I&M Canal and Lincoln/Douglas Debate

Location: Starved Rock State Park Campground; Utica, Illinois

I'm in sort of internet la-la land. My connection comes and goes like waves approaching the beach. Since this campground is about half way between Chicago and St. Louis, I figure Verizon hasn't put a tower in the middle. So, my internet comes from the east then the west, then repeats. It's frustrating, but it's OK. I started this post yesterday but gave up do to the internet problem. This morning, the internet seems more stable. I wonder if the severe thunderstorms blowing through the area has anything to do with it? There will be a lot of pictures with this post so the captions will say what the post doesn't.

My campsite at Starved Rock State Park. The name of the park comes from a legend that says Pontiac, war-chief of the Ottawa Indians was killed by a brave from the Illinois Indians. In revenge, the Ottawas and their allies, trapped a lot of Illinois Indians on an outcropping overlooking the Illinois River. The Ottawas laid siege and starved the trapped indians, thus the name Starved Rock. This is legend of course. One part of the legend is known to be false. Although Pontiac was indeed killed by an Illinois Indian, the location was not here but in Cahokia. One of life's little circles since I was as Cahokia a few days ago. The campground is electric only and is in need of more lawn mowers. I've been told, they have the mowers, but like so many other places, they are having problems hiring people to do the mowing. The Illinois governor has not eliminated the extra unemployment provided by the federal government so employees are staying home and drawing unemployment.  

 

The reason I came here was to see what is left of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. The construction of this canal changed a large part of our country in the late 1800's. It's not as famous as the Erie Canal back east, but still very important. Before the canal, the main shipping/transportation routes in the country were the Great Lakes which flowed east, the Mississippi River which went north/south and the Ohio River which went from the Mississippi River to the northeast but ended in the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. None of these systems connected with each other except the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A farmer in the mid-west wanting to ship his corn to market, had very few choices back in the mid-1800's before the railroad came along. He could ship his crop by wagon to the nearest river, and if navigable, may connect to the Mississippi River which could take it to New Orleans where it could be put on an ocean freighter up the east coast to the large population centers around New York City. This network worked in reverse for the things manufactured in the northeast part of the country to be shipped out west. Something needed to be done.

A 96 mile long canal changed all of that and helped create our third most populated city. The canal was the Illinois & Michigan Canal (I&M Canal). It began in Chicago and went west to LaSalle, Illinois. It connected Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes to the Illinois River which drained into the Mississippi River. It was dug my hand and needed 17 locks to lift/lower the barges on the canal. Work began in 1836 and traffic was opened on the canal by 1848. Everything on this new transportation network went through the small town of Chicago which grew and grew until it was the largest and most important inland port in the country. Today it is number 3 in terms of population. Once the canal was completed, a person could board a boat in New York Harbor and by way of the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, the I&M Canal, the Illinois River, the Mississippi River get to New Orleans. A complete water route. Besides passengers, barges carried freight in both direction. The canal did its job well for 50 years until it was replaced by the railroads and highways. It was virtually abandoned in 1900 and officially closed in 1933. This 96 mile canal did so much for the expansion of this country and you can still see parts of it today. 

There is a passenger canal boat that takes tours of a one mile stretch of the old canal, but not on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Of course those are the days I'm here. I'm not sure if I would have taken the tour or not. I did take a ride on the Erie Canal several years ago which was great. You can read about it here >>> I'll post the link in an edit once I get to a better internet connection. One other feature I really wanted to see was the Fox River Aqueduct. What happens when a canal intersects with a river? You have to build an aqueduct so the canal can to span the river. One of those is still around too. 

This is the last hand-operated lock in the system and is looking upstream. The remnants of the old canal is on the left and the tourist boat is on the right. 

This is looking into the lock. Notice the width. The width of all boats that traveled on the canal were controlled by this width. In the background is the "waiting basin" of the Illinois River. Steamboats would wait there to transfer goods and passengers to and from canal boats. 

The perspective of this picture is standing under the modern bridge you can see in the first picture. The canal is on the left and the trail on the right is for the mules to walk. All canal boats were powered by mules.

This where the mules hang out on their days off. There are suppose to be two so I guess one is in the barn. They earn their keep by pulling the tourist boat a mile upstream and back.

That is the Fox River Aqueduct on the left. I'm standing on the part where the mules walked. (no jokes about that). It doesn't take much imagination to see the aqueduct full of water and boats floating on it. 

To help with the imagination, there is an old picture of the aqueduct on an informational panel near the site. 

