Back to Family....finally!🥰

~Friday, April 2, 2021~

Day 292 (Travel Day)

A brisk night with the low around 27. Luckily with the MacGyvering the heater, we were able to keep the thermostat around 55 during the night…..otherwise the trailer would have gotten down to the upper thirties.

O.k. people…..4 new states for the BOTH of us in a matter of a week. Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. But then again, it does get a little easier to achieve this on the other side of the country with states being a bit smaller. We finally succumbed to the pressure of joining everyone else out here, by buying that big U.S. vinyl sticker map you see on the outside of RV’s that proudly display just where it is, they’ve been. But what constitutes adding one of those stickers...is it a simple drive through, or is there a little more entailed….like at least 1 overnight stay, or maybe a week somewhere? Let us know your thoughts. Tennessee and Missouri were drive-by’s. We spent 3 days in Kentucky and we’ll be in Illinois for 10, so stay tuned to see what made the cut in gracing our new map.

Today’s drive was about 6 hours as we finally will be seeing Hannah, Devin and the grandkids, in their new hometown of Mahomet, Illinois. Devin grew up in Illinois and after ending his stint in the Marines, felt a strong urgency to get back to his roots being closer to family and friends, as well as the appealing, pragmatic side of it as a more affordable alternative. As it is for most young people in California, it is just too darn expensive to get by. Jeff and I are beyond thrilled to finally have a good chunk of time with them and to hug those cute little grandchildren of ours once again. They change oh so fast! And we’ve never met Devin’s family.

We got to Tin Cup Campground at around 5:30 along with 4 other arrivals. Luckily we were at the front of the line. Manager Pat had me hop in her van to show me our options for sites and found the perfect little spot for the next 10 days. Nice to have options. There’s a little bit of highway noise, but it is a bit sheltered from the wind. Luckily there aren’t too many people here, so everyone is pretty spread out. Set up went pretty smooth, until Jeff discovered a problem with connecting our plumbing hoses. Someone had left their coupler in the ground, so Jeff wasn’t sure if he could get it out to put ours in. Thank goodness we have a shovel! O.k. we’re back in business.

Poor Jeff was exhausted since he drove the entire way while I finished our research for our East Coast visit. As it turns out, most of the state parks and RV parks in southern Vermont shut down by mid October. Being that far north in October without full hookups is probably not the best idea. So I was really having a devil of a time trying to find a year round RV park. After my 3 hour search, I finally found one in Dorset. It’s not the ideal spot between everything we want to see, but southern Vermont is not that big, so we’re talking anywhere between 20 minutes to 45 minutes to get to most excursions.

By the time we were done with setting up, we were famished. We called Hannah to see if they wanted to meet us somewhere for dinner and luckily they hadn’t eaten. So our first hugs were in the parking lot at Filippo’s Pizza. So great to see them as it’s been way too long (since October). Unfortunately, the restaurant was only doing takeout and we really wanted to dine in. So plan B…...Monical’s Pizza. While Carson sat in his high chair being entertained by grandpa and grandma, it was nice having a little time to catch up over a delicious dinner, even if the only beer choices were Bud or Bud Light. 😩