Classic Friendship Inn Pekin

Bloomington, Illinois... oy!

My time in the actual city of Bloomington was rather uneventful. I stayed in the hotel that night and enjoyed some Chinese food delivery, and then we had a really good show for a rather small, but appreciative audience.

Leaving Bloomington is really where the chaos begins. The show actually took place in Normal, IL... what kind of a city name is that anyway?!? When driving out of town, headed ...

We left the Peoria city dock at 8:15 this morning and at 8:30 heard an announcement from the USCG stating that the Peoria Lock and Dam (only 2 miles downstream from us) was lowering the wicket dam. At first we thought this to be a pleasant surprise as lowering of the dam means that we would pass through without locking. A call to the lock confirmed that this was indeed the case but that the process would require 4 hours before they would allow passage. So we ...

... appreciate me grabbing his arm or verbally freaking out during tense moments when he is focused on keeping us out of danger's way, and have instead during these moments, taken to whistling nervously. I definitely did a fair amount of whistling and shuffling yesterday, especially as we we shot through a narrow gap between a concrete quay and an enormous tow (3 barges wide and at least six barges long). We of course had communicated with the tow before overtaking them, but ...

This isn't a true travel tale but a great chance to spend some time with our extended family on the Wenzel/Peterson side after we already had a great family gathering on the Nessler/Jehle side of the family this May. It's the first part of this year's annual holiday in the Great Lakes States area. So we've settled down for a change...

We met up in Washington (Illinois) with my sister Ati, her husband ...

... for heaven’s sake!

The next morning we started hooking up to leave and the adventures began. I went out and came back in and left the sliding panel on the screen door open and Seamus took the chance to take off. He will jump out that small opening any chance he gets and I’d caught him by his tail just the day before as he tried it so I knew he was getting stir crazy and would try it. But one second of carelessness and he ...

My daughter thought it would be fun to take the kids out to what they call "the fountain park". It's called Riverside Park, and it's located in Pekin, just across the river from Peoria and only about a 20 minute drive from their house. The park has a playground, a pavilion ...

The dream of crossing the US from one coast to the other... Thats a thing my dad and I were dreaming of for years.. Now after my exchange year in the US we finally had the time to m,ake our dream come true! We didn't cross the whole US, but almost.... Taking the legendary Route 66 from Chicago to LA and on a different route back to Illinois, we passed through 13 states in those 4 weeks and got to see some really nice landscapes ...

... gained weight in just those few days and was very, very happy getting so much attention after having been squeezed in various bags for the last few months. Of course we could not break her heart and take Bjoern with us when we left to complete our tour full circle. Our return to Germanz was crowned bz a lovelz stewardess, sorry, air hostess, who found out we were on our honeymoon and snuck ...

We barely found a camping spot last night since most of campsites this far north are closed by now. We finally found one but were only able to get electric so I wasn't able to post last night. Today we started out in ...

... light, and of course, my snoring. Today we had breakfast in Savannah. We then drove over the bridge to Iowa and toured a new campground in Sabula. After that we went to Clinton and did a little shopping. On the way back to the campground we went through Fulton, IL and got a nice view of the windmill. Apparently they will be having a Dutch day celebration in May of this year. We began to pack up to leave around 2:00 p.m. and departed about an hour ...