This is from down below looking up at the aqueduct. The massive piers were made from limestone blocks. Remember, with an aqueduct, you just have to design the structure to handle the bridge itself and the water. It doesn't matter if the boat is carrying one pound or a million pounds, it's all the same. 

This nice thinking bench with plenty of shade is located near the aqueduct. It is looking out on the Fox River. 

A couple of nice houses with a view. To my back is the Illinois River and I'm standing in nice city park.

A modern lock and dam with hydro-electric powerhouse on the Illinois River. The lock is in the foreground with the dam in the back. The square building along the dam is the powerhouse where the electricity is made. I didn't recognize it at first since there were the usual high number of electrical transmission lines. But one of the information panels pointed it out to me. I'm standing in an observational area where the public can watch river traffic pass through the locks. It reminded me of the Soo Locks in upper Michigan that passes traffic between Lakes Superior and Huron.

Dang, another thinking bench to try out. How can a man finish his exploring with so many benches. Hmmmm.

When I was in Ottawa exploring the old aqueduct, I noticed a really nice park in the middle of town. Two statues were in the center. Of course I had to stop and see since it was a really nice looking park. Wow, to my surprise it was statues of Abraham Lincoln and Stephan A. Douglas. Surprise, surprise. Ottawa was the location of the first of seven debates between the two men back in 1858 when Lincoln was running for the U.S. Senate. Douglas was the Democrat incumbent and Lincoln was the upstart from the newly created Republican party. They agreed to debate each other across the state of Illinois. The debates were 3 hours long and in Ottawa, it attracted over 14,000 people. Of course, Lincoln lost that Senatorial election but ended up winning the Presidency two years later in 1860. Extra points if you know who Lincoln ran against for President in 1860. Yep, Stephen A. Douglas. And you can bet those debate from the Senate race were published throughout the country. Those debate highlighted the split in the country over slavery. A quick summary would be Douglas was for States Rights so the new states to the union could decide for themselves as to slavery or not in their state. There was a poison pill to this which was if a state chose slavery and a slave escaped from that state, there would be no law to help capture that slave and bring him back. Lincoln on the other hand, was more inclined to having a large federal government that would dictate to the states about slavery or not. Although both men knew slavery was going to end on its own eventually, neither man wanted to outlaw it and free the existing slaves. These debates, while essentially for only a Senate seat, had nationally implications for decades afterwards. That is why we were taught about them in High School history class. I wonder if they are still taught today? And here I was, stumbling across the location while just wandering around. 

Very nice city park. The statues are of Lincoln and Douglas. It is hard to imagine the two men debating for 3 hours. Asking each other questions and having to speak loud enough for 14,000 people to hear the questions and answers. The press had to quickly write down what was said so they could publish it since there weren't any recording devices. By the way, the older couple in the background on the bench had stopped for a rest. I talked with them for a little while. It seems they walk just about every day and this is one of their rest stops. Yep, that is a walker he has next to him. Nice couple. 

Irony of ironies. That is a Civil War memorial in the background. In the same location that as Lincoln-Douglas. When it was constructed, people understood about statues and memorials, unlike some of the knuckleheads today.

 Today is moving day but I won't be pulling out until around noon because I only have a 90 mile tow to the next campground. The check-in time there is 4:00. I don't remember campgrounds having such late check-in times from my previous travels. Maybe I just didn't pay attention. I'll probably call the campground before leaving to see if I can check-in early. If they are nice camp hosts and the campsite is empty I hope to get set up by 2:00 or so. Bad storms are passing just to the north of me. I'm getting some rain and can hear the thunder. It should pass through by 9:00 so I can empty my tanks on the way out of this campground. About half of the campers here are in tents, so I hope the storm passes without doing any damage. Of course, that goes for Liberty too since she's parked under some trees. Oh well, we will see. 

Another one of those things I stumbled across while exploring the city of Ottawa. Some artist great talent to create this illusion on a brick wall.

Very cool uh?

For those who were worried. 
Liberty's right tail light/blinker is now working.
It was just a burned out bulb.

