Morning Cup Of Coffee And Weather

Blue skies today after several days of rain and gloom. I get to play on my tractor later today.

 

...look quick! It's bound to change soon.
Got the plane out this morning for the first time since I did my Biannual Flight Review about 10 days ago.

 

Been in Beaufort, SC since Tuesday. Spent a couple of days on the beach at Hunting Island State Park. Had a pretty lazy trip. Not camping this time. Heading home tomorrow.

 

Rain is in the forecast again today. I sure wish it would dry up as it’s been wet for months. A lot of my flowers are drowning.

 

We love to camp at Hunting Island. Always find sharks teeth on the beach. I believe some scenes from Forest Gump were filmed near Beaufort.

 

We like camping there too, it’s just tough to get a reservation. A lot of Forrest Gump was filmed in Beaufort including the Vietnam battle scenes that were filmed at Hunting Island State Park. You can go get a box of chocolates where the box in the movie came from. We had an alligator cross the road in front of us. just pass the campground entrance. The Big Chill was filmed in Beaufort too. We stayed at the Anchorage 1770 Inn this time. Some college friends of mine own it and it was a bucket list trip for us. The writer Pat Conroy used to eat in the restaurant at the Inn.

 

Happy belated July 4th, hope everyone was safe and were able to enjoy time in fellowship with others.

@Earl and I have been getting ready for our summer trip the last couple weeks and lifted off finally.

Getting ready to set sail

We set out on July 4th for a “remote” campsite that was still in “shakedown” distance since we will be out for the next 2 1/2 weeks. Destination set for Possum Creek Campground in Hidden Springs SF Illinois, about 15 miles from Effingham.

Shake down stretch overnight at Possum Creek Campground in Hidden Springs SF Illinois. Stars were amazing and the fireworks were distant.

Quiet night with just ourselves, the campground host and one other family….ahhhhh
Next morning mooching our way around rural Illinois we were greeted by a young pair of Barred Owls hunting on a slow twisty road and many Indigo Buntings. Final destination for the night and next was Mississippi Palisades SP entering the driftless area in northern Illinois, we will add a review under the campground forum.
(flowers)
Departed this morning and took backroads careful to watch for buggies heading to service. Our highlight near the turnoff to head towards Elizabeth Scales Mound was catching sight of a roadside bar and grill “Cajun Jacks”. It looked like it could have been pulled straight out of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. At about this time the skies cleared.

Clear sailing (for the moment)

The road wound through Elroy and Hub, the Hub Pub is for sale by owner if anyone wants to relocate.
Pulled into our spot for the night and promptly went searching for “lunner” at the Dairy barn where today’s specials included Smoked Pulled Pork Poutine and Cuban Sandwich on Hawaiian Bread.

Touched down at the Mothership

Settling in so we are ready first thing to have one of wheels adjusted at the Mothership.

Puck in his safe place, Crashed between everyone - off duty.

 

Uff da!
124 in Palm Springs? Historic heat wave toppling all-time temperature records in the West

 

Great post!
Awww, who's a good dog?

 

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

 

I think the oldest temperature on record for Palm Springs is 1917. Maybe someone else had a calibrated thermometer in their saddle bag. Mssrs. Fahrenheit and Celsius developed the first “replicable” thermometers in the early 1700’s.

 

Later in the week. I’m off to a gathering. Then a couple days of I don’t know. Either Dakota's or too eastern PA. Not sure yet! Being a sucker for dark rides, I want to visit knobles….see their haunted mansion, ONE OF THE BEST I am told….

 

Love hearing ghost stories around a campfire...
But those places creep me out...

Visited here one time in the middle of a sunny tourist day;
Whaley House | San Diego Haunted House Guide
I sat in a quiet corner in a bedroom upstairs and closed my eyes, tried to open my senses...

Felt nothing but a sudden coolness...
And went outside to find the local marine layer clouds had blown in...

Now, have you ever heard the story of La Llorona?
"Ai, mi hijos!"

 

Oh these are just fun rides...spook houses. I'm a big fan of a guy named "Bill Tracy" who designed many of them, sadly only a few remain. The one at Knobles is not a Tracy ride, but it is clearly influenced by him. I know, its kind of dumb -- but I love the nostalgia of it. I remember as a kid visiting one of these rides at Indiana Beach -- and it WAS a Bill Tracy Ride. But its been redone into a 3d shooter game, and it sucks now.

I wouldn't every take part in seances, or visiting a haunted house that isn't a 'ride' --- Ouija boards and crystal balls are all completely off the table for me. I'm convinced there is a spiritual realm, and frankly --- we as corporeal beings are not even remotely equipped to deal with that. Be like stepping into a swamp in Florida to fight a 'gator. Its not going to need well. Great podcast on the topic: THE EXORCIST FILES

 

The eye of the Beryl passed just north of me last night. We got a little light show, and some gusty wind this morning --- the trees are still swaying slightly. Probably a few branches down out of our tulip poplar. Apparently, this is a "self-pruning" tree -- as it tends to drop branches quite a bit.

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to head up to a state park for a couple days. I'll be going to some places I've never been -- kind of excited about the trip. Just me on this trip again.

Sadly, the jeep goes to the body shop. There was a minor incident which will need the passenger rear door to be replaced (likely). It was not my fault, but it is still rather inconvenient. The plastic body parts are nearly impossible to find --- I don't want to of aftermarket or change the factory look. No one was seriously hurt --- so I suppose that much is a good thing.

 

Have fun on your trip, big guy! Looking forward to the camping trip report/youtube! You have the best insights into all the Americana- you're an Influencer!

PS: I see that the gent who helped share Fr Martin's work on The Exