We travelled through the state of Illinois which meant going through or by the city of Chicago. We had a choice of two routes, one through the middle of this amazing city, or the preferred route around the outskirts. As we discovered the traffic on the outskirts was crazy - can't imagine how we would have fared if we had followed our GPS ' instructions! The road was a six lane toll road and we were on it at 8-30 am in the morning, rush hour! At one point we had a prime mover passing on each side of us as we motored along at 65 mph, so close they blocked out the sun! All up it cost us about $14 for tolls which was a much better option than was suggested by the camp host which would have added an extra 100 miles to the journey - just to avoid the tolls! Really???
We passed through Indiana but as we wanted to get to John's that night decided to keep going - a quick fill up of the fuel tank was the only stop we made (no State sticker for that one!) . We were going through Ohio's Capitol of Cincinnati which sits right on the border of Kentucky and for some reason we crossed into Ohio, into Kentucky, and then back into Ohio! Unbelievably we had travelled through five states in one day.
Here we were some ten months later pulling into his driveway with thousands of miles on the clock and a much bigger trailer. One thing we had to do as we drove down the very narrow road to his house was "trim" some of the overhanging tree branches. To do this I climbed on top of the trailer as Rose drove slowly along the road, breaking off any branches that would hit our roof. A rather unique experience! Low branches are any 5th wheelers worst enemy as 5th wheeler trailers have rubber roofs that can be damaged very easily. I was a little concerned that our turn around in the front yard would be difficult with the bigger rig but we had no problems and we were greeted by the 11 outside dogs - ahh home again!
Just One Of The Many
Another Great Sunset
John had very kindly wired up a 50 amp circuit up for us so we had full power which meant we could run our air conditioners and Rose could use her hair dryer ( very important!) We had planned to be here to celebrate John's 60 th birthday but he decided that is was time to visit his Mum back in Australia so we were here a week ahead of our proposed schedule.
We were not here to sight see but to allow Rose to spend time with her brother. We spent the days outside talking and catching up.
Rose And Her Big Brother
Another Day, Another Story To Tell
Monica Disguising Her Drink Of Choice In A Coffee Mug
Happy Times
As John would be in Australia for his birthday we brought forward the American celebrations a week and invited his neighbours over for a traditional Aussie BBQ, finished off with some Reese's peanut butter birthday cupcakes.
Even The Neighbour's Came to See What An Aussie Looked Like
John's Birthday Shirt
Happy Birthday John
John and Monica were on the count down to their Aussie 'vacation' with John only going to work to finalise the jobs he was working on. We were grateful that he had taken a couple of extra days off to spend time with us - not that he really needed any encouragement! We said our goodbyes - they heading to our 'home country' and we continuing the last legs of our 'vacation' in theirs.
And We Head Off Again
- Posted by RnR on their IPad
Location:Manchester Ohio
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