GIANT CITY STATE PARK CAMPGROUND, NEAR CARBONDALE, IL

29 June, 2004. There are very nice showers here- you can actually adjust the temperature! Cold showers haven't been the problem, scalding hot showers that can't be adjusted have become the problem (mostly at Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds). We also have internet access here. Very few people camping. We got a $5 / night rate for having an Illinois address and Disabled Veteran card. The ranger was very cool and admitted that the Veteran / Illinois Resident discount is very vague so he gave us the discount. We also had an old friend visit and had a great time. Internet access was shaky, but we were able to get some work done.

PINE HILLS CAMPGROUND, WOLF CREEK, IL

28 June, 2004. This place has no water or electricity. Only outhouses here. No internet access. It cost $5.00 to camp here and $2.50 with the Golden Age or Access Pass. I built a fire, of course. We heard several loud explosions in the area. There are lots and lots of bullets and hand-grenades being produced down here but it is not widely known. During WWII, this area was one of the main production centers of both chemical and conventional weapons. A rogue butterfly put on quite a display for us- circling our heads and the bus for several minutes. We didn't do much here except sweat and add another showerless day. We were also running out of power from our extra marine battery. From here, we're going to Giant City State Park campground. There will be showers and electricity there- maybe even internet access.

GRAPEVINE TRAIL CAMP AND PICNIC GROUNDS, SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST, Mc CLURE, IL

27 June, 2004. We started the day by visiting our good friend, Robbie Sanders in Cape Girardeau, MO. Robbie was one of my best frinds while I was in college at SIU (Carbondale, IL) from 1991 to 1995. Robbie is in a wheelchair and is one of the most capable people I know. He's an international tennis champion as well as great basketball player. He just graduated from college in Missouri and is moving to Texas next month. We watched "Underworld" on DVD while we were at his apartment. It was great to see him. Grapevine Trail was only a few miles from his place and it was free so we camped there for the night. No water or electricity but the price was right. And we were the only ones there. There were huge logs waiting for me at the tiny campround so I burned several of them and was even able to leave 4 logs for the next person.

LITTLE GRASSY LAKE CAMPGROUND AND MARINA, CARBONDALE, IL

26 June, 2004. This is a private campground on Federal Land. Hmmm. $15 / night. We started off in Crab Orchard Lake Campground and Marina in Carterville, IL. There was only one electric site left so we registered for it. When we got to the site, there was a camper parked on it with noone around. Then the campground owner found out that the previous campers were in St. Louis. They own this campground too so they called here and faxed over our registration. We had to buy a 30 amp adapter so our 110 cord would plug into the electric post. People are packed in here pretty tight. "This aint no federal run facility." We just listened to a domestic screaming match right across the street. Our water spigot is pretty pathetic. Our van is getting much attention here. Aside from the screamers, the people here are really nice. This is our first private campground (second, if you include Crab Orchard Lake, which sent us here) and we won't make this mistake again. We bought Wal-Mart's new $20 digital camera but we haven't uploaded any pictures yet. We've only been here for a few hours so I may add more later.

SOUTH SANDUSKY, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON REND LAKE, REND CITY, IL

24 to 25 June, 2004. This place is loaded with wood and I sure burned some. It's also loaded with daddy long legs spiders. A racoon almost jumped into the bus again. The first night, we ran the air conditioner. Very on-off internet connection. The second night was our first test of our new Verizon 555 wireless internet card. We had it Fed-Exed to Rocky's brother, Jody. The connection held while we drove about 15 miles vack to the campground. We're very happy with the result. Once we get the adapter for our Wilson trucker antenna, we should be able to hold a great connection in places we couldn't even connect at before. Joe, Roman, Sammy, Jessie and Megan showed up in the site next to us. I brought over the rest of my wood. We partied til late. Joe is going into the Army on August 18 as an Airborne Ranger. He's ready to go to Iraq. Their site was already reserved by someone else so in the morning, the Ranger told them they had to leave the site. We just dragged everything over to our site. Rocky and I duplicated some CD's for them (Metallica, Metal Church, Pink Floyd and a combo CD I made in 2001). They were a lot of fun.