I'm going to quickly post this before my internet goes down again. My next stop will be a Corps of Engineers campground on the Mississippi River near Davenport, Iowa.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

  

Valve Stems and Cahokia

Location: Dam West Campground (Corps of Engineers); Carlyle, Illinois

 As I mentioned in the last post, this campground has a late check-in time of 5:00 pm. I had time to kill, so after hitching up, I went to the local truck tire shop to see about getting a new valve stem on one of Liberty's tires. As I pulled into their almost empty parking lot, it struck me up side the head, "why in the heck are you only replacing one valve stem?" That was one of those "duh" moments. So I told them I needed four new valve stems. Now it gets a little complicated. When I got the existing tires that are on Liberty, the Goodyear dealer said metal valve stems weren't necessary so I stayed with the rubber stems. After doing a little online research and talking to these tire specialists, we all decided to go with metal stems. To do so, they needed to remove each tire, break the seal, remove the old stem, install the new one and air it back up to 70 psi. They started work at 9:00 and were finished at 10:30. I watched every move they made, primarily to make sure they didn't place the jack on Liberty's axles. She has torsion axles which means no springs or shocks. It also means no jacking on the axle. They went out of their way to find a convenient place to jack on the frame. It all went better than expected. It was good that we replaced all of the stems. While removing them two had cracks and were in danger of failing dramatically. It wouldn't have been a pretty thing had they have cracked while going down the road. The cracks were mainly caused by the TPMS sensor on the valve stems. When going down the road, the weight of the sensor will bend the stem, thereby prematurely wearing it out. Hopefully, the metal stems will help eliminate or reduce this threat. So, after 1 1/2 hours of work and $80.00 (includes a $20.00 tip), we were back in business. But it was still too early to head to this 5:00 pm check-in. To kill more time, plan B was to do laundry at the local laundromat that had a vacant lot to park Freedom and Liberty. That killed another 1 1/2 hours, so we left Charleston with new valve stems and clean clothes around noon. Driving slow, we got here at about 3:00. Lucky us, the campsite was empty so we were able to check in and set up early. As I started backing into the site, I heard, "You're clear on this side,,,,, turn this way,,,, looking good,,,,, now straight back,,,etc". It was a friendly guy from across the street helping me back into my site. I was nice and let him direct me, but several times I "accidently" turned the opposite way he said,,,,, but by golly that accident worked out. In the nearly 300+ campgrounds I've stayed in, there have only been 3 "helpers", which is pretty good.

This is my campsite. It has pretty good evening shade with the lake in the background. It's a nice one.

This is the typical countryside. I figure this will be the landscape for the next couple of week through Illinois and Iowa. It reminds me of the Travis Tritt song,,, "Where Corn Don't Grow".

Two of the four new "metal" valve stems on Liberty. Yeah, I know, there are bolted on metal ones too, but that would have been going too far.

That's the guys crawling under Liberty to make sure the jack wasn't on her axels. They did fast and good work. 

I've been to this campground a few years ago. A storm hit when I was camped here before and that prevented me from exploring. So, I came back to complete that previously planned exploration. This campground is a great Corps of Engineers campground and every site is occupied this weekend. I guess I was lucky I reserved a site when I did. Just about every camper here, except me, are families that are camping for the weekend. The reason I can tell they are families is because they will place rugs by their RV's with a dozen chairs and tables. They will all have a BBQ pit going with children running everywhere or riding their bikes. I think it is great. These people are lucky to have a place like this to escape on weekends. As long as I plan far enough in the future, it doesn't really affect me getting a campsite, although usually, the good sites are reserved long into the future. 

Now, the exploration I came back for was to check out Cahokia. I had heard about this place for years before I started traveling and had it on my list of place to see. Cahokia is an old Indian community. In fact, it is the largest prehistoric Indian community in America that is north of Mexico. During its heyday, it was larger and had more people than London did at the same time. Around 700 AD, groups of Indians in this area came together and formed what became Cahokia. It was a great area to grow corn, which they did. They grew so much of it, they were able to trade it with other Indian groups as far away as the Gulf Coast area, Great Lakes area and Atlantic Coast area. This abundance of corn meant hunger was a thing of the past for these people. It also meant they had a lot of time on their hands since they were not having to work so hard for food. Someone came up with the bright idea of building mounds, so the people built over 170 of them just in this area. This mound building idea was not confined just to these people. Mounds were being built up and down the Mississippi River. That is one of the reasons these people were called the Mississippian Indians. The population continued to grow as more and more people moved to this community. The population topped out between 10,000 and 20,000 people around 1100 AD. By the late 1300's, the area had been abandoned. Many of these mounds, including the big one, are still around. You can visit them as well as the very nice museum built to explain it all to visitors. That is what my exploration was today and it was good. It was about a hundred mile round trip, but well worth it. 

