end of Monday, it was decided that the shifter assembly could not be repaired, and a new assembly was needed. No one had the part locally, including the Nissan dealer. It was ordered from Nissan on Monday night, shipped on Tuesday. Estimated delivery is 3 to 5 business days. It’s not here as of Friday mid-day, and it looks like I will be here into next week.

To make matters more unpleasant, there is very little to do here. A heat dome has settled over us the entire week with the heat index as high as 120. The biting horseflies are as big as hummingbirds.  There are lots of other insects:  mosquitoes and several smaller varieties of flies and gnats.

On the plus side, my neighbor Bill has been very helpful, taking me to Walmart for groceries and supplies, and providing companionship in an otherwise depressing, claustrophobic circumstance. He has moved on to his next destination, but I have enough food to get me well into next week. The AC in the Scamp has been a life-saver, although we had a several hours long power outage this morning. It’s cranking cold air again, and I pray that continues.

Internet is limited to one bar LTE so I will keep photos to a minimum.

Carlyle Lake

I have this spot reserved until next Thursday morning. Someone else has it reserved that afternoon. I can only hope I’ll be gone by then.

 

Just about every place has its pros and cons.  Staying at the Thomson Causeway campground on opening day means that the weather can be unpredictable.

 

It also means that not all of the kinks have been worked out yet.  How many COE employees does it take to replace a hot water heater?  I'm not sure because there still wasn't any hot water in the shower after three days.  I know there were at least two hot water heaters unloaded from pickup trucks and what seemed like half a dozen employees working on the problem.  When I left after four days, there was still a sign up indicating no hot water yet.  The dumpsters weren't there when I arrived, but they did arrive later in my stay. 

But I wasn't camping here for the campground services.  The draw here is the Mississippi River and its backwaters, where wildlife is abundant.

nesting

hunting

avoiding Callie

pelicans on a Sunday stroll

 

Sometimes the federal government gets it right.

Made it safely across

Our next stop in early May was at another Corps of Engineers campground at Rend Lake near Benton, Illinois. 

We needed to reserve a spot for the weekend, and things were already getting crowded on the first weekend in May. I made the reservation two weeks in advance, and our site was far from prime. To get level, I needed all of my leveling blocks for the rear of the trailer. 

There was a lengthy bike/hike paved trail on the property. We took full advantage and walked at least five miles every day of our stay. After the weekend, the campground emptied out enough to score a lakeside site. 

Julia kayaked several times on the lake.

We visited two brewpubs in the area. The first was called  The Hop Brewery in Christopher, Illinois. The town was in bad economic shape.  The brewery was newer and the highlight of the town.

Julia had a Hefeweizen that she thought was ok. I had something called a white stout that I didn’t like much at all. I thought it would be light colored but full bodied, but it was more like a stout on a diet.

We also went to St Nicholas Brewery in Du Quoin, Illinois. The beer here was much better.

Just when I started enjoying the weather, things took a turn for the worse.  You may recall me basking in the 70’s in southern Illinois.  That didn’t last long.  Callie and I enjoyed an overnight stay at Beaver Dam State Park and then headed north to Springfield.

My first thought in staying at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield was that we were going to chart a path home through the best campgrounds that central Illinois and northern Illinois had to offer.  To be honest, nothing was exciting me.  We spent some time walking around Springfield, which hangs its tourism hat on Abe Lincoln.  I drank a new beer, Stag, which tastes a lot like Pabst.  That’s not a bad thing on a hot day for $1.50 at a bar.




Then the reality of being only five hours from home, and the weather abruptly changing to freeze warnings, lead to the decision to cut the trip short and head home.  On the day that I arrived back to Wisconsin, there were freeze warnings.  That afternoon, we winterized the Brew Hut and called it the end of the 2019 season.

It seems strange going from sweltering to freezing in such a short time.  But there it is…


Future Plans What’s next?  I’ll be home for awhile.  The firewood for this next season is ready, but the firewood for the season after that needs to be harvested and processed.  The (adult)  kids will be coming home in coming weekends, and then there will be a big gathering here for Thanksgiving.

As far as the Brew Hut goes, the old Scamp trailer will hibernate for the winter.  We’ve taken her west, south and east now. Which trip did I like best?  West, south and then east.  All of the trips were good ones, but the free camping out west and the dryer climate fits my camping style better.  There were also fewer mosquitoes.

At this point in time, I’m not sure where the next trip will take us, but I’ll have a long winter to figure that out.

The weather finally broke for me.  Nearly perfect temperatures in the 70’s during the day and 50’s at night.  I settled in for a couple of days at the Oak Point Campground, which I used as a base to explore other areas and for its own sake.

