After about 20 minutes of driving, Joe screamed as the first bug hit his side of the windsheild (about gave me a heart attack). (He probably was getting me back from the laptop falling out of the cabinet above his head yesterday while he was driving and hitting him on the arm. )
This was our animal day -- not wildlife much, but domesticated animals. Within the first half-hour, we saw llamas, horses, burros, sheep, cattle, another turkey, and a little turtle crossing the road. Our road was "straight, but lumpy," in Joe's words, but it soon became more crooked. I saw several lilac bushes in bloom today, so I'm thinking Lucille's should be blooming for me when we arrive tomorrow. I haven't asked her, but I'm hoping. We passed a school named "Couch School," and I remarked that I didn't know you had to go to school to learn how to sit on the couch all day. But I saw on the map there is a town nearby named Couch. Then the second suicidal tu rtle crossed the road. These turtles were only about 2 inches round, and this one pulled his head in as we passed. I don't think that's going to be sufficient to keep him safe. We drove through the Mark Twain National Forest and some other national forests, and saw a field of bighorn sheep, an unexpected sighting. Later on today, we saw a field of Belgium (or some kind of draft) horses, squirrels, geese, and a roadrunner (I didn't know they had these in Missouri). We really enjoy traveling these backroads,especially when we own the road -- not another vehicle in sight for miles.
We saw a paddle on the other lane, and Joe looked ahead and saw a pick-up with a kayak in the back. He said, "now, there goes a man who is going to be up the creek without a paddle." We finally caught up with him at a stop sign about 5 miles down the road, so Joe kept honking until he rolled his window down, and Joe told him his bad news. He didn't even question it, he made a u-turn at the light and went back. We hope it hadn't been run over by the time he got back there.
We crossed the mighty Mississippi River about noon.
There was a lot of flood water in these bottomlands, although the river looked like it was within its banks.
They were working on the bridges on the Illinois side of the river, and they had us down to one very skinny lane. I was glad I wasn't driving!
(See the bugs on the windshield)We stopped for lunch at a wide spot in the road, where an old gas station had closed. We had passed a Menonite church a ways back, and across the road from our lunch stop was a caution sign to watch for horses and buggies. We only saw the sign, just like all those deer crossing signs when we never see any deer.
We ended our day at Burrell City Park campground in Carmi, Illinois, about 60 miles from Lucille's. We need to go in with empty tanks so we opted to spend one more night on the road (hoping Collins and Marilyn will have Lucille's to-do list taken care of by the time we arrive tomorrow). Joe has accused Collins of taking the premier parking spot at Lucille's, so we'll have to deal with that issue when we arrive. This is another really pretty campground, very quiet, lots of room, and greening up for spring. We got out the lawn chairs and enjoyed the peace for a few minutes.
The dogwood trees are in bloom in this part of the country, as well as the redbud (I think they are called). This park had some beautiful dogwood trees.
I probably won't write much on the blog for the next couple of weeks. We won't be traveling, and unless we can convince Lucille to put in wifi, I have to go to town to either McDonalds or the library, so I'll just have to see how it goes. We have the birthday party on Saturday, so that will surely need reported on.
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