A picture of a drawing on the wall of the museum. Notice the size of the wooden palisade. They also found evidence of structures like watchtowers along the wall. This picture also shows the "wooden hinge" on the left. It is like stone hinge excpect out of wood. It was used like a calendar and astronomic recordings. 

This another layout of the community. They found evidence of the houses and palisade. The big mound in the background is still here. 

They have this village inside the museum. A lot of work went into making it. Not as much as hand-building the mounds, but still a lot.

This is the front view of what is left of the large mound. You can walk to it and climb a bunch of steps if you want. I judged the distance, number of steps, low 90 degree temperatures, 80 something percent humidity and decide to pass of that exploration. 

I instead found a nice bench to sit on and look at the big mound while thinking about what they said happened and some of the questions left unanswered. 

This is the side view of the big mound so you can get a true appreciation of the amount of work that went into building it. It was built by hand with dirt hauled in baskets. This is the big mounds, but there were over 170 other mounds just in this area.

 This modern contraption was located in the the museum parking log. Bird houses make to look like gourds. Each one had a number on it,,,,like an address??

I asked a few questions at the museum and wasn't completely satisfied with their answers. 

Why did they abandon Cahokia? Their answer was either depleted resources or internal unrest or warfare with neighboring tribes or soil exhaustion from not rotating crops and the catch all now a days, climate change. I can believe most of them. The warfare reason would explain the large wooden palisade around the main city. It resembed the typical western fort for the 1800's except it was much, much larger. It had been rebuilt many times over the city's existence. It was large and took a lot of work to build. It must have kept something out.

Why did they spend so much time and effort building mounds? Remember they didn't have horses or mules during that time. They didn't show up in the America's until the Spanish brought them over later on. The dirt used to make the mounds were carried in baskets by hand. I could only think of two reason for people to do that,,,,, either Love or Fear. The museum people leaned more towards love of the chief, etc. I'm not sure I buy that 100%. 

Did they find a lot of skeletons during excavation? I ran a few numbers in my head before asking them this question. I figured with a population of 10,000 people and a life expectancy of 50 years (probably high) there should have been 20,000 dead bodies every 100 years. Since Cahokia existed, at the high population, for a couple hundred years, there should have been 40,000 to 50,000 remains, somewhere. When I asked, they said they had found about 300. The numbers didn't add up and I didn't push the question. 

Oh well, there are always questions. Someday, we will know all the answers, but not today.

Went I got back to the town where the campground is located, I found an old meat market. They sell products from the local farmers. It was a nice place. I picked up a freshly cut steak and some breakfast sausage they called loose sausage. The woman working behind the counter had just made the sausage that morning. Nice place but they sure are getting harder to find. Over my travels, I've only found a few of them.

Old style meat market. I sure hope it stays in business and more make a come back around the country.

Moving day is Monday and I'll being headed almost due north for about 200 miles. I may do another post tomorrow with pictures from around the campground and lake, but no promises.

I'm too tired to proof read this post, so I'm just going to publish it as is. Maybe I'll proof it in the future.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

   

Thebes and Cape Girardeau

Location: Boomland RV Park; Charleston, Missouri

It was another long haul of about 270 miles. The trip was a little adventurous too. During my walk-around before pulling out of the campground, I noticed Liberty's right rear turn signal light wasn't working. It wasn't super critical so I waited until I got to the current campground to take a look at it. Freedom has two places to plug a trailer into. That helps a lot because the turn signal didn't work in either plug-in location so that probably indicates the problem is with Liberty. I tightened up some of the connections in Liberty's plug but that didn't solve the problem. I'll kick this problem down the road again for the next campground. Also, Liberty has a slow leak in one of her tires around the valve stem. I isolated it with some soapy water. To add even more stress, the Temperature/Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) attachment vibrated itself loose. I passed over some of the worst road so that may have caused it. This has happened before. It will set off a low pressure warning once the tire reaches 50 psi. I was lucky to be within a mile of an exit to a location with a wide open parking lot. I was able to air the tire back up, tighten the TPMS and continue on. Oh, I guess in case someone saw where I aired up the tire, I should mention it was an Adult Store parking lot. I was surprised at the size of the parking lot but it worked out good for me to air up the tire.

It's a plainer campsite compared to the last one.

This is parking lot I used to air up Liberty's tire. I took the picture, with the air compressor in the picture to prove what I was doing there. I didn't even notice the name of the place until I was almost finished airing up the tire. The one car in the picture is the only one there.