The campground sites were well-spaced.  The cost was $20/night including electric, dump station, on-site water, and no artificial light at night.  There is a trail leading around Glendale Lake, which Callie and I both enjoyed.  Hot showers were available, and firewood was cheap.

I’ve always been hard on Illinois.  Part of it goes back to the Packers-Bears rivalry, which interests me much less than it did at one time.  Part of it is the ugliness of the Illinois interstates and much of the Chicago area.  After spending a couple of days in the Shawnee National Forest, I began to really enjoy myself and the terrain.  It wouldn’t be the worst place to live—Southern Illinois.

People may not know that orange trees grow here, kinda sorta.  This is the only place where I’ve seen Osage oranges–also known as the hedge apple.


These fruits are literally as big as softballs.  Osage oranges are not fit for human consumption, although they aren’t really poisonous either.


Fortunately, they grow on short thorny trees that don’t grow above trailers like hickory trees do.  The firewood is incredibly full of BTU’s–even more than oak or hickory.  Great for wood stoves, if you could split the wood.

Besides reforming my views about Illinois, I’ve always been working to reform my diet.  Julia has gone all in on eating almost entirely vegetables with very little red meat.  I haven’t gone that far, but I am limiting my red meat intake by eating smaller portions and less often.

Here’s my take on a healthier diet:


You’ll notice that the vegetables outnumber the small steak, and some of the vegetables have green elements.  Specifically, the jalepeno peppers.  The rest is onion and potato.  This reformed diet thing is a work in progress.

After a nice week with the whole family, and visits from the kids’ grandparents, it was time for everyone to go their respective ways.


Today, I’m on the road again. I hitched up the Scamp early this morning and drove to Peoria, Illinois, where I am camped at my first Harvest Host overnight. For an annual fee, Harvest Host provides its list of hundreds of wineries, breweries, farms, museums, golf courses and other businesses who offer a single night of dry camping on their property. In return, guests agree to spend some money at the business.


This afternoon, I paid for a $5 wine tasting for five samples of wine and then bought a bottle of the one I liked best. The overnight stay is free. No utility hookups, but no crowds either. I’m the only camper staying tonight on a lovely warm Illinois evening.



Tomorrow, I move east to Indiana, and perhaps another Harvest Host stay.

I’ve made some miles over the last couple of days, moving from the edge of heating season to the edge of cooling season.  On Tuesday, I drove from central Illinois to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The original plan was to camp at Trail of Tears State Park, north of town.  After driving 13 miles out of the way, I found out that the road to the campground was closed due to flooding of the Mississippi River.  So I jumped on the Campendium app and found Cape Camping and RV park ($36 dollars with 55+ discount).

The showers and bathrooms were nice.  There was a view of some kind of pond or drainage area.  The best part was a city paved path that went for miles and miles. Callie and I hiked until sunset.  We had quite a struggle over all of the bicycles on the path.  Callie does not like to share.  Some of the babies and small children must have looked like sheep to herd, because she wasn’t crazy about those little people either.  In the morning, the path was much quieter, and she managed to let a few bikers by without giving chase.  Small steps.

Today, we drove through rural America.  I set google maps to avoid highways and headed into what my daughter calls hillbilly country.  I passed towns like Possum Knob.  As I drove through, I saw lots of white poverty: people not living well with lots of trash in the yard and homes in need of major repair. I found myself wondering what these people seek in presidential leadership, who they voted for (if they voted) and why.

By late afternoon, I made it to the Downtown Riverside RV park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. I called around 2 p.m. and reserved the last spot in the campground.  There were many beautiful spots along the river.  There were also nice spots across from the riverfront sites.


Because I reserved the last spot, my site was special and away from all of the others.  Nevertheless, I was grateful to get a campsite and it actually provided me with more privacy than any other site.  Plus, the price was right, ($13 with Passport America discount). I’m tucked into the upper right corner of the photograph.


From the rv park, I literally walked across the Clinton Park Bridge to the William Clinton Presidential Library.


From there, Callie and I walked along the river and up through downtown Little Rock and then back across the bridge to the rv park.  There’s still a little daylight at 7:50 p.m; the windows are open in the Scamp; and it’s quite comfortable.

Similar to my last couple of trips, there was a lot to do before I could leave on this one. Justin’s Christmas present was two tickets to Mumford and Sons last night at the new Milwaukee arena, Fiserv Forum. Unfortunately, he bought tickets for Sunday night rather than Saturday night and didn’t tell us until about a week before the show. This meant that the concert was on a schoolnight/worknight.



The concert didn’t end until after 11 p.m., and then the ushers unhelpfully directed Justin (who is in a power wheelchair) to exit via a stairway. We dropped off Allie at 11:30 pm and then drove to Whitewater and got Justin ready for bed around 1 a.m. We didn’t get to bed until 2:30 a.m. On four hours sleep, Julia headed off to work and I hitched up the Brew Hut and drove south for warmer temperatures.

