Mid-West Madness

The drive from Kentucky to Indiana was one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. The green, rolling hills and white wooden fences went on for miles. I hadn’t realized how much agriculture was being produced throughout the mid-west and was happy to see so much undeveloped land still viable for generations to come. Along our way, we located a truck wash specifically for large semis/RVs for a great price of $55. I was amazed at how much grime we had acquired over the past three months from rain, sleet, hail, snow, dirt, bird feces, etc. Darryl outdid himself locating a Cracker Barrel in Evansville, Indiana. It was set across from a recreation walking path and pond. We grabbed some dinner and settled in for the evening.

The following morning, I awoke to find Darryl with an ice pack held to his forehead. When I asked what happened, he indicated he misjudged the height of his bunk and cut his head. While I didn’t know it, this wouldn’t be the last of the injuries for the day. After I bandaged Darryl's boo-boo, we located a nearby Planet Fitness and got in a quick workout before traveling to 619 Runnymede Avenue, Evansville, IN. If that address doesn’t sound familiar, I understand. Its one of the unique places we wanted to check out since we were in the area. The address is the house where the television series, “Rosanne” was based on. The front porch is on the credits at the beginning of the show.

Once we finished taking a stroll through the neighborhood we headed off to see the Roofless Church in New Harmony, IN. When I initially began researching various places to see while on this trip, I used Pinterest, TripAdvisor and googled “unique places to see” at our destination spots. This was one of those places and it didn’t disappoint. The premise of the church is to allow all faiths the opportunity to worship under the ultimate roof; the open sky. It was a very peaceful place to see and it felt like one of those towns where you saw people and they just looked like they were whispering. It was both tranquil and strange at the same time.

While we were finishing our walk around the town, we followed a path that led towards an old small parish building. As I approached it to see if I could go inside, Darryl said sternly, “Get away from that building.” Of course, I was more focused on what he was saying versus how he was saying it and continued to walk to the building. Once he said, “bee”, I quickly realized I was about a foot from a large wasp nest and as I turned around, I fell over my own shoe. As I lay on the ground whimpering and trying to pull the dog away from the swarming wasps, Darryl yelled to get up. The look on his face made me realize I was still in danger with the wasps obviously angry and swarming around us. My pain amazingly went away as I rolled up off my ass and started to walk briskly away. I’m not sure why, yet knee scuffs feel much worse the older I get.

By the time we left Indiana and entered Illinois, I had a hankering for corn. Maybe because that’s the only crop I saw for almost 300 miles. An alarming issue this region is experiencing is major floods and many of the crops we saw were completely underwater which I gathered would not be able to be harvested this year. As we made our way through Illinois and located another Cracker Barrel in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Unlike most of the other CB, we have stayed overnight at, this one was in a busier section and had constant traffic coming and going which did not make for an enjoyable evening. Another issue we were presented with was dealing with the higher weather temperatures while boondocking. By higher, I mean it was like 60 degrees in the RV. For someone who likes to be super cold when I sleep, this did not go over very well. I found myself shedding clothes all night to regulate my body temperature. Darryl insisted it was perfect, yet my sweat glands said otherwise.

In the morning we left early to make our way towards Missouri. Like the Ohio trip, we experienced some major winds which made traveling a little more stressful and work for Darryl. At times, the gusts were so severe they shoved us into the safety lanes. Since Darryl needed a stress reliever and we had some time to spare until our check-in and, we located a Planet Fitness to get in a long overdue workout. Once we made it to the RV Campground, 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters, MO, I was quite pleased with the grounds and amenities. This park has been one of the best government owned and ran parks we have stayed at so far. First, their rates were inexpensive, $37 a night be exact. They had two large dog parks, a 4 ½ mile concrete path around a beautiful lake, an archery range, bicycles, canoes, kayak and paddleboat rentals and, creative art pieces throughout the park. While exploring the area, we jokingly made comments about the tornado alert systems located throughout the park and contemplated exactly what the protocol might be if they were to sound. Unfortunately, our jokes became a little less funny when we returned to the RV and saw major tornado watches in our area. I'd like to say the torrential rains, heavy winds, lightning, and thunder deterred me from having a good night sleep yet anyone who knows me, would recognize that I was lying since nothing interferes with my 10 hours of nightly sleep. Of course, I did wonder if the reason I was able to go asleep so easily was that Darryl told me that if a tornado were to strike he would willingly lay on top of me to keep me safe. Although a very sweet sentiment, I'm pretty sure his efforts would have been futile.

Even though the weather was less than cooperative for outside activities, we were able to take a tour of the Anheuser-Busch manufacturing plant and take a ride in the Arch. We would highly recommend seeing both.