 This campground is a no-frill one with full-hookups. I'll be able to empty all of my tanks and give them a good flushing. The 500 miles of sloshing around with the cheap fabric softener should help a lot. Again, something only an RV'er can appreciate. I've stayed here before because it is conveniently located along a couple north-south interstates with easy access. I'll only be here two days which gave me today to do some exploring. 

First up on the exploration list was a small town in Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi River. The name is Thebes. There isn't much in Thebes now a days but at one time it was famous. The thing that made it famous was a man name Dred Scot who spent a few nights in the dungeon of the Thebes Courthouse while he was fighting for his freedom. Anyone my age should have been taught about the Dred Scot decision during our school years. He was a slave who filed a lawsuit asking for his freedom. That suit made it all the way to the Supreme Court where the court ruled against Mr. Scot. The court issued a very long ruling with each Justice having his say for and against the case. The summary was that blacks, free or slave, were not citizens and therefore could not file lawsuits. They also issued a secondary ruling that stated the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional which helped start the Civil War a few years later. The story ends on a good note, although bittersweet. Dred, his wife and children were granted their freedom by their owner years later. However, Dred passed away shortly after getting the freedom he fought so hard to get. Over his lifetime, he and his family had many opportunities to escape to the north and get their freedom in a Free State but did not do so. Dred wanted to do it the legal way or be granted his freedom. He won in the end. 

The other thing that made Thebes somewhat famous is that Abraham Lincoln made a campaign speech at the courthouse. And wouldn't you know it, the courthouse that Abe spoke at and the courthouse dungeon where Dred slept is still standing. You can tour it, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. Wrong day for me again. Even though it was closed, it was a nice visit to a sleepy, historic river front town.

This is the courthouse whose museum is only open on Saturday and Sunday. But, it is still impressive to see it still standing over 150 years later.

This is looking along the side of the courthouse to give perspective to its location on the hill above the river. You can easily imagine riverboats parked along the river in years past. 

The railroad bridge surprised me. I wasn't expecting such an old bridge at this location. After checking, the bridge was built in 1905 which puts it in the first 10 steel bridges to cross the Mississippi River.

I especially liked the arched concrete approach spans. I drove up close to the ones on the Thebes side of the river but had to back out since they were working on the bridge. 

This standing near the bank of the river looking back at the Courthouse. It is not hard to imagine Abe and Dred standing up there admiring the river down below. Who knows what thoughts were going through the minds of each of them. We must remember our history, good and bad.  

The second item on the exploration tour was personal stop. It was seeing the sights that a 16 year old boy saw while driving his Volkswagen everywhere back in the early 1970's. The boy was me and the town is Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Even 50 years later, the memories kept flooding back as I drove around and visited many of the places I had known as a teenager. Just like Thebes, Cape is located on the Mississippi River. I won't go into a lot of my past since I wrote about it in a blog post while I was staying in Cape a several years ago. You can read it here, if you want >>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-river-will-tell-you-your-future.html

I think I'll let that post from 5 years ago stand on its own and just say it was a very nice memory ride today. I spoke to the river and she spoke back.

Cape Girardeau has built a floodwall around most of the city to protect it from floods. They have decorated it with a mural highlighting the significant moments in the history of Cape and the area. Excellent job. 

This is just one of the floodgates that closes during flooding. The high water marks are show on the left. The one I lived through was 1973.

This is the river side of the wall showing the size of the gate. Also notice the railroad crossing. The railroad has a floodgate on each side of town as well. 

The bridge in the background connects Missouri on the right to Illinois on the left.

During certain times of the years, this area is packed with people. Just watching the tow boats going up and down the river. The city should be congratulated for providing such a nice spot.

This is where the river will talk to you now-a-days. 

This is where the river talked to a 16/17 year old boy and helped him plan his future. 

I also drove to New Madrid where a giant earthquake happened a couple hundred years ago. If you have read about, it is worth researching. This post is way too long for me to talk about it. But to spark your interest, the Mississippi River flowed backwards, etc. 

