Over Columbus Day weekend we went camping to Mississippi Palasades SP. JoAnne from work as well as the neighbors (Jim and Barb) and their friends (Mike and Ivy) all camped as well. Since it was my idea I was in charge of finding and setting up our campsites. The first problem was that the campground severely limited their reserved campsites since last year when we went. Most were now first come first serve. After a few calls to the campground to ask if we can move our site when we get there. He said, no problem everyone does that. I lock down all our sites.
I took that Friday off (as well as Monday). In previous years Hollace had the same days off but apparently not this year so I spent Friday getting ready. JoAnne got to the site first. The camp host said she couldnt move. Moving closer to a bathroom wasn’t reason enough, too bad. Once I found that out I called the others to tell them we are stuck to our original reserved sites. They were all gung ho to go to the sites I told them I hoped we could get. While talking to Ivy I made the realization that the sites I reserved for them and Jim and Barb aren’t across the street like I thought but rather in the next loop. As it turned out there was no shortcut to get to them, two ravines separated us. Dang it! How come I didn’t notice that no road was dividing the sites before on the map before. Also the sites I got them kind of suck because it was right next to the little store and they had less trees buffering them from the constant train whistles.
Ok, so I suck at event planning. The plan wasn’t to have to stay at those sites. Oh well, lets make the best of it. Poor JoAnne though, she really needed a close by bathroom and often got up in the middle of the night to drive over to one. I offered our bathroom but she only went during the day.
That first night was kind of awkward. JoAnne and Mark weren’t all that interested in going to the other peoples’ site and vice a versa. RAW and I bounced between both.
When I walked back to our site I noticed the tree just beyond our site was twinking. It was a very tall tree and I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. No one could get lights up that high the way they looked to be. I kept rubbing my eyes in disbelief LOL.
I go to JoAnne and ask her what is going on with that tree. They at first though maybe they were bugs in what we affectionately called Mississippi River bugs. Other people were perplexed as well. What it was was the guy camping next to us and his laser projector. People from all over came over to check out the lights.
The next day we told the others they need to come to our site to check out these crazy bugs. Had them going kinda, sorta. Mike already seen them and knew what was up because he was the only one who moved between the sites. A very sociable man, he tried to get JoAnne and Mark to come by their site. Mike and Ivy kept us well fed the whole weekend.
Saturday: after waking up at 7:30, I went back to sleep until 10:23. Dang, I didn’t intend to sleep that long. Even Hollace was awake before me. The folks on the other side was planning on driving around to look for an old campground Mike camped at as a kid. JoAnne and I decided we would go into Galena on Sunday and wait for Deb and her daughter who was coming up for a visit at the campground.
Once they got there, JoAnne stayed back at camp while Deb, Quinne, Hollace and I drove around to the overlooks. RAW and Mark were already out driving around. There were these big birds flying around that I was trying to take pictures of. For some reason we all assumed they were eagles (which are common over there). I felt like an idiot when I realized they were turkey vultures. Clue for the next time, eagles don’t fly around in numbers and a more graceful. The pictures I took are scary, an eagle wouldn’t look so scary flying around up there.
Saturday night we all coordinated to eat at Mike and Ivy’s. He was making chicken and rice in a dutch casserole and pineapple upside down cake in another dutch casserole which fortunately RAW had he could borrow. We made chile in the crockpot. JoAnne and Mike brought corn on the cob. Not sure what Jim and Barb brought but I know they had 5#s of potatoes though I didn’t see any.
On Sunday we wish Jim and Barb and Mike and Ivy a safe trip back home and promised to camp again this time somewhere else. We then all headed out to Galena.
Did I mention the whole weekend (and week and half before) was perfect weather. Actually it was leaning on pretty warm for October. I think it was in the 80s and sunny.
Anyway, we did what you do in Galena, walk up and down the street. It was busy but we got lucky finding a good parking spot. Some highlights of the trip were the Edwardian headband Hollace got which had a little top hat with black rose on it. It was so Hollace. Me and Hollace testing all the olive oils and vinegars at the Olive Tap. Walked out with a bottle of expensive oil and vinegar there.
We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch/dinner. Food was good, the bread especially.
That night we hung out at JoAnne’s fire again. This time Hollace was in a very talkitive, goofy mood. We sat around the fire playing Jenga on the iPad and gabbing.
Monday it was finally time to pack up and go home. Nothing eventful there. A good weekend was had by all.