SOUTH MARCUM, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON REND LAKE, BENTON, IL

22 to 23 June, 2004. We like to call this place South Marklar. Rocky's cousin, Michelle, visited us at the site. The next day, Rocky's brother, Jody, his wife, Becky and their 2 daughters got a nearby site with their boat. They went jugging with some luck. Rocky's mom and Joe also came up for an hour or two. We had a lot of fun here. Rocky mounted the samll speakers that have been sitting loose (hooked up) in the dashboard to the rear ceiling. He then installed two new speakers in the doors where there have been open holes since day 1. We also picked up some walkie talkies with a 2 mile range.

GUN CREEK, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON REND LAKE, WHITTINGTON, IL

20 to 21 June, 2004. We found a site near the end of a road that looped into a small circle on the water's edge. We were pretty close to the water here and saw lots of boats driving by. This place was pretty quiet and peaceful. We did get a kick out of the poor weiner dog that struggled to throw its little body forward with such tiny little legs in order to keep up with the various family members who walked it. This was relax time so we did very little here that is noteworthy.

COLES CREEIK, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, CARLYLE, IL

18 to 19 June, 2004. . We found the showers and chose site 64 right next to them. We arrived here just as a potent thunderstorm rolled in. The hardest rainfall ocurred as I was standing outside the Entrance Station to pay (after choosing our site). I got completely soaked. It's a real drag having soaking wet shoes. This place is very active. There is a wide variety of motorhomes, 5th wheels, campers, pop-ups, trailers and tents here. Lots of kids, bicycles, scooters and roller blades. Two guys were riding around on minibikes with Harley Davidson gas tanks and cut-off Harley handlebars. Sailboats, pontoon boats and jet skis. There's a beach on the other end of the campground, playground equipment, even a small basketball court. It was interesting to watch the 16 year old kid across from us arrive at his family's trailer with a severe limp and then walk away with no limp at all. It's funny to observe how people try to illicit pity in others. Many owls can be hard here at night. Internet access is extremely bad hee, although we were able to get a poor signal at least some of the time. Our Verizon flip-phone works here for the first time in several weeks. Rocky painted (white) the propane tank and the guard beneath the valves. It looks a hundred times better. The main bathroom has push-button sinks, same as the place before. They are not very user-friendly.

FORREST W. BO WOOD, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON SHELBYVILLE LAKE, SHELBYVILLE, IL

17 June, 2004. The campsites are really packed together here. There were decent showers but the bathroom next to our site had no mirror and the sink was a push-button that you had to hold in to keep the water flowing. It was very poorly designed, considering it had actual plumbing in it. I spent most of the night with Jeremy and Katie. Katie drank several bottles of wine. Jeremy and I put away quite a few beers. I think we all drank more than we should have but we had a great time. Our internet access was on and off but we managed to get orders processed and packaged. The campground is right on the lake with boat access. We didn't spend much time here but we enjoyed it.

STARVED ROCK STATE PARK, UTICA, IL

16 June, 2004. Our site was littered with cut firewood, which I burned along with most of the wood from my parent's house. I ended up leaving a few large pieces for the nighboring family. We met Doug, a Canadian.who was running a Macintosh operating system on his 10 year old Newton hand-held computer. Very nice guy. He was camping with his family in a limited edition, pop-up, stretch campmobile (not Volkswagon). He said they got 30 miles to the gallon but we listened when he started it up and drove away and we have our dobts about its gas mileage. It may have gotten 30 miles to the gallon when it was new, 30 years ago. Our bus needs some work so we're limping our way back down to Southern Illinois. It seems to be a compression problem or something like that. Rocky replaced the spark plugs but we had to return the spark plug wires because they weren't long enough. The NAPA Supercomputer had made a mistake.