Tomorrow is moving day again. The check-in time at the next campground is 5:00 pm. Of all the 300+ campgrounds I've stayed at, I've never heard of one with a check-in time so late. I called today to verify the time and they said I may be able to get in early if the campers from the night before had left early. I told them not to bother and I would try to time my arrival to around 5'ish. To delay arriving, I've found a tire place locally that can put a new valve stem in Liberty's tire. I bet you thought I forgot about that uh? I also found a local laudromat with a vacant lot next door so I can park Freedom and Liberty. So with only a 150 mile trip tomorrow and an arrival time of 5:00, I plan to be at the tire place around 11 or 12, then go to the laundromat. It will take about 1 1/2 hours to do my clothes so I should be on the road by 2:00 pm. I'm hoping I have an uneventful trip tomorrow.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

First Days Back Exploring and Traveling

Location: Willow Beach Campground (Corps of Engineers); near Little Rock, Arkansas

I hitched up early Sunday morning with the temperature and humidity steadily rising. Brandon dropped by to see me hitch Freedom and Liberty. That is the first time he's seen the old man get ready to travel. Everything was hitched and ready after about 45 minutes of work. Before hitting the road, I had to change my shirt and socks due to being soaked through with sweat. I mentioned the humidity, right? I had left Liberty plugged in and the A/C's running while I hitched up just so I could change clothes in a cool place. After changing, I gave Brandon a hug and said I would see him in a couple months or so. I then headed north (actually it was east for a little while before headed north). 

When I'm traveling, I try to stay under 200 miles of towing. Sometimes I violate that rule suggestion and I did so on Sunday when I drove 270 miles to this campground. Coincidentally, tomorrow is moving day and I'll drive another 270 miles. Wow, two long days of driving in a row. I bet I did that on purpose. After sitting for so long in the same campground, a couple of long drives help get the cobwebs clear in my brain as well as in Freedom and Liberty. The radio wasn't turned on but I still listened to music. It was road-music. Travelers will know what I mean. Freedom and Liberty did a good job without any problems, well Liberty did, but Freedom was a different story. Remember, I got Freedom a new set of tires a few weeks ago. Those tires were not completely broken in before we headed out. For those not familiar with breaking in tires, it is that slippery feeling when driving on new tires. It is due to the chemicals/lubricants used during the manufacturing process. It takes about 500 miles for it to wear away. I should hit that 500 mile mark tomorrow when driving to my next campground. I'll be happy, because towing in the rain with slippery tires isn't fun. And yeah, of course, I passed through a couple of heavy rainstorms on I-30 in Arkansas. It slowed us down for a little while but, all in all, it wasn't too bad, just a different song on the road-music station. 

I stayed at this campground a few years ago. It is close to the interstates and conveniently located to the Little Rock area for exploring. Although I had to do a right-hand back in to my campsite, the overall campground is laid out pretty good. My campsite is on the banks of a little backwater from the Arkansas River. Water and electric, for $9.50 per night and a nicely laid out dump station that only RV'ers can really appreciate. 

You pass through a small subdivision of upper middle class homes to get to the campground. Just past that little hill on the road is the campground entrance. 

Our campsite for the next three days.
That is the Arkansas River in the background. I never have liked parking Liberty under trees and I still don't like it now. Those are gum trees. Their seeds, gum balls, fall on Liberty when the wind picks up. Luckily there have only been a few so far and no really windy days are predicted before we pull out. The shade has kept it cooler though, so that's a plus.

The sun sets over the water right behind Liberty.
Good planning uh? 

A nice sunset.
Not as spectacular as some of the ones out west, but pretty good for around this part of the country. I hope I've planned for more on this trip. 

One of the great things about staying at Corps of Engineers campgrounds are that some are located near navigable waterways. The Arkansas River is one such waterway. It starts in the Rocky Mountains near Leadville, Colorado which is just west of Denver. It passes through Canon City, Colorado where I drove the Skyline Drive a couple of years ago. It then passes through the Royal Gorge where I've visited also. The total length of the river is 445 miles and it passes through 17 lock and dams that makes it navigable. The river also produces oodles (technical term) of electricity at its hydro-electric dams. When the environmentalists talk about clean energy, they always conveniently forget about hydro power. Can anyone say "infrastructure"? As it passes through the farm lands of the mid-west, it is the most economical means of delivering harvested crops to market.

One of the locks and dam is located just a few miles downstream from the campground. I drove down there to see what I could see. Lucky me, this tow boat and his barges were just exiting the locks. It seems I get lucky a lot with my timing. Someone else is doing some planning too. :) 

I don't know where they are headed to, but I wish them safe travels.

This one is headed upstream and I took the picture from the day-use area of the campground.

I went exploring in Little Rock, but picked a bad day. A lot of the things I wanted to see where closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. "They" said the reason was so the places could be open on weekends. That may be true but it could also mean they did it because they knew I planned to explore on those days. For those that think that is a little paranoid, remember the wise words from the radicals in the 70's, "it's not paranoia if people are really out to get you". :) See what happens when the cobwebs get cleared out by longer than usual drives.  

