Adele, Iowa, Sheffield, Illinois, Nappanee, Indiana

Here we go......we managed to get up a bit early and left Kearney, NE, just after daybreak. It's 291 miles from Kearney to the park we're staying in tonight in the little burg of Adele. This is a KOA that we've used as an overnight stop in the past, and is just 30 miles or so west of Des Moines, Iowa. The sites are spacious, and while the roads and sites are gravel, there isn't much dust. The utilities are fine; we're in site 07, adjacent to a wifi antenna, and the ATT cell signal is 4 bars out of 5. We like it!

Here's an Iowa sky for you!

We're leaving tomorrow because this KOA is filling up with munchkins for the weekend! The pool is more skin than water, the bicycles and dogs are running crazy and the Iowa Hawkeye flags are flying proudly! No, really we need go put another few hundred miles on Nessie2 before she goes into the hospital on Monday.

So now we're in Sheffield, Illinois, about 251 miles east of Adele, Iowa, except that we put 291 miles on the motorhome getting here! You see, the fuel gauge on the motorhome is not quite as accurate as we would like it to be, and we found that after it reaches the half mark the needle drops like a rock! Of course we didn't anticipate this, so we were in a great long empty space between Davenport, Iowa and La Salle, Illinois. We had to do a bit of sideways and backwards driving to find a station that we could fit into. Well, all is well that ends well, and we're settled into Hickory Grove RV Park just a couple of miles north of I 80, and maybe five miles north of the burg of Sheffield.

But first things first: We crossed the Mississippi River as we passed the Quad Cities...Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline in Illinois. We've been hearing about flooding and damage from flooding, but this was the first we have seen.

The river water was literally within inches of the interstate highway. There were houses, ranches, and businesses off to the side of the road that obviously had flood damage. Incredible!

We finally made it to Hickory Grove. This park is owned by a young couple that are working tirelessly to return it to it's glory from years past. We have one of two sites suitable for a larger motorhome, number 3, and it is quite nice. The utilities are fine, and while it's a bit of a struggle navigating through the trees with a car in tow, it is completely do-able. The price is a bit high, but the park is very quiet. We'll like it here!

After threading a couple of tree-type needles to get out of Hickory Grove, we once again jumped on I 80 headed east. Sundays route took us across the south side of Chicago, using the 80/90 Indiana Tollroad. Well, we've been there and done that, so we decided to try a different route by transitioning from I80 to I94 and skirting the east side of Lake Michigan toward Benton Harbor. At exit 40 we turned east on US20, eventually passing to the south of South Bend, and then on to Nappanee, Indiana, where the Newmar factory is located, 2,268 miles from our home in California.

Newmar has built a huge new service facility and started construction on a huge service-supported rv park across the street. Unfortunately, heavy rain this spring has thwarted plans for an early completion of the rv park, so we are in an overflow area. The service facility can accommodate over 50 motorhomes under cover, but parking is only available for a couple of dozen in the factory campground. Oops! Where do we put all these people?

As I write this (9 pm, Sunday) another steady rain storm has moved in, with prospects of rain until tomorrow midday. We will be deep in the "motorhome hospital" mode for the next week or so, so posting may be sporadic until something exciting happens!