Went on vacation last week. We are calling it our “extended long weekend tour” We spent the week going to 3 different places we always wanted to go on long weekends.
We started out on Saturday going camping at the Indiana dunes. Originally we thought we would just go on Sunday when everyone else was leaving for the weekend but decided to try for Saturday. I went to their site reservations and after almost messing up by selecting Sunday instead of Saturday I realized there was only one site left. I grabbed it.
On Sunday mom and dad came out to camp next to us. Actually they called first to cancel the camping and just come to visit because they couldn’t get their motor home started. They eventually got it going.
On Monday, Sherry who was also on vacation came out with her daughter to go to the beach with us.
Tuesday we pulled up camp and headed 5 hours out to Peoria Illinois. Normally Peoria isn’t a place I would necessarily want to go camping but they have a wildlife preserve that we have been meaning to check out.
The state park we stayed at was sparce and very sunny (hardly any shaded sites) and noisy. The cicada! We found the 17 year cicada we have been hearing all the hype over. And they were kidding they were loud and clumsy, you could see them flying around and they would keep crashing into you. They are so freak huge. About 2 hours before sunset they would just suddenly disappear and all was quiet until 2 hours after sunrise when they would swarm again.
The weather was hot the whole week but the new camper has AC so we were ok for the most part. The nature preserve was alright, lots of bison. We needed to find a Walmart and drove around Peoria for an hour trying to find it. We laugh about it now because…..
On Thursday we headed out to our last leg of our trip to Galena Illinois. The state park (we usually like staying there to camp) was 30 miles away from Galena so we decided to go to a good ole fashion campground, you know with the pool and mini golf. All the sites are really small and cramped. Right next door was a Culvers and on the other side was a Super Walmart. If only we would of waited.
We bought a small gas grill and then spent the rest of the night assembling the darn thing. We didn’t eat until 10:30 that night.
At the pool that first day I played in the water with Hollace but was ready to get out. At the moment I was getting ready to tell her this, a girl comes up and introduces herself to Hollace and asks if she wants to play. She turned 8 that day and was very outgoing. Hollace shied up. They play for maybe 1 minute before the girl moved onto another girl. I felt kind of sad but not too much after I noticed she only played with that other girl for 5 minutes before moving on. Hollace spent the rest of the time obsessed trying to get a bobbie pin out of the bottom of the pool. Since she won’t go under water or get her face wet, that posed a challenge. I think eventually some little kid asked her father to get it for her.
The next day we went into Galena and walked the town and its quaint little shops.
Later that day RAW went with Hollace to the pool. They had a great time but that ended badly when Hollace went into the bathroom and couldn’t get out. Instead of yelling for help or something she just sat in there crying until a mom and her little kid came in and opened the stall where she ran out. So traumatic. This isn’t the only time she got stuck in a bathroom. I seem to remember a couple porta potties she got or almost got stuck in.
On Saturday we went into Dubuque Iowa but didn’t really stay. We realized there was a hot air balloon race in Galena later that day so we drove out there to see where it was. it was 10 miles outside of town and RAW coped an attitude about going (he was the one who really wanted to go). Instead we went back to camp, walked to Culvers for an icecream treat then played some mini golf.
On Sunday by 9:30 we were back on the road for home. We were home by 1:30.