Little Rock must have a very large liability insurance policy. They have hundreds of these motorized scooters parked everywhere. I didn't read any signs but it seems like you just use one and park it where ever it runs out of juice or where ever you quit needing it. I did not give it a try. 

The Bill Clinton Library was one of those places closed on Monday and Tuesday. Although he is way down my list of favorite Presidents, I thought I would give the library a chance. Notice the sign saying "Now Open". That's a lie, at least not on Mondays and Tuesdays. But after all, it is a politician's library.

One of the good things about Little Rock are their use of old bridges as Pedestrian Bridges. A big congratulations to those who carried it out. In this case it is an old Railroad Bridge.  

Then entrance to the Pedestrian Bridge over the Arkansas River.

The flowers were in bloom which added a lot more to the bridge than I would have thought. I'm not a real big flower type person, so this surprised me. Wait a minute, I just realized I didn't check them to see if they were real. They could have been plastic. Oh well, they looked nice anyhow. 
Notice the two people in the picture. They were an older couple traveling around the country in a car and staying in motels. They live in Billings, Montana now but she was originally from Cloutierville, Louisiana which is less than an hours drive from Mansfield, Louisiana, my adopted hometown. She was born and raised in Cloutierville, Louisiana and went to college at Northwestern in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It's a small world after all. Dang it, I shouldn't have went to Disney World because now I'll have that song in my head.  

A nice picture of the Arkansas River framed by the structural members of the bridge and the real flowers (maybe plastic). I wonder why they have an irrigation system run to "maybe plastic" flowers. Enquiringly minds want to know.

This is my neighbor that camped for one night. He personally refurbished the trailer and put it up for sale, online, while sitting at the campsite. He is originally from Erie, Pennsylvania and was familiar with the campground I stayed at up there several years ago. He and his wife relocated to Texas a while back. Since he was off-work for the summer, he was taking the trailer for a shake-down trip back to Erie. He was traveling solo, since his wife couldn't get time off from her job, as an engineer. Small world, again. Wow.

This is the view waiting for me after exploring.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to a campground in the boothill of Missouri. It isn't as nice of a campground as here, but it is OK since it is only a 2 day layover. I do plan to explore one of those days. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

Hit the Road Tomorrow

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

I'm ready to pull out tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be camped on the banks of the Arkansas River in an area just east of Little Rock, Arkansas. I'll have to go much farther north to find the 70 degree line that Joe Debusk (RIP) and I joked about before I initially hit the road.  Sadly, even all the way to North Dakota, that 70 degree line may be night time temperatures instead of daytime. Luckily, there are no major storms predicted for the areas I plan to visit. It seems all clear for at least three weeks. I will be in Tornado country and even though the peak tornado season ends in a few weeks, I will stay alert to them. 

It has taken longer than expected to get everything ready to travel. I guess if I hadn't taken so many breaks, it would have been shorter. But, Freedom and Liberty are at the point where they can hit the road in about 20 to 30 minutes after I start the hitch-up process. One of these days I need to document the hitch-up and set-up process for the blog. Some people that are planning to RV may find it interesting.

Liberty's tires did good while being stationary. Over the last 13 months, they have lost less than 5 psi. I aired two of them back up to 70 psi the other day and will top off the other two after bringing the slide in. I have a great Kobalt air compressor. It easily airs up Freedoms rear tires to 80 psi which is the highest amount for all of the tires on Freedom and Liberty. One feature I love on the Kobalt is being able to set the desired psi and walk away while it airs up the tire. This allows me to do other things while it is working. It runs on 120 volt or 12 volts. The Temperature/Pressure Monitoring System on Liberty's tires allows me to check the air pressure by using the wireless monitor. Once I turn it on, it will give me the temperature and pressure of all the tires in about 2 to 3 minutes. Thinking about it, those are two "lazy man" options for sure.

The plastic "squirrel cage" (blower fan) in Liberty's front (bedroom) air conditioner went kaput (another term youngsters may have to ask an older person about) a couple of weeks ago. I got lucky and was able to find a replacement on Amazon and received it in about a week. Many of the web sites I checked said the part was on back order for weeks if not months, so I was really lucky. That's the first time I've been on the roof in a long time. While up there, I checked all the caulked locations and they looked to be doing OK. I cleaned the fins on the A/C I worked on but not on the main A/C. Afterwards I heard about something called "rinse-free cleaning foam" but didn't feel like setting the ladder back up so I'll take care of that chore this fall.

