June 30th to July 3rd - to Indiana

June 30^th – Tues

Terri had to get up early to take Tommy somewhere but she was back by the time we got up & going. We had coffee and a muffin with her and then hit the road.

We were heading to a casino in Sulpher OK. An entrance to I35 was closed and I wanted to take other roads anyhow but we ended up with a bit of an unexpected “scenic drive”. We looked for a restaurant at the casino/hotel when we finished playing slots but we found only an upscale restaurant so we stopped at Carl's Jr for a late lunch.

I found an RV park online so we ended up at The Big Red Barn in Carthage MO. It was very nice. The office was closed when we got there so we pulled into a site and set up. I worked around the bike to make dinner and we ate outside with the fireflies and cicadas. We went for a walk and ended up talking to a young man – Lance – who was spending a week there between jobs.

July 1^st – Wed

We went to the office to pay for our site and chatted with Lance and the park owner. We got a propane tank filled there and were once again on the road. We had to stop soon for diesel and McDonalds for breakfast.

I wanted to go by Lake of the Ozarks but it ended up that we could see only part of one lake and it was surrounded by big, fancy condos so we didn't detour to try to check out any more. We stopped at the “World's Largest Gift Store” and then had a late lunch somewhere. We decided to go to the Casino Queen in E. St Louis but didn't want to drive through St. Louis. I had to be creative with the GPS to take a different route and cross the Mississippi River slightly further south. It turned out to take a long time as there was an accident on the freeway and we inched along for several miles.

Once again the office was closed (they close at 4:00) so a security guard had us fill out a form and then we would pay in the morning. He directed us to the side with pull thru sites so we set up and unloaded the bike. We sat outside with a drink and a snack before it started to sprinkle. We covered the bike and took the truck to the casino rather than waiting for a shuttle in the rain. The casino was not nice to us!

July 2^nd – Thurs

Got a fairly early start this morning and headed east again. Nothing exciting until we kept changing our minds as to where we were going and ended up with a zigzag route to Elkhart Indiana. The zigzag route was made worse by some road construction – thank goodness for the GPS.

I found an RV park on the internet (Elkhart Campground) and it is very nice. We had to wait for someone to finish mowing and unlock the office but got checked in OK. Nice big grass sites and away from traffic and noise. I made dinner and we relaxed.

July 3^rd – Fri

We had a nice, quiet, lazy morning and finally took the bike to get some lunch. We made a stop at WalMart for a few things and then came back to do laundry. We sat outside, chatted with neighbors and generally relaxed. We remembered that we needed to get some rain gear so we checked the GPS and headed for Dick's Sporting Goods about 15 miles away. We went a couple of miles and saw a Menards which Terry thought might have rain clothes. Sure enough, they had some very plain, inexpensive stuff that we figured was OK and bought. We really hope that we don't need to use it!!

Back at the RV park, we sat outside to read, play computer games and chat with new neighbors. Terry cooked steaks on the BBQ and we had a nice dinner.

We are going to Al & Linda's in Michigan tomorrow to spend the day & night and then start an 8 day motorcycle trip with them, Ralph & Elsie and Bob & Claudia. I may post an entry tomorrow but then not until we complete our trip as space to pack things on the bike is at a premium and I think I will be quite busy.