With the distraction of the snake and all of the picture taking last night, we left all the packing for today. Sean was with us, so the packing went smoothly. But, it was still late morning before we pulled out of Camp Lakewood in Effingham, Illinois.
Our destination is Lincoln New Salem State Park in Petersburg, Illinois, where we planned to meet Ron and Karen. We weren't concerned about our late start as we only had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us. Our route would take us over several state and county roads, and we stopped in the parking lot of a shopping center to have our lunch that Kitty always packs for us on travel days.
Everything was going along just fine despite the condition of some of the roads and we were within five miles of Lincoln New Salem State Park. We are on a county road that was very hilly with a few sharp curves thrown in to make the drive more interesting. I was letting the GPS determine our route instead of sticking to the state roads. That was a big mistake!
Oops! There in front of me is a "road closed" sign. I stopped and got out to see what was happening. I walked a short distance down a hill and around a curve but couldn't see anything. I was concerned about the RV sitting at the top of the hill with Kitty and Kallie waiting in the car behind the RV. If some one wasn't paying attention, they would plow into our car.
They put the darn sign where there was no place to turn around. I was trying to figure out how to get the rig out of here when a very nice lady came by. She told us the road we were on is a great short cut to the state park. But, since the road was closed due to high water, she gave us directions to get there using a different route.
Now all we had to do was get the rig turned around. The only way to do this was to back up the hill and around a curve about 1/4 mile where there is an intersection large enough to turn around in. I told Kitty to wait up there by the intersection and not let any one come down while I was backing the rig up. A utility truck came along and saw what we were doing and sat along the road with his flashers on warning traffic before they reached Kitty's location.
What a relief it was when we finally got turned around and headed to our destination. We really appreciated the direction from the nice lady and the additional warning lights of the utility truck.
We pulled into the campground at Lincoln New Salem State Park about 4 hours after leaving Effingham and found a site long enough we didn't have to unhook.
Here we are on site #137
After a fantastic dinner, Ron took us back to his house. He gave us a brief tour of their home, and we sat down and visited- getting caught up on the news since we all left Okeechobee, Florida. While there, we met their other daughter and her youngest son. What a nice family they have! When the yawns took over, they drove us back to our camper and we called it a night.
There is a lot of history and interesting things to see in this area. But, our schedule didn't permit us to stay any longer. Next time through this area, we plan to stay a few days and take in the history.
Tomorrow we head to Rockford, Illinois and Rock Cut State Park.
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