JOHNNY B'S PARENTS' HOUSE, MT. PROSPECT, IL

11 to 15 June, 2004. We simply couldn't handle the bugs along the Mississippi so we decided to head to my paren't house even though all of our supplies hadn't arrived yet. Mt dad grilled the most awesome steaks I've had ina long time. Then he made some of the best Jumbo Tempura Shrimp that I've ever had. My mom made her famous dumplings with chicken gravy to go along with the homemade chickem pot pies that Rocky made the night before. I defrosted the garage freezer and super-cleaned the refrigerator. Rocky cut a high, dead branch off the backyard tree. I took some of the larger wood for my next campfire. My brother, Matt came by for a visit with his new wife, Mary. Everyone likes Mary. Rocky took my mom to the flower shop in the bus. She loved it and was giving peace signs out the window. Rocky and I then visited my grandma just a few miles away. I'm glad we got a chance to show her the bus. I was also able to visit the Martin family, who I've been friends with since high school. The neighborhood looks great and everyone is fixing up the houses there. it was nice to spend some time there. We had a great visit and a great time.

ANDALUSIA SLOUGH, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, ANDALUSIA, IL

10 June, 2004. Total white trash here. This place is 16 campsites just off the main road. There is no electricity and one outhouse. At half price, the cost was $2. A few of the sites were totally flooded. We bought a 20 lb. bag of ice and turned on the swamp cooler. That lasted about an hour. We were so hot and miserable and getting eaten alive by mosquitos that we left after two hours. We went back into Moline and bought an air conditioner at Wal-Mart, along with a button kit so we could attach a piece of tarp to direct the cold air into the bus.

LOUD TUNDER FOREST PRESERVE CAMPGROUND, NEAR ANDALUSIA, IL

10 June, 2004. This place is just down the road from Andalusia Slough. We heard about it from a bartender in Rock Island (near Moline). It is a County Campground and they accepted The Golden Access Pass. I don't remember what it cost. We got an electric site and hooked up the air conditioner in the luggage rack. Worth every penny! We now carry around the air conditioner in the luggage rack, wrapped in the tarp that directs the air into the bus, and secured by bungee cords. This place was fun.

FISHERMAN'S CORNER, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, HAMPTON, IL

9 June, 2004. Immediately after we arrived, Rocky cut holes in the top of the our cooler, screwed in a computer fan that we bought at Radio Shack and a small vent and we had a swamp cooler 20 minutes later. It worked pretty good. We arrived here just before a huge storm came in. There was even a Tornado Warning at the campground and the Ranger advised everyone to seek shelter in the main brick bathroom. The tornado never came but it rained quite a bit. One of the neighbors left and gave me his firewood, which we burned, along with the 6 pieces of wood that I bought for $2. We watched some of the tug boats carry barges to Lock and Dam #14. There is also a neat little amphitheater here.

THOMPSON CAUSWAY, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, THOMPSON, IL

June 6 to 8, 2004. It was a nice drive south along Hwy 84. We saw the little town of Hanover and got some groceries. We passed the Mississippi Palisades SP near Savanna, IL. Thomson Causeway is on Spring Lake just north of Lock and Dam #13. Some of the campsites are on the island and some are on the edge of the river. We stayed in the Riverbirch loop, on the edge of the Mississippi. Our Verizon internet access is shakey to say the least. It seems we are connecting to a US Cellular tower sometimes, to Verizon's tower other times. The loop we are in only have vault toilets, but off on the island are showers and flush toilets. The showers are pushbutton and very hot. One of the nighbors left and gave me about 150-200 lbs. of some great firewood. Some of the pieces were huge, un-split logs. I spent a whole day burning it all away. It was about 92 degrees that day. We met Craig and Susan who had 2 dachsunds named Rocky and Nicky, that loved their Radio Flyer Wagon, sheltered by 2 watermelon-pattern umbrellas. Craig was embarrassed to pull them around. It was pretty funny. They had just bought a collapsible boat (collapses into 4 inches wide, full boat length) that was designed to handle a 3 to 4 HP engine. Thjey had a 5 HP engine and it worked fine on their maiden voyage.

