Miko and Me: On The Road Again

Thank goodness for Willie Nelson. I just find that whenever I get back out on the road I tend to start singing “On The Road Again”. Without Willie, I wouldn't really feel like I've started my journey.

Thursday

I almost didn't get going today. I was pretty sick – headache, nausea – I hardly ever get sick, so the timing was extremely unfortunate. I debated and debated and finally decided to go for it. As a consequence I got off to a late start. The plan was to get to Rochelle Illinois, but I scouted out other possible stops along the way in case the body gave out. I was hoping to get to at least Rockford because my brother who lives in Chicago told me if I made it that far, he would take me out to dinner. You certainly don't want to pass up a free dinner I don't care how bad you feel.

I felt sort of sad hitting the road. This time was different. There were several things keeping me emotional home bound. Tony, of course, but there is also the new grandbaby Isaac which I am missing big time, not to mention his older sister Anika. There is also the new baby horse that is at a crucial time in his schooling.

As I'm driving along, I decided to do a 5 Hour energy. Anybody who knows me, knows that I am only allowed to do half a bottle. If I do a whole bottle, it is more like 12 Hour Energy. I also get extremely chatty. It is a little tough when you are traveling by yourself and you are chatty. Well, half a bottle did not do anything for me – I ended up doing a full bottle and I cruised all the way to Rochelle.

The stop for the night was the local Walmart. I had called ahead and got permission to overnight in the parking lot. When I got there, there were three semis on one side of the parking lot, so I cleverly went over to the far side of the parking lot. Within a couple of hours, I was surrounded by semis. Semis tend to keep their motors running all night long so it was not the quietest of nights.

Me starting to be surrounded by semis

My 5 hour energy gave up the ghost by 8:30 and I crashed big time. I can't remember the last time I went to sleep that early.

Friday

Guess who woke up at 5:30 A.M. ? 26 degrees outside. I was up and taking Miko for her morning constitutional around and around the parking lot. Got on the road by 7:30 after a stop for gas. The sun was extremely bright – one fault of my RV is that they have these worthless little pieces of plastic, way up high that are supposed to be windshield visors. What a waste.

Found that I had to do another 5 hour energy – only a half bottle this time. Again, it didn't help much so after about an hour or so on the road, I stopped at a rest stop and took an hour long nap. It is so nice to have your bed with you for times like this. When I woke up, I felt better and continued south.

I feel better today about leaving home. Maybe it is the fact that I am on roads that I haven't ever been on before. The lure of the open road. I went through a couple of giant wind farms which made me feel very green.

Ended up in Johnston City Illinois for the night at the Arrowhead Lake Campground. Johnston City seems to be a very tiny one street town. The campground is actually a city campground and is a nice little campground with fairly spaced out sites. Arrowhead Lake used to be an open pit coal mine which has been filled in with water. Evidently it is a great fishing lake now as they stock the lake with crappies, sunfish and blue gills. I was invited to stay until next Tuesday because they are having a fish fry. It was really tempting but when you gotta move, you gotta move on.

One of the main reasons I wanted to stay at this campground was that they have a two and a half mile hiking trail around the lake. I figured that Miko sure could use the exercise after being cooped up for a couple of days. I was also able to fill my tanks with water so I could de-winterize. The de-winterizing went well – my only problem is that I seem to have misplaced the brand new water filter that I thought I had brought along. I will have to look a little further into that tomorrow. Again – how is it that I can misplace stuff in such a small space.