Sunday 22 & Monday 23 October 2006

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Awake: 6:57am Sleep 5+42 Overnight @ the Comfort Inn, Schiller
Park, Illinois.

Kathy & I have the complimentary breakfast downstairs @ Pal Joey’s
restaurant. Later, Kathy calls her high school buddy, Joyce, to discuss a
lunch plan for today. Later still, she calls Sylvia & talks over last
night’s reunion. Sylvia was one of 10 organizers for the reunion.

We check out of the Comfort Inn @ 12:15pm, drive to Russell’s & order a
takeout of 4 bar B Q beef sandwiches for lunch with Joyce & Bill. Just
around the corner & down the street, Johnnie’s & our coveted Italian beef,
sweet peppers & la juice + a very long loaf of Italian bread are waiting
for us: this we will take back to our motorhome for some scrumptious meals
later.

I haven’t seen Bill & Joyce for over 20 yrs & it’s been 10 yrs for Kathy.
We have way too many things to catch-up on now & way too little time to do
it…..but we try over lunch. Joyce & Bill are now 90% retired & are
enjoying more free time than ever plus having their 1st granddaughter to
share it with. The pictures of Katie are so cute. It was great seeing &
kibitzing with them again. They are both looking good!

We kind of let the time slip by us as we wanted daylight throughout our
drive to see the small towns & villages along the way to Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. Leaving @ 3:10pm for a 5 hr drive (it took 6) did not compute. We
had called Tobi & Jim in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday & asked them for a
room for this night. The HWH facilities will be locked up Sunday so we
can't return to our bus. They fell for our sad story & had the red carpet
waiting, waiting & waiting for us. To get our visit time in for distance
traveled, we had to keep them awake “way past” their usual bedtime hrs:
12:25am…..then wake them up “way earlier” 7:30am than they are accustomed
to. It worked though, because we left just after breakfast (blueberry
pancakes with sausage & real maple syrup) @ 9:50am & gave them the
opportunity to slide back into bed for a few more Zzzzz’s.
We enjoyed our short visit with them, even though we visited them only 2
yrs ago.

It was only an hr & 10 min back to our motorhome. The temps were much
cooler than when we left on Saturday morning. I had set the thermostat for
keeping the coach not so warm…. & it worked very well. It was downright
cold soaked. It took over an hr to make it comfortable enough for Kathy to
remove her Alaskan parka …….& then she prepares a hot bowl of tomato soup
for lunch before we hitch up the tow car & leave the HWH facilities @
2:07pm. Driving west on I-80, we are still encountering a headwind which
makes our fuel economy suffer a little.

We arrive @ the Rolling Acres Family campground in Newton, Iowa @ 3:48pm.

Today’s travel: 1+39 time 99.4 miles 13.9 fuel 7.1 gal used
59.8 avg speed.

We were attracted to this campground for its location….just a short drive
down the road; big rig friendly, easy off, easy on etc. From here, we make
our plans for the next few weeks. Our front plasma TV has complained so
much that it finally gave up & elected to quit performing for us. I’ve
made several calls for repair of this heavy unit but nothing easy has
developed. In desperation, I called the Sony Corp in San Diego, CA for
ideas. They have a plan which I will reveal later, but in the meantime, it
requires us to make a visit to the Newell Corp in Oklahoma & the techs
agreed to this plan.

Meanwhile, the lady that checked us in tells us that this town of Newton
has been synonymous with Maytag Appliances for 70 years. Their factory and
headquarters are located here but unfortunately Maytag has been purchased
by Whirlpool which is closing the doors on Maytag + laying off some 1700
people. The town is not pleased. She also mentions that the Maytag Dairy
Farms, owned by another branch of the Maytag family is located 4 miles
from the campground. They make cheese, esp. blue cheese. Oh yes, tomorrow
we must check this out.

Our cell phone has good coverage here so we make several calls.

7:25 dinner: Tuna & noodle casserole, mixed salad & toast.


High travel temp=48 elevation 931 ft Lights out: 11:17pm

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This page contains a single entry by George Monte Kirsch published on October 27, 2006 5:05 PM.

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