The black plastic is what broke. Oh well, it's fixed now.

I don't like climbing the ladder that came with Liberty so I use my telescoping ladder. It's tied off so it can't slide sideways and the pool noodles work well at protecting the surface. 

Freedom was feeling left out so I bought her some new tires. The existing tires were within one year of expiring and had another 10,000 miles of tread left but I decided to be "safe than sorry". When I was young, dumb and broke I rode tires until they were nearly bald. Since I'm no longer "10 feet tall and bullet-proof", I don't do that anymore.

I'm a little more concerned about violence in the larger cities than I have been in the past. I've driven Freedom and Liberty through many of the largest cities in the country over the years without a problem. I used to joke about the way to drive in big cities was to turn the music up load to drown out the gunshots and check for bullet holes once I got to the campground. The way things are going in the country now-a-days, I think I'll be a little more cautious. I'll revert to my old ways and start carrying something (equalizer) on the floorboard like I used to do. I had become complacent during the last couple of trips and keep it in storage under the bed. Not any more.

Sorry for the rambling, but this helps document the process of getting ready. I promise more pictures of the trip, campground and Arkansas River in the next post.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.      

Trip Philosophy; Leave on July 18th

 Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

When I'm traveling, I can usually be ready to pull out of a campsite in about 30 minutes. This time it is taking me about 3 weeks. I hope to get back to the 30 minute time on this trip. One thing I've learned since traveling is that all RV'ers are different in terms of how they travel, where they camp, how long they stay and what they do while camped. I've mentioned my way of RV'ing before in this blog, but feel the need to repeat it. I decided from the beginning of my travels to move campgrounds often. Moving every three to four days seems to suit me well. Normally, at the beginning of my trip planning, I'll pick a destination located far away and begin to choose campgrounds, roughly along the route, located about 150 to 200 miles apart. Rarely is this route a straight shot to the destination. Once I decide on a campground, then I'll look around the area for things to explore. This may seem backwards, but I've discovered that there are things to explore just about everywhere, so the campground type and location is more important. Usually, I'll have one or two things to explore within about 50 miles of the campground. It has been my belief that the number 1 & 2 things at the next stop are usually better than the number 3 & 4 things at my current stop. With this in mind, I'll show up at a campground in the afternoon of day one and after setting up camp will go to town to get something to eat while Liberty is cooling down. On days two and three, I'll explore the area. Moving-day is day four, which is day one of the new area. I repeat this process until I get tired and need a longer rest to "let time catch up". Traveling that quickly and always seeing new things will cause my mind to get foggy. I guess it is like when a computer is slowed down by an overload of input. Usually, it only takes an extra day or so of doing nothing to "let time catch up". 

I started my travels in April of 2014. I don't know the exact number of campgrounds I've stayed at since then but I'm pretty sure it is close to 300. Maybe I'll count them up this winter. I've been coast to coast and border to border. I use campgrounds as a base camp to explore an area. The only thing I need in a campground is a secure campsite that is somewhat level and has an electrical connection, preferably 50 amps, although 30 amps is OK if the weather isn't super hot or cold. Most campgrounds have a fresh water source that I use to fill my fresh water tank and a means to empty my waste tanks. Sometimes, these two things are at the campsite and sometimes they are located elsewhere in the campground. I don't need the other amenities that attract weekend campers. I don't have a problem with other campers since I'm usually out exploring an area and not hanging around the campsite. The number one campground I look for now-a-days are U.S. Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds. With my Senior Pass, I can camp at half price. That half price is usually between $8.00 and $13.00 per night, which is really good. They are usually well maintained and laid out in a logically manner. Not always, but 99% of the time. 

So now, after saying all of that, let's see where we're going. I've chosen the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota as the initial destination point. The reason for choosing it is simple, it is cooler up north in July and August. Of course there were other places up north I could have chosen, but I haven't been to North Dakota so it seems like a good place to go. I'll roughly follow the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to get there. The following picture shows the route and stops for the first 8 campgrounds. I have reservations at all eight, except for one, which doesn't take reservations. 

All campgrounds are Corps of Engineer except number 2 and 7. I'll arrive at stop #8 on the 8th of August. All stops are for 3 days except #2 which is for 2 days and # 6 which is for 4 days. 

I'll try to make another post before I leave on the 18th.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.