Finally We are Camping Again

It has been one long cold Winter/Spring since we last were able to get the trailer out for some camping. We decided no matter what the weather was we were going to go. So over the weekend we hitched up and traveled south to our favorite campground in the area. That is Bo Wood COE. Once we are out of Bloomington/Normal we head south on Route 51 then onto Route 20, Route 35,Route 105, Route 32 through Sullivan, IL then about 3 miles south of Sullivan a right turn takes you to the campground gate. We checked in and had reserved site #103. Glenda likes full hook ups and with my new Senior Pass we pay half price for our site. That's $12/night. Can't beat that even figuring in the gas we used. The weather was supposed to be cool but warming through the weekend. Friday night got down to 30-31 degrees so I didn't hoop up the water hose just in case. We thought it would be better to be out in the open where the sun could worm us during the day and I brought plenty of firewood to keep us warm in the evening.

 Site #103

 

We got to our site around 6:30pm and got set up. Glenda had made some chili at home the night before so we heated it up and with some veggies and dip. Food just tastes better when you're in a campground. We decided to run the space heater instead of running the furnace. Out trailer is pretty small so a heater and an extra blanket is all we needed. We slept great.

 

The next morning we got up late and had our usual oatmeal, blueberries, walnuts and cinnamon. Orange juice with the vitamins and we are good to go. Once we got the dishes cleaned up we took a nice long walk around the campground. We figured if we walked all the loops we would get about 3 miles of walking. There was little wind and the sun was out in full force so we had a pleasant outing.

 

Once we got back to the trailer we decided to go into the town of Sullivan and I got a big cup of coffee and Glenda had her usual Diet Coke - fountain style, of course. Then it was time to do some exploring. We like to visit the nearby town of Arthur, IL. This is Amish country and we enjoy seeing the Amish folks living their simple lifestyle.

In Arthur there is a nice little ice cream/coffee shop so we stopped and had some ice cream. Outside we saw a couple of horse and buggies.

RoseLens is where we had the ice cream

We stopped at the Dollar General nearby and got some batteries for a new lantern we had gotten over the winter and picked up some other items that we didn't know we needed.  Then a drive through Amish back roads we saw houses with laundry on the line, horses in the fields and even this donkey.

I think it's a miniature donkey

 

 

Once we got back at the site we got a fire started for the evening and decided to grill some turkey burgers. Baked Lay's BBQ chips and veggies for sides. The rest of the evening we sat by the fire and enjoyed the warmth and flames.

Once the fire burned down to hot coals we moved inside to watch some TV, read and play some games on the I pad. With all the activity on Saturday we again slept very well.

Sunday for us is always a bit of a sad day since we have hitch up and head back home to start a new work week. However at Bo Wood the check out time is 4 pm so we always stay as late as we can. We had out usual breakfast and got a few things packed up. We took another walk in the morning and noticed it was warming up even faster than on Saturday. The winds were coming out of the south more. This also would make for a smooth drive home since we would have a nice tailwind. We decided to build a small fire and relax for a while before we did the full pack up, clean up and hitch up.

This is the opening weekend for Bo Wood and I was surprised their weren't as many folks out as we thought there would be. In our loop there were only 4-5 other trailers. The other loops had about the same numbers in each.

Looking north from our site

 

Looking a little more east of our site

 

 

We had a great first outing of OUR season. The trip home was as I thought - very smooth with a great tailwind. Excited about next year when we retire and begin the full time life where we don't have to think about packing up to go home. We will be IN our home.

Looking forward to retirement and it won't be long.