May 15, 2013 - Heading North

Monday we left Tahlequah and started north and east. We made it to Mulberry Grove, Illinois, Timber Trails Campground. We arrived around 9. The lady there was kind enough to open up her office and let us register. It was a nice Escapees campground. Tuesday we drove all day and landed at the Mt Gilead State Park in Ohio. It was pretty but didn't have many facilities. We missed having access to water. Then when we tried to set up our fifth wheel trailer, the slide out room wouldn't work. Not a very comfortable night! So, Wednesday we spent...

May 12, 2013 - Mulberry Grove, IL

Lesson 2: No matter how good your GPS is, never trust it 100%. We bought the latest and greatest GPS for motor homes that has nearly all of the campground locations built into it. It's worked like a charm up until today. Today she (it's always a female voice) told us to turn onto a narrow road that dead ended in the woods. We had to unhook the car, and gingerly back up the rig until we could turn it around. A couple of very nice locals helped us out. Then, I lead the way with the car to the campground. It's a nice place for an overnight...

Jul 10, 2012 - Porches to Corvettes

Our route today was again along the National Road. The first stop of the day was in Greenup, IL. Located on the Embarras River, Greenup was named for William Greenup, supervisor of National Road construction in Illinois. Platted in 1834, the town’s lifeline was the National Road which brought settlers and travelers. Abraham Lincoln has a lot of connections with this part of the state. He was the defense attorney for an 1847 manslaughter case that was heard at the Cumberland County court in Greenup. Local legend also claims that Lincoln, his...

Jul 20, 2011 - Mulberry Grove, IL

We're in Mulberry Grove, IL for an overnight stop. Lots of traffic between Kansas City and St. Louis on I-70. There was a rollover accident in St. Louis that took three lanes of traffic down to one so it took a little while to get through but wasn't too bad. We crossed two big rivers today - the Missouri and the Mississippi (see pictures). Don't know how to describe the level of the humidity with the heat. It's like you're in a hot shower when you go outside. Current temp is 99.9.

Jul 9, 2011 - Land of Lightning Bugs and Lincoln

We had a wonderful drive thru the Ozarks and St. Louis to Mulberry Grove, Illinois. We are at the Cedarbrook RV Park just outside Mulberry Grove, Illinois. The park is really nice with lots of shade trees and wonderful park operators. For dinner we ate at the local Maple Street Grill--the service was slow but the food was very good. The town has a population of 700 so we took a short drive around. Most of the homes are well kept and the yards were all mowed. It was a sight to see so many yards so green and smooth--we wondered if the local...

Aug 8, 2010 - Driving Day

We drove all day with fields of corn & soybean on both sides of highway. Stopped for a picnic lunch in a rest area & continued on to Timber Trails Campground in Mulberry Grove. It was a very nice & quiet campground & we had pull thru sites. The temp was 91 & we drove 312 miles.

Oct 9, 2007 - Day 2 - Mulberry Grove, Illinois

Day 2 on the road went pretty well. We were up at 7:15am and on the road by 8am. We drove through the remainder of Ohio and into Indiana. Near Indianapolis I-70 West had some heavy duty construction going on so we took the alternative I-465 South around the city. During our first break after about 2 hours driving we found out we had a GFI breaker problem in the coach. That meant that all the power receptacles were dead. The interior lights, microwave and that sort of stuff worked, but anything you wanted to plug in would not, no matter...

Sep 15, 2007 - Illinois

Today, we loaded up and drove through St. Louis then on into Illinois. We are spending one night at Cedarbrook RV Park as make our way to Indianapolis. This actually turned out to be a much nicer park than we'd expected. While the park doesn't offer any special amenities (pool, great bath house, etc.) it is a well managed, peaceful wooded retreat with a fishing lake. The air was just a little cool so it was great for walking around the park and hanging out around a fire.