Woodstock, Paw Paw & Port Huron

We have crossed the Mississippi River and are now in Woodstock, Illinois. Not “THE” Woodstock, which is in New York, but Woodstock, IL, the home of the creator of the Dick Tracy comic book character. We are staying on a farm with friends from our second Alaska trip, Bob and LaVerne Foerster. We have a level, secluded concrete parking pad with 50 amp power. That is akin to being in pig heaven for an RVer! We went out for dinner last night at an old mill on a stream where I had roast duck…delicious! Some kids were fishing in the stream and were catching pretty good-sized carp. After dinner, we returned to the farm where Bob broke out the sand-rail go cart. I took it for a spin and was soon rearranging the rocks on their driveway doing slide-turns as I raced around the barns trying to beat their grandkids speed record. I failed to beat their best time (but they are lighter and therefore faster) but did manage to not roll the damn thing which I consider a victory in itself. (I was too fast for a picture!)

We went into town for breakfast the next morning and then did a tour of Woodstock. Cute town! We returned home, got caught up on emails and e-banking, visited a bit and then returned to the rig to fix dinner for our guests. Dinner will be the award-winning Crescent City Skillet recipe I got from a Dutch oven cooking website. (It won First Prize at the 2004 National Cornbread Cook-off) Tomorrow we head for Paw Paw, Michigan and then slide north into Canada for a three-day stay at Niagara Falls.

The drive to Paw Paw took about four hours, most of it through the construction in the windy city (Chicago) area. There were a bunch of torn up Interstates. The problem is that most of the Interstates here are two-lane roads. You lose one lane and you are now down to a one-lane Interstate. (I went to college. That was not difficult to figure out!) We had a lot of roadway where both lanes were under construction and they routed us over to the westbound lanes and we still had only one eastbound lane. It was not a fun drive but we did see some of the sights like the Sears Tower and the Cubs baseball field. We also hit some of the infamous east coast toll roads which cut into our stimulus check refund by about $25. We got to our destination just after three o’clock and were met by Kathy who directed us to their RV parking spot next to their house. They have a spacious home right on Mud Lake where deer, raccoons, ducks and other varmints and critters abound. Really beautiful! We visited for a while and then Don made us his famous fish boil dinner using fresh caught lake trout and salmon. It was fabulous! Dessert was a homemade strawberry pie topped with whipped cream. I’m sure glad we’re still on our diet!

Rolling out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am, we showered and went in for a breakfast casserole, English muffins, orange juice and coffee. Screw the diet! We are on vacation…at least for now. We then waddled out to the car and went into South Haven for a tour of the city and lunch. We started by heading to the waterfront area of the city and walked out the jetty and onto the beach, sticking our toes into Lake Michigan. We also collected beach sand as “treasures” for two granddaughters.

A tour of the city followed. Don and Kathy pointed out lots of landmarks and point s of interest, including several fine examples of the “Michigan state tree”…the orange highway cones that are freely used in profuse abundance all over the state.

The "Michigan State Tree"

We then went to Don and Kathy’s restaurant at a bowling alley and had some absolutely delicious seafood chowder, Caesar salad and a “DuCharme Special” pizza…thin crust with pepperoni, sausage, yellow peppers, green olives, bacon, mushrooms and double cheese on top. We then returned home via a circuitous sightseeing route during which we saw two turkeys, one huge whitetail buck and a woodchuck. The other half of last night’s strawberry pie (a la mode) topped off the night. Tomorrow we go back on our diet and head for Canada and Niagara Falls.

We stopped at the Port Huron KOA to catch up on chores and to split the trip to the falls into two days rather than one long day. We are in a beautiful tree-filled RV park with all the facilities including full-power FREE wi-fi. We will get all our laundry done, the rig cleaned, caught up on emails and blogs and be ready to party at Niagara Falls without feeling guilty. For now, stay safe and you’ll hear from me again after the Niagara stopover.

Port Huron KOA