Summer '22 Cross Country - Day 41
Travel day from Eldridge, Iowa to Eagleville, Missouri
Friday, 15 July 2022
Today we said farewell to our good friends Mark and Deb Deppe who we’ve been camping with for the last five nights at Woodside Scott County Park in Eldridge, Iowa. What a wonderful time we had, especially our visits to LeClaire on Day 37 and Day 40. Read those posts and you will find out how to have a beautiful life.
As we woke up, it was dark and gloomy with steady showers and occasional thunder. With it being a departure day for us, we were glad to have hitched up Ollie the night before, and for having packed everything except for a few things we still needed such as Starlink. Not packing up the night before would have resulted in a high suck factor this morning.
Mark and Deb left just before 7:00 am as they had to get to a service appointment several hours away.
About three hours hours later, Frieda and I departed the park. We were not in that big a hurry because of the weather and the driving time to Eagleville, Missouri.
We are trying to keep our travels to about 300 miles max in a day, often a bit less. I almost always start off as the driver and then halfway or so, we switch. I then pull the trailer into the spot. It’s a system that works well for us.
We added Missouri to Oliver’s Travels as we made our way a short distance to Eagle Ridge RV Park in Eagleville.
So, you might be asking yourself ‘why’ Eagleville…
I’ve been to every state except Alaska (Frieda’s been to Alaska but is missing a few of the lower 48), but now we have a travel trailer and I see collecting state visits in our Ollie like collecting stamps (Frieda thinks I’m silly). The goal, as I see it, is to collect them all! Except Hawaii obviously, but we did live there for three years!
Look up Eagleville on a map of Missouri and you’ll see it’s the first town after crossing into Missouri on I-35 heading south from Iowa. In other words, a quick detour to bag a state. So here you go:
We’re headed southwest to Oracle, Arizona, but going direct wouldn’t be fun. Remember, this is state collecting! By being here in Eagleville, we can easily hit both Kansas and Nebraska on the way through Colorado. We should then be able to collect all the western states before this Summer ‘22 Cross Country is over, leaving only everything east of Texas and Oklahoma. That’s the plan at least. (In a few days, stand by for a fun picture from Four Corners Monument - a longtime bucket list visit for me!)
While our journey to Eagleville, Missouri was uneventful, Mark and Deb got rear-ended by a semi on their way to the RV service center in Michigan. Nobody was hurt but they ended up having two things addressed by the service center: the original cracked window estimate AND now a collision estimate. Ugh!
Mark and Deb got home to Almont, Michigan safely other than this minor incident, which thankfully, wasn’t more serious.
As for me, Frieda, Maddie, and Skipper, we checked into the RV park shortly before 5 pm. At that time, it was about 92 deg F with the humidity well over 90%. In other words, all we wanted to do was hook up power, water, sewer and Starlink, walk the dogs, and then wait patiently for the AC to get the cabin temp and humidity level to something tolerable. While I normally get some campsite pictures the day of arrival, you will have to wait until tomorrow to see our site. I just wasn’t in a picture-taking mood.
Until then, I leave you with how things looked as we cooled down.
