ROCKY'S FAMILY, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

25 May, 2004. We took the ferry across from Tennessee to Cave-in-Rock, Illinois and proceeded toward Herrin. We met up with Rocky's cousin, Michelle, her best friend, Lynn (both of who I knew and liked from years past), Lynn's 2 boys and the other 2 people living in their house. We parked the bus in the back just before a severe thunderstorm, complete with hail, dangerously close lightning and very high winds.. Lynn brought us out a pot of coffee at about 6:30 am and we were able to get showers in the house. We then went and visited Rocky's brother, Jody and his wife, Becky. We all stopped at The Polar Whip (it's been there forever) for cheap soy burgers on our way to Rocky's mom's house. She lives on 80 acres with a 10-acre pasture for 4 horses. She showed us her vehicles and we showed her ours. Joe came home and the 6 of us hung out for awhile. Jody and Becky had to go because their kids were getting off school soon and we left a little while after that. We then visited Rocky's dad at the house where Rocky lived as a kid. He offered to buy us dinner but we were still full on burgers. We hung out for awhile and then he gave us some very cool Teamster shirts. We eventually had to head toward Rend Lake before it got dark and also to beat the next round of thunderstorms.