Hey we are back on the road after hiding out over the July 4th weekend with Jerry and Janene Tice. They live about 20 miles from Springfield Illinois. Springfield was the home of Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln, just before they moved to Washington DC and took office as the sixteenth president. We toured the Lincoln home, the Lincoln Memorial and the old state capitol. We also toured a wonderful example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, the Dana-Thomas, home in Springfield. We also watched three different fireworks displays from Jerry and Janene’s front porch plus an amazing display of lightning bugs in the front yard. To round out our activities we also went to the local live theatre to see Seven Wives for Seven Brothers in Springfield one night and then a presentation of the life of Abe Lincoln at the New Salem Visitors center on the Fourth of July. New Salem was a village near Petersburg where young Abe Lincoln began his adult wanderings. What a wonderful way to refresh your “US History.”

We did a lot of checking of the weather on Monday, the fifth of July, By the time we drove to the Mississippi Palisades State Park in the far northwest corner of Illinois we decided to ignore the predictions of violent thunder-storms and made our own prediction that the warm sunshine would not fail us.. Wrong-wrong-wrong. The rain started piter-patering about nine. We got everything under cover and climbed in the tent. We watched and listened to natures own July Fourth fireworks. But what the heck, our gear was still wet from our last night out, so we got it rinsed off, and it dried up enough by morning that we were able to wipe it down and get it packed somewhat drier than it had been.

As I write this we have crossed into Iowa at Dubuque. Central Iowa is predicting fair weather, so we are headed for a state park called Pleasant Creek State Park near Waterloo Iowa.

Bye for now
Love Gary and Judy.