We had another drive day, but it wasn’t terribly long today. We traveled from Wisconsin to Illinois  to stay at Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby Illinois. We had dinner st Skoog’s Pub and Grill in Utica, Illinois.

Easy Does It

We didn’t need to be in a hurry today so although Tony got up early to re-write a blog post that got corrupted last night, I stayed in bed until 7:30. We still hadn’t made it to a grocery store, so we didn’t really have anything for breakfast. We snacked on cottage cheese to tide us over until we got on the road.

Check Out

We got packed up and ready to go. It was easy, because we hadn’t unhooked last night. We had received a map and gate code when we arrived at Smokey Hollow campground last night, but I didn’t keep the code with me because we didn’t realize a code was needed to get OUT through the gate as well as in. Weird.

I hopped out and went into the office, which was just opening. I asked them to let us out, and I let them know about our change of sites because a box truck was parked in our campsite when we arrived. I showed the young lady a photo that I had taken.

Brunch

We decided that, since we needed gas anyway, we would stop at the nearly Love’s and grab some breakfast food inside. There was a Hardee’s there also, but we found a warmer with Love’s breakfast sandwiches and that was good enough for us. We paid and Tony moved the truck away from the pumps. We used an RV parking space and ate our brunch before getting on the road.

Groceries

We really needed some groceries. We also left camp earlier than we had thought we might, so we needed to kill some time or we would arrive at our Illinois site way too early. That rarely happens!

We are trying to empty our fridge, freezer, and pantry because when we drop off the trailer for a wall replacement, we are supposed to empty the trailer completely. We found that we were in Aldi country, which made us very happy. We navigated to the first one on our route and away we went.

We love shopping at Aldi. We didn’t need much, basically milk and eggs. Those are pretty important though, particularly at breakfast time! Tony carries his Aldi quarter on his key ring so we can always get a shopping cart.

We made our purchases. I put everything away while Tony reset the GPS to the campground.

Easy Drive

The drive was fairly uneventful. We stopped at another Love’s for coffee and to stretch our legs, and Tony asked for information to reach someone we can interview for the podcast about their RV-friendly practices. Brooks got us a card and wrote their number on the card. We didn’t see any twins of our rig today.

Starved Rock

We got to the campground just a few minutes before check-in time. We waiting behind a big Class A that we had seen on the highway. They have a Rav4 toad, that bounces clear off the ground on bumpy roads! Yikes!

We stopped to fill up our water tank. This state park campground had electrical hookups and a couple places to fill fresh water. There is a dump station at the entrance to the campground.

Starved Peggy

We sat around enjoying the quiet - well, except the cicadas. We are back in cicada country. They aren’t too overbearing, unlike those that are annoying Tony and Grace in northern Missouri. The weather was beautiful. We put out the awning and sat at the picnic table for a while.

I was getting really hungry so we checked out the map and found a tap room in Utica. We decided to go there. We parked on N Mill Street, and walked toward the tap room. On the way we noticed Skoog’s Pub and Grill. After a short conversation with the staff, we decided this would be a perfect dinner. They carried a few local beer choices, and their special was fried chicken and ribs! We both chose that, along with a salad and a baked potato.

The food was so so good! I ate everything except my chicken thigh, and potato skin. I figure it will make a good lunch tomorrow. I had a pineapple wheat beer, and Tony had a couple local choices.

Downtown (I assume) Utica is really smart - the block of N Mill Street that has a lot of food and drink establishments, is closed to traffic and each restaurant has patio seating in the street. It was such a beautiful day that we were excited to sit outside in the shade.

As we ate and looked around, Tony noticed across the street was a place that has coffee and ice cream. We decided to go there for our afternoon pick-me-up tomorrow.

However, when we finished eating and paying, we went to scope out the ice cream selection and wound up buying a pint. Oops!

We headed back to camp and sat outside a while longer. We sampled the ice cream. Then we went for a walk around the campground loop. It looks like it will be pretty filled up tomorrow, for the weekend. There are quite a few tent campers, including a group of young people - high school graduates maybe? They are having a great time and I hope the camp host reminds them when it’s getting close to 10:00. Sound really carries!

Early to Bed

Our traveling and working and visiting the past few days have worn us out. We are calling it an early night.