Road Trip Ohio Indiana Illinois Missouri Kansas

  Kansas, United States Monday, August 10, 2015

Day 1 - Monday 10th August We spent the morning finalising the paperwork and lesser details of buying the car which we will be naming Roise, in honour of the beautiful Rhino we met and fed at Columbus Zoo. John again was an absolute superstar in assisting us with the purchase – John if you are reading this, thank you again as we really could not have done this without you. We really couldn't. The rest of the day if we are honest, was spent faffing about. We went back to the zoo to see if we could get any Rosie souvenirs and spent an extraordinary amount of time getting lost. So many road works and diversions it was baffling! We couldn’t really make a decision about where to head next either – Cleveland or Chicago? In the end we ran out of time and headed in the general direction between the two and to a campsite near Lafyette which was listed as a free site but wasn’t when we got there. We did book a viewing of a pop up tent for when we get to Chicago in the morning. Day 2 - Tuesday 11th August We got to the outer edges of Chicago and viewed an old but very well maintained pop-up trailer tent. It would have been perfect for our needs and Brad was even prepared to provided a towing hitch, the electrical hook-up and change the wheels to help us – nice one Brad, but unfortunately the nice people at the Illinois registration centre said no we can not register it as we didn’t live there. Really frustrating for us especially as a non motorised thingy in the UK needs no registration at all! Thwarted at this we set out with plan D – a tent! We spent another day faffing about looking for a store that sold the type that fit to the back of your car. Oh yes everybody sells them – on-line only! So all morning we went from store to store getting the same answers "we can deliver it if you give us your address". Eventually some bright spark pointed us towards Bass Pro. Half an hours drive away in the wrong direction but having little choice headed there anyway. And what a store it was. It was huge with a great big waterfall to greet you and moose heads and deer heads and racoon heads and bear heads everywhere you looked. The good people of the store even let us put the tent up in the store to convince us it was big enough and easy to put up. $500 later we rolled out of there equipped for our first night under polyester. Well that was the plan but our campsite was 60 miles away on the shores of Lake Michingan and by the time we got there, got lost and gave up looking for it, it was dark and we were too tired to put the tent up so we found a motel (even that was difficult to find and we could actually see it!). It was just what we need though a good soft bed and a hot shower. We vowed tomorrow we would camp but tonight we would sleep. Day 3 - Wednesday 12th August We were so so glad of the room last night. Jody was poorly in the night and couldn’t stop shivering. But all ok today though, so on the road and back up to Illinois and to see the city of Chicago at last. Which we really liked. The centre is very green and pretty and obviously very well kept. Millennium Park is at the heart of the city which also sits on the shores of Lake Michigan so is very pretty with the boats on the lake as a backdrop. We found the start of Route 66 and set off along it – just 2 weeks after our friend Paul did it with his wife Jane. We are not intending to travel the whole route though as it goes to California and we are heading to Vancouver! We camped tonight by a river but the mozzis just drove us mad so we hunkered down and got an early night. Day 4 - Thursday 13th August Rosie is still going well as we head on from our dreadful campground towards Madison County – made famous by Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County. Winterset is a pretty little town which is also the birthplace of Marion Robert Morrison or The Legend that was John Wayne as he is more familiarly known. It was a really sweet little town, we grabbed some lunch in a friendly diner and had a look around the John Wayne Visitor Centre before heading off to look at some bridges. Im sure most people will have heard of the film The Bridges of Madison County even if they haven't seen it. We camped locally that night and as we sat drinking wine outside our tent, some deer decided to wander by which was lovely Day 5 - Friday 14th August We spent a few more hours in the lovely town of Winterset whilst we went to see the last of the bridges then hit the road again. We stopped for petrol in Missouri and noted an Amish girl setting up a stall to one side. We went over for a look and bought a couple of homemade things from her; a candle with the beautiful scent of orange and a rolling pin (yes a strange thing to buy by the side of the road we know) it was made with different coloured wood and was a beautiful object in itself. She wouldn't allow us to photograph her but she let us photograph her stall. Onto Kansas and the town of St Joseph and oh dear what a forsaken little town this was. it felt like we had stepped back in time the only thing missing were a few tumbleweeds blowing across the street. We discovered it was the home town of the famous Outlaw - Jessie James, and the home of the Pony Express. A real cowboy town! The scenery is changing now, gone are the corn fields and the grasslands are starting to appear. Our campsite is a stunning location down a long gravel road. We are on the side of a hill overlooking a lake. We are the only ones here - except the coyotes who were howling around in the night that it!     [gallery columns="4" ids="14603,14614,14620,14635,14644,14657,14669,14679,14692,14699,14709,14713,14724,14734,14741,14743,14755,14759,14764,14770,14774,14784,14789,14797,14801,14806,14810,14817,14824,14831,14835,14844,14848,14855,14866,14870,14876,14880,14887,14892,14894,14897,14902,14906,14908,14912,14915,14917,14920,14923,14926,14930,14935,14936,14941,14943,14945,14948,14950,14951,14952,14953,14954,14955,14956,14957,14958"]