8 June 2024 Central IL Wine Trail

 Always on the prowl for trying new wines, and Illinois became the 25^th state we have done wine tastings in. We found two vineyards near Carlock that are on the Central Illinois Wine Trail. The first vineyard we went to was Mackinaw Valley Winery. The grounds and building were beautiful and setup to do special events. There was a wedding taking pre-ceremony pictures while we were there. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy the wines. Then we drove over to Tres Rojas Winery. They had a much wider variety of wines which were much better. But their grounds were pretty basic. So, we brought a few bottles home with us to enjoy later. 

Mackinaw Valley Winery

Mackinaw Valley Winery

Mackinaw Valley Winery

Tres Rojas Winery

Tres Rojas Winery

Tres Rojas Winery

7 June 2024 Alma Mater

 We choose this location due to its proximity to Peoria, Il, home to David’s college alma mater, Bradley University. After brunch at the Carlock Family Restaurant, we drove to Bradley University. David showed Leslie the two dorms he lived in while he was a student there. Sisson Hall is no longer a dorm but Geisert Hall is still housing students. The Engineering building, Jobst Hall, where he spent the majority of his class time was torn down and replaced by a new combined Business and Engineering mega-building a few years ago. We walked into the new building and were impressed by the new technology. It even had an LED stock ticker running through the lobby. We then wandered around the campus. It did not feel as large to David now as it did back then. We ended up in the student book store where David picked up some new Bradley University shirts. A lot has changed since his last visit to the university in 1982. All the professors he had back then have retired or passed. Good memories, but also a little unsettling to see how much has changed. 

Geisert Hall

Sisson Hall

Bradley Hall

Westlake Hall

5 June 2024 St. Charles, MO to Carlock, IL

We quickly got everything ready for the road, hooked up and pulled out of the site about 2:30. Luckily the future occupiers had not shown up yet. We had to pay a $12 fine for leaving late. Our next campground was 186 miles away in Carlock, IL. We made it to the Kamp Komfort RV Park and Campground ($41 per night with GSC) around 6:15. 

 

31 May – 5 June 2024 Odessa to St. Charles, MO

 We pulled out of Odessa MO just before the storms caught up with us and drove to St. Charles MO where we are staying at the Sundermeier RV Park ($56.00 per night with GSC). We were put into a site we had stayed at before. 

On Sunday we went into the Old Town St Charles and Old French Town. We spent the afternoon wandering through stores, had lunch at Braddens and picked up some goodies at the bakery. 

 

It rained Monday and Tuesday so David used the time to do some work. 

 

Wednesday morning, we slept late and took our time getting ready to head out. We had decided to go to a winery in Grafton, IL on the other side of the Mississippi river. Of course you can't drive straight there, so we decided to take the back roads over to Alton IL and then the river road up to Grafton. since it was lunchtime, and we needed something on our stomachs before we do a wine tasting, we stopped at the Market Street Cafe in Alton for lunch. We were sitting at our table waiting for our lunch to be served when we both got a notice on our phones about a time urgent appointment. When we checked to see what it was, we discovered that we were supposed to be moving to another campground today! Yikes! David totally thought we had until Friday before we were moving! So we called Sundermeier to see if we could stay an extra night and were told that site was promised to someone else for multiple nights and we had to be out by 1PM. It was 12:50 and we were an hour away. Just about then, our food arrived. So, we wolfed down lunch (it was very good) and booked it back to St. Charles. So much for wine tasting and riding the Katy trail. Maybe next time through.

Old Town St. Charles, MO

Old Town St. Charles, MO

Old Town St. Charles, MO

New Man Shirt!

Downtown Alton, IL

Downtown Alton, IL

29 – 31 May May 2024 Junction City, KS to Odessa, MO

 In the morning, we went to breakfast at Stacy’s and picked up some essentials at Walmart before paying our bill at NH. We departed NH about an hour before the storms and drove to the Owl Creek RV Park ($58 per night with GSC) in Odessa MO. We felt it was an appropriate place to stay since Leslie was born in Odessa Texas! The RV Park also had a shop that featured locally source cheeses, wines and chocolate candy! We got to see Keira play with other dogs for the first time at the dog park. All the dogs behaved well and had a great time chasing each other around the pen.  

26 - 29 May 2024 Camp New Horizons

We said good bye to Bill and Mary Ann Sunday morning. David spent the afternoon working on our taxes. Memorial Day afternoon we drove over to the small town of Lindsborg, Kansas. Known as the Little Sweden of Kansas, Lindsborg was settled by Swedish emigrants in 1869. The old downtown reflects the heritage and there are Dala Horse sculptures through-out the town. The Dala Horse tradition came out of Sweden where craftsmen looking for something to do with wood scrapes from furniture making first started carving them as toys. We pursued through the shops that were open and had lunch at the De Öl Stuga Bar and Grill. On the way back, we stopped at the Coronado Heights and the fort built by the CCC. It is said that the Spanish explorer Coronado viewed the great plains from this location in 1541.  On Tuesday the New Horizon service technicians completed all the work we need done to the Wanderer. We had two of the four slide toppers replaced. We had planned to have all four replaced but two of the replacements came in the wrong size from the manufacturer, so we will have to work those later. They also fixed the cutoff switch on the passenger rear stabilizer and repaired one window shade. We had then do an end to end inspection and they did not find any issues that needed attention. The called our unit “lightly used” since we have taken such great care of it. We also met with Cole to price out a possible new build. Also met with Elizabeth to get the latest news for the Ambassadors program. Since we finished up early, we made plans to drive part way to St. Charles to reduce the drive and to get out ahead of the incoming storm front. Wednesday morning we went to breakfast at Stacy’s (a local icon) and picked up some essentials at Walmart. 

Entrance sign to Lindsborg

Large Dala Horse

History of the Dale Horse

Fort at Coronado Heights built by the CCC

View of the Great American Plains

Camp New Horizons

25 May 2024 Guthrie, OK to Junction City, KS

 We pulled into New Horizons RV around 3 PM. Both parking spots in the service department were full, so we parked in front of the third bay and got set up. We got together with our friends Bill and Mary Ann who were just finishing up a week of repairs being made to their RV. It was great to finally meet up with them again since it has been since we were in Maine since we saw them last.