BLANDING LANDING, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BLANDING, IL

3 to 5 June, 2004. We took Highway 11 across Wisconsin and then dipped back into Illinois near the Mississippi River. It was a very nice drive. We had no problem getting an electric site here because, apparently, none ever comes here. Our site overlooks the Mississippi River, across a well manicured field of freshly cut grass. We saw a wild turkey, deer, an injured turtle and a cool frog in the area. Long, speeding freight trains constantly barrel past the campground- some of the sites are right next to the tracks. We're about 100 yards away. The birds have been very aggressive in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, nearly attacking us on several occasions. Also, the bees and wasps are still attracted the our bright orange home on wheels. The showers are pretty good here but no internet access. The campground host was planting flowers when we arrived and then we met Moon, the maintenance man, who also wants to travel the country.

Rocky painted the bumpers and is currently fixing the wheel well with fiberglass bondo. We may end up trading the bus for a boat. We went into Dubuque, Iowa to answer email and get laundry done. We also bought a new $20 Vivitar digital camera to add to the old $20 digital camera that was half the resolution. We lost many pictures on the other camera- it would reset itself before we had a chance to upload the pictures. Just crossing over the river renewed my desire to get a boat. We could literally float all the way down to New Orleans with little or no power. We ordered more CD mailers, CD sleeves, cigarettes (link at bottom of page for cheap cigarettes) and a external hard drive adapter which is all being sent to my parent's house in Mt. Prospect. With the adapter, we can hook up a 40 GB hard drive that we've been carrying around for the past three months. We're planning on staying at a campground in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where my grandmother and dad grew up. We'll probably head east once we re-supply, perhaps taking the ferry across Lake Michigan and then heading to Maine. We'll see.

RL. So I called AT&T because they messaged me that my account was low, after only using the phone for about 25 min., total. I spoke on a payphone here at the campground to at least three different customer service persons. Since I could not understand any of their middle eastern accents, and their refusal to let me speak to someone in the US, I will take my losses and move on to another company.

AT&T Prepaid Cellular
BAD

I do like the whole prepaid services the cellular telephone companies have been coming out with. We still have our Verizon Prepaid, but it only works in non pcs areas.

June 6, 2004, RL 7:30am, Woke up, made some coffee, I think I will wait untill the sun is completely up before I remove the tarp (Living Room). Its a pretty day. We will be heading to Thomson Causeway today........

PATTY' B'S GRADUATION PARTY, PEWAUKEE, WI and RICHARD BONG RECREATION AREA, SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN

29 May to 2 June, 2004. We drove from Johnny B's parent's house to Richard Bong Recreation Area. Got a primitive site for the night (all the electric sites were reserved), and then drove to Johnny B's sister, Patty's house. Patty, and her husband, Dave, have three great kids. Dave's sister, Nancy, was also there who Johnny B knew from his Air Force days. Nancy was also in the Air Force. Everyone, save a couple, loved the bus! Johnny B's goal, to show the family the bus, had been met! There was tons of beer and great food, especially the bratwurst. We ended up taking a few brats back to the campground with some other goodies. I met Ron and his wife Jan, both who had been neighbors of Johnny B's family growing up. Ron owns a 36' powerboat, and since we are looking to get a boat, we had lots of quesitons. Ron also guilt tripped me into waxing the van, which I did the next day. It looks a hundred times better now. They also own a very cool van which we sat around in and had a great conversation. The whole thing was very surreal, suburbia at its climax. Chuck and Matt showed up, Mary Jane stayed home a little ill. Patty, Dave and the kids moved back to Georgia a couple of days after the party.

We finally left about 10:30 and went back to Bong. As we pulled up to our site, we were pleasantly surprised at our new neighbors. There were three guys and a girl who were out camping for the weekend. PARTIERS! Johnny B stayed up and drank with them as they piled wood on the fire. We did some bartering and even had a little fun. After two nights, we got an electric site for the next three nights. We had some more fun with a local there. Lots of playful chipmunks here and apparently, no dangerous animals at all (although there are poisonous snakes evrywhere). The campground is very nice, with extrememly hot showers (the push-button type) and lots of water surrounding the area. We also got internet access there. The prinitive site cost $10 / night, the electric site was $15 / night- a little pricey compared to what we're used to. Also, we had to buy a sticker for $20 and attach it to the windshield to camp in any Wisconsin State Park. Bong cost us $85 for five nights but it was lots of fun.

Both of our cell phones are now roaming! Whats the deal? We are supposed to have service with both AT&T and Verizon.