Our first full day in Illinois was spent preparing for the annual meeting. We had to make a grocery store run so we stopped and had breakfast at Steak and Shake. Of course we had a milk shake. We are old. We can have milk shakes for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent helping get registration materials ready (Anne), parking RV’s (Max) and meeting with the Executive Committee of the board in preparation for tomorrow’s full board meeting. The rest of the day was spent with greetings and hugs as we became reunited with friends we haven’t seen in a while. Tomorrow will probably be more of the same. We are hoping for cooler temperatures.
First we remember September 11. The tragedy of lost lives. Our country was forever changed that day. Our hearts still hurt for all the families who still grieve for their love ones.
We saw this on a billboard today. And we remembered the heroes and the grief. And Max’s job description changed for the rest of his career.
We overnighted at Winding Rivers and we were ready to get on the road about 9:00. However, that was the exact time that the area went under a severe thunderstorm alert. Lightening started popping all around and the rain poured. There was a flash flood watch issued for the area too. We decided to just hang out in FRED for about 45 minutes until the storm blew over. Then got on I-90 headed toward Crescent City, IL. We drove through some additional rain but it was an uneventful drive. We took a little longer and slower route on I-39 but decided to take that route in order to avoid driving through Chicago. We drove through mile after mile of corn fields and soy bean fields. Thousands of acres of corn and beans.
One of several picturesque barns we saw today
Thousands of acres of soybeans and corn
Illinois has a bunch of these big fans blowing across the highway making it harder to drive.
We arrived at the Iroquois County Fair grounds around 4:15 this afternoon and were met with hugs from the NOMADS already on site. We were parked in site 8 and were set up in short order. Now the work begins. First meeting is scheduled for 3:00 tomorrow afternoon with full board meeting Friday. It will be a busy few days. Thank you God for safe travel.
It began raining about 6pm and rained until after 3am. It rained very hard. Over 1.5 inches. Not a lot of sleep with all the rain. This morning FRED was surrounded with water. Pulling in the electric and grabbing the jack pads required a little tiptoeing around the puddles. We had just a fine mist still coming down by the time we pulled out at 7:00 this morning. It was foggy and misty and then raining about half way back to New Lisbon. Then we stopped at our next rest area to change drivers and it was hot. We started the day with long sleeves and sweat shirts and then we changed to t-shirts. Crazy. We arrived back at Winding Rivers about 4:00 pm and had to immediately clean the windshield and front cap from all the bugs we hit. It rained ½ the trip and there were still more bugs than last Friday.
Foggy Morning Drive
Approaching Lake Superior
She loves driving across bridges
Leaves are really changing now
The church addition when we got back to Winding Rivers
Much to our surprise Christopher was here working on the bathroom addition for the church with a lone volunteer from New Hampshire. It was great to see him again and he invited us out for Taco Tuesday with his wife. It was good to see her again too and the four of us had a really good time this evening. Tonight we are working on a route to annual meeting that avoids Chicago.
It was a cool 45 degrees this morning with a high of 62 today. It was mostly cloudy with a cool breeze as well. We took advantage of the great hiking weather and did a 5 mile hike on the Rainy Lake Recreation Trail. It’s really more of a walk in the woods on a paved trail rather than a hike over rough terrain like yesterday’s hike. It was a beautiful walk through trees with changing leaves. There are lots of great yellow color but the reds are still really spotty. We saw only one other person while we were out walking today. Quiet, peaceful, nature. Really nice. We also visited the visitor’s center again and were again greeted by some really nice rangers. Everyone here has been so nice.
Rainy Lake Visitor Center outside
Rainy Lake Visitor Center inside
Rainy Lake Recreation Trail
Still a few monarch butterflies in the area
We did see some wildlife today
Pretty grove of birch trees beside the trail
Jack-in-the-pulpit berries
Fall colors
Another creative geocache we found beside the trail today
After hiking we headed into International Falls to look around a little and pick up a few groceries. It’s a small town, a little smaller than Oneonta. It reminds us of many of the small towns in northern Canada and Alaska. Quaint little houses with lots of bright beautiful flowers.
According to the sign beside the statue in Smokey Bear Park in International Falls: “The Smokey Bear statue is the largest of its kind in the country. The 26 foot replica of “Smokey,” the national symbol of forest protection, was erected in 1953 as a project of the Koochiching County’s Keep Minnesota Green Committee.”
Then we headed back to FRED to begin packing things away. The rain started about 6:00 tonight and it is predicted that International falls will get over 2.5 inches of rain by Friday. It’s windy and the leaves are falling all around our camp site. We are glad tomorrow, not today, is our day to be moving on down the road, even thought it looks like we will be driving in rain. We have really enjoyed our brief time in this area. The National Park is different from most others we have visited but they are all wonderful in their own way. Voyageurs is one that we would enjoy visiting during each season. Summer for the time on the lake, spring for the beauty of spring. And yes, even winter because it would be nice to visit for just a few days to experience ice fishing, cross country skiing, snow shoeing and definitely to see the gorgeous northern lights. One day.
RVing With a Purpose 