Hotel Pere Marquette Peoria

... Now, our 23,000 lb 26' Penske truck is in no way designed for mudding, and needless to say, we got stuck! Not my ideal way to start our drive. The guys in the moving company were an odd bunch as well. One guy was a total jerk. He was condescending and just kept asking how it happened, and what was going to happen to his grass. The other guy was incredibly nice, tried to help pull us out, and even offered a number to his towers. Ultimately ...

... were some interesting sites along the way. Like the wind turbines along I80 in Illinois that were highlited by storm clouds. But we thought better about slowing down on the freeway.

Yea, we drove the freeway today, but not tomorrow. All back roads to Lincoln tomorrow so we should have some shoots to share. Mike and Sandy

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 ...

... been more picturesque than we could have imagined.

The rain and wind picked up significantly towards the latter part of the day, just in time for our crossing along Peoria Lake. The wind and waves made us feel like we were in a (very mild) storm at sea! It felt great to pull into a dock, tie up, take a hot shower, enjoy a tasty home-cooked meal and crawl into bed for a movie.

We are deciding whether to stay here for the day or to make a short jaunt south.

... of playing with the children, baking and painting with Maggie kept us well occupied. The end of our stay culminated in another surprise visit from Kevin and Jaynee who had brought along a fantastic side of beef from Hurricane, West Virginia. Great to see them again. And what better way to end our stay than sit around the fire and craft "smors" out of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate?

... traffic cones.

We finally got to Kamp Komfort in Illinois and it was a pretty nice park—we could at least get satellite which is nice since they didn’t have cable and our antenna has ceased to work—we’re not sure why but we think it has to do with the digital switch over and the stupid wiring in the airstream. But the advertised wifi once again let us down—got a great signal and no internet at all. Very ...

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 ...

... with a guide and a group of 20 people, they are only able to see the factory when all the workers have lunch, but we got to see the real deal, only me and him and a nice lady that showed us everything, my dad even got to help on some of the boats, that was a really cool moment..... Okay from now on I will post the things on the other entries... Enjoy reading and I hope you make comments so I know that someone is reading this :-)

... 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 ...

... so the fog is clearing. It looks like I am in for a very good day. When I returned from breakfast I finally got the stove connected and made myself a cup of coffee which I am now enjoying. The sign you see explains that this location was home to three civilizations with the first being here during the year 100 B.C. and the second around 800 A.D. Behind the sign is a mound believed to be an Indian mound I have spent most of the day just hanging around the ...