For two month we were, more or less, parked at the Shakopee Valley RV Park in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area. Discounting the short moves up to the meadow and back down caused by the Minnesota River flood, we never moved the RV in all that time. Then we drove it about 2 1/2 hours south to the Winnebago Plant where we only drove it back and forth between the overnight spots and the service center for most of a week. Yesterday, they finished the work on it so today we hit the road for the first time in more than two months.
We are headed to New England to visit our daughter in Maine and see the sights in that part of this beautiful country of ours. Now we don’t like to drive very far on any one day. Mostly because our RV is MUCH more comfortable when parked than it is while driving. So we usually limit ourselves to four hours of driving time plus however much time we spend at stops along the way. Four hours from Forest City, Iowa, would take us to a Corps of Engineers campground on Coralville Lake where we stayed once in the View and which we liked very much. Of course, we never looked at it from the point of view of driving a motorhome like we have now let alone one towing a car but we were sure we would still like that park so we set out mid-morning as is our usual style.
We didn’t make it. We can blame it on the winds we had to fight today but I think we’ve just forgotten what it is like to travel any distance. So we are at Colony Country Campground in North Liberty, Iowa, which my mapping program tells me is really only about ten minutes short of the CoE campground. But this is a real RV park where we don’t have to wonder if our RV and car are both going to fit. We were just too tired to deal with the possibility that the CoE would be a disappointment in our bigger rig. We must be getting old.
Tomorrow we plan to drive to Joliet, Illinois. My mapping program says that’s 3 1/2 hours. We should be able to handle that, right?
That lets us drive through the Chicago area on Sunday when there SHOULD be less traffic than on weekdays. Having said that, now I know I’m getting old. When did driving in metropolitan areas become such a hassle? Of course, Chicago is not just any metropolitan area, right?
That would put us just 2 1/2 hours from Elkhart, Indiana, where the Gypsy Gathering, http://gypsyjournal.net/Eastern_rally, will take place next week. We could take a break and spend the week there but we’d have to settle for a 20 amp hookup since we didn’t reserve anything before the 30 and 50 amp sites filled up. And it would keep us from traveling on toward Maine and all the great stuff in New England. Are we ready for that? Stay tuned to see.
TTYL,
Linda Sand
I definitely agree with Sunday through big cities. That’s what we do. It’s the only time to travel because you know you’re not going to have to worry if you’re in the right lane or not. And, you won’t have to worry about stop and go traffic for hours.
I too…BIG CITY = SUNDAYS. We did that several times through Atlanta and it was a breeze. Atlanta looked like a ghost town on Sunday morning.
Have a good and SAFE trip!
Paul (and Marsha)
We went about 200 miles south of Chicago just to avoid it on our way here to Elkhart. If you do come this way and stop, let us know. Would love to see you guys again before January.
Dress warm…its getting cold up here in the mountains of New York. Only to the high 70’s during the day and into the 50’s at night.
Linda,
You are not old for wanting to avoid Chicago! I grew up driving to and around Chicago, and I’ve hated it ever since (and I used to go 6-8 times/year because I built a satellite office for my company in Evanston.)
The only city worse is Boston. And that’s saying something. Weekend traffic in the afternoons is still pretty thick around Chicagoland. The only time I’ve found it really light is early morning, FYI.
Good luck!