This late afternoon we have settled in at Sam Parr State Park in southern Illinois after a successful two days of travel in our Winnebago Minnie motorhome, or “Harley” as we call this vehicle. The trip was without major incident, but all three of us were a bit rusty.  Arriving home from Florida, I fully charged and installed the chassis battery after removing snow from our driveway.  Harley started promptly and seemed to enjoy the process of “re-educating” the truck computer as directed by the Ford Motor Company.  She and I circled the neighborhood for twenty minutes to complete the process.  Anne and I then began to prepare and provision her for the expedition.  I flushed anti-freeze from the water system and added a weak chlorine solution to disinfect it.  The next morning I drained this water and put enough fresh water in the tank to get us to our first stop here.  We didn’t turn on the water heater until yesterday, but I did check the burner for wasp nests.  It was clean and yesterday the heater came right on and gave us warm dishwater.

 Yesterday, Sunday, morning we unplugged Harley and rolled up the extension cord on after a splendid breakfast of scrapple and eggs.  We won’t see scrapple again for a long long time.  We had finished trip preparations on Saturday, and I had time to bake two batches of cookies for the trip.  We invited neighbors over for a glass of wine and treats in the afternoon.  Both Saturday and Sunday were fine spring days with the temperature reaching 60 degrees.

The final step in preparing for travel is to connect the auto to the motorhome.  We made the hookup in the street in front of the house.  Done, we pulled out at 9:00 a.m. in the sunshine.  The Google website and our Magellan GPS unit (isn’t the 21^st Century wonderful) both suggested we travel US route 30 to Breezewood PA and then take the PA Turnpike west to I-70.  We took this route bypassing a section of turnpike with three long tunnels.  That saved us the toll but meant that Harley had to climb over those steep ridges.  She did so smoothly, and I downshifted to ease her down the backside of each of them.  Ah, the challenges of RV’ing.

We fueled up near Somerset, where snow still littered the north facing slopes.  We still think of Somerset as a winter wonderland, but its latest claim to fame is the memorial nearby to the defenders and victims who perished in the crash of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.  When we started on I-70 I asked what cities lay ahead, and Anne mentioned Wheeling.  We looked at each other and wondered what Brian was doing.  Anne called to reach the young man grading papers and looking forward to watching TV of Pittsburgh playing in the NCAA championship later.  He invited us to stop by. 

Our GPS “Maggie” provided a route and we arrived a half hour later, but only after Anne had called Frank and Mom & Dad to tell them what we were up to.  Brian met us in the parking lot.  We invited him in for snacks and beverage.  He gave us a tour of the Linsly School and a break from driving.  We thanked him and wished him a good evening before continuing west.  We stopped for supper at a rest stop in Ohio.  I napped very briefly while Anne turned on the generator and microwaved leftover chicken tetrazini.  After dinner we drove past Columbus and stopped at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant about 9 pm.  Cracker Barrels usually have RV parking in the rear and allow overnight parking there.  The locations are next to the highway exits and the price is perfect.  The only drawbacks are the abundance of light and the highway noise.  Still, we slept well in spite of the arrival of a rainstorm.  We thought, “Rain is much better than snow.”

We planned to stop at a Camping World camping supply store at Indianapolis and timed our arrival for after rush hour.  At 9 a.m. the store was empty but the service center was buzzing.  We completed our shopping and had the propane tank filled before resuming our travel.  Our GPS routed us improperly for a few minutes until Anne noticed that somehow it had been reset “to avoid freeways.”  Re-programmed, Maggie put us back on I-70.  The rain continued and slowed us down a bit.  We passed a commercial truck that had rolled over off the highway in the storm.  Such an experience would really ruin our trip. 

We lunched at the Illinois welcome center and left the interstate highway at Greenup to turn south toward Newton.  Southern Illinois was very soggy and we found the state park campground deserted.  Still, we picked out a campsite and parked.  As I was checking out the water a ranger, Jim Gillespie, pulled up in his pickup and greeted us.  He checked us in and reported that we should hear turkey and woodcock in the campground.  He also commented that we were at exactly the right time to see prairie chickens at Newton Lake.  We paid and thanked him and set up camp.  The rain has diminished and seems to have stopped now.  We will probably take a walk here before and after dinner.  The moon is waxing and should provide luck with the night birds. 

Tomorrow, we will visit Newton Lake, but we may not see the chickens until dawn on Wednesday.  The weather forecast is good, and we will enjoy spring in these woods and fields.

 There is not much prairie left in Illinois, and we are at the most easterly location where Greater Prairie Chicken can still be seen.  Until the 19^th Century the easterly race of this species boomed in coastal prairies.  The last population was lost on Martha’s Vineyard Island.  We have never seen this bird before and look forward to watching the males strut their stuff.  Our adventures have begun.

 I should mention some of the little crises along the way.  The light test found that the right blinker signal does not flash on the car.   There is probably a loose connection I will have to find.  This finding did not stall the trip, but I used extra care driving knowing that only the flasher on the truck but not on the car was operational. 

Starting down the highway after dinner, Anne noticed that the steps were still extended.  We stopped at the next exit and opened and close the door.  They retracted.  Probably the door was not tightly closed (though locked) and so the steps went down.  We’ll keep on eye on this.

 When we were showing Brian the rig, I turned on the house fan, but it did not come on.  Only later did we remember that this is an alternating current (AC) function that would not take place unless the generator was on or we were plugged in.  No problem.

We then worried about the heater, forgetting that it operates with a different fan on the 12V DC system.  I turned on the heat and nothing happened.  We had not tested the heater and worried about this, but when we stopped at the Cracker Barrel later it was cooler, and when I turned on the heater it started right up.  It did not run earlier because the temperature was higher than the thermostat setting.  By this time almost everything has been tested except the air conditioning.  We should not need that for a while.