Monday morning: we left Wisconsin to travel to the Chicago area. And through some Chicago traffic. The roads were much busier, Steve had gotten spoiled with the light traffic in the West.
We got the RV to Camp Bullfrog Lake, which is about ten miles from Rachelle and Steve Lindo’s house. Our site overlooked Bullfrog Lake. And there were bullfrogs there as well as many red winged blackbirds.
The Lindo’s joined us for dinner, including Ursa. Evan and Adrian had hot dogs, the adults had brats and hamburgers. Rachelle brought corn (on the cob) that we grilled. We also hiked around the lake and played at the playground (or ‘the stumps’ since the playground consisted of rocks and logs sticking up in the ground.)
When Steve and Rachelle left, Adrian stayed behind for his first solo “Gram camp”.
“Gram camp” consisted of stories, playing Star Wars Uno, some hikes on the lake, bagels for breakfast, playing on the “natural” playground and a kayak ride in the morning. Adrian had a great time, I think he will be joining us for more “Gram camps” in the future.
Instead of staying two nights at Bullfrog Lake, we took the RV to the Lindo’s house so we could see Evan leave for school on Wednesday morning. Adrian rode in the RV, buckled into the couch with Lexie next to him.
Staying with the Lindo’s had its adventures. Lexie got loose, and we chased her to a neighbor’s garage. Ursa crossed the invisible fence, and then did not want to cross the fence again even with the collar off!
Adrian played Steve’s trumpet (the second time this trip that the trumpet was played.) The adult Lindo’s went out to eat (date night) while the grandparents had Beggar’s stuffed pizza with the boys. (note: Beggar’s stuffed pizza does not compare well with the stuffed pizza from Chicago proper.)
The RV took off Wednesday morning (after a trip to Gorka’s deli for pickle soup and kishka), crossing Chicago traffic and Indiana.
We stopped for the night at Harrison Lake State Park, 25 miles into Ohio. The campsite was large, but there weren’t enough trees to provide proper shade. We had a final cookout for the trip and finished the evening with Klondike bars. V: We started our post trip cleaning while we had full hook-ups and took some time to chill before heading home to the post trip work of unpacking a fully loaded RV that held 3 seasons worth of gear, food, clothes, etc.
Thursday morning, before leaving, Steve took a three mile hike around the lake. This gave Vicki time to finish her book.
What an amazing trip! We are really enjoying reliving the memories with this blogspot. We could never capture everything we did, felt, experienced but this is a great memory prompter and we hope you are enjoying our trek across the U.S. as well.