Tonight, I’m camped at Comlara County Park near Hudson, IL. The projected low at home was 29 degrees overnight. Here, it’s supposed to be a balmy 36 degrees. I’m not complaining.   There are about half a dozen campers here at this 155 site campground.  The water isn’t turned on, and the bathrooms are locked.  Good 30 amp electrical hookups for $24/night to run my small electrical heater.   And you can’t beat the view.

I arrived home yesterday after slogging through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois for several days.  (Slog:  to plod one’s way through difficulty). Thankfully, I didn’t have any flat tires or mechanical problems, but the driving days were long without much time for exercise or enjoyment of visual beauty.

Texas was interesting for its cotton fields.  I had no idea that there were still places in this country where cotton is grown in fields as far as one can see.  In fact, although I didn’t see any harvesting, the harvest must have been in progress because there was cotton all over the shoulders and roadways of the two lane “harvest to market” highways that I was traveling.

I stayed overnight in Lubbock, Texas at a nondescript RV park, which had this sign posted in each bathroom stall.


On Thursday, I drove the Tollway/Turnpike to Guthrie, Oklahoma.  A bad accident had occurred in front of the Cedar Valley RV park where I had made reservations–just before I arrived.  Passport America membership provides 50% off RV park fees, and this park was well-run, clean, and appreciated.  Unfortunately, I’ve run into some really poorly managed rv parks by Passport America, so it’s unlikely I’ll renew that membership.

On Friday morning, I drove through Oklahoma and into Missouri.  I found myself a day ahead of schedule (hitting myself for not staying another day in the mountains outside Las Cruces), and stayed overnight in Joplin, Missouri.  My initial plan was to stay for free at the Downstream Casino, but the electric utility post kept shutting off every time I plugged in, and I tried three different poles.   With temps in the 20’s at night, I fled to my first KOA and plugged in opsuccessfully, staying warm with my small electric heater.

On Saturday morning, I killed time by walking with Elvis on the downtown streets of Joplin, which has beautiful buildings.  Sadly, many of them are empty, and there were quite a few destitute people on the streets.  One woman asked if she could pet Elvis.  She ended up hugging Elvis and breaking down to cry, “I don’t know where my family is.”  I couldn’t help her with that, but she said that her day was already better, having spent time with Elvis.

My cousin Tim was due to arrive home from his trucking job mid-afternoon Saturday, so I still had a couple of hours to kill.  To my surprise, the George Washington Carver National Monument is only a short distance from Tim’s place.  Much of what I knew about Carver had been forgotten, so I appreciated the opportunity to refresh my recollection.

Carver and his mother were purchased and took on the name of his master.  While Carver was young, he and his mother were stolen from slave raiders.  The young boy was recovered, but his mother was not.  Carver’s father, a slave on another farm, was killed in an accident.  Carver found solace in education.  He believed that worldly goods can be stolen away, but an education belongs to you forever.



I left the monument with a great deal of respect for this man.

That afternoon, Tim and I renewed our long friendship by drinking mead from a local establishment.  I’ve known Tim since I was a young boy and spent many summers on his family’s Iowa farm, walking soybeans, making hay, and having a lot of fun when we weren’t working. I spent the night inside Tim’s house under a warm electric blanket.  Elvis seemed ecstatic to be inside a house and around people again.


On Sunday morning, Tim was heading off with his sons to a Kansas City Chief’s football game, and I was on the road.  I drove to East St. Louis, where the Passport America selection did not pass muster.  I continued on to East Peoria, arriving just after dark but before 6 p.m.  I had called to make a reservation at this Passport America park, and the owner assured me that he would either be there or come check me in when I called.  However, when I called, he told me that check-in would be self-serve.  I could set up anywhere .  No access to the advertised wifi,  showers, or bathroom, and the site was hard as heck to set up in.  But I made it through a cold night with my little heater.

When I went to drop off my check on Monday morning, a sign indicated that the office was closed and that he would be in at 9, 10, 11 or later.  I checked for a dropbox to set my check, but couldn’t find anywhere safe to put it.  The owner has my number, and I have a scathing review to write if he asks for the amenity-based full price.  We’ll see what happens on that one.  I doubt I’ll hear from him.

I drove through scattered snow and flurries, making it home by Monday at noon.  Since then, I’ve been enjoying the amenities of home and doing some home chores.  I mowed the lawn yesterday, which was covered in oak leaves but hadn’t been mowed for two months.  The temps are in the 30’s during the day, and colder at night.  I miss the warm temperatures of the southwest, but it was time to come home.  As soon as I clean the chimneys, I’ll be back to tending the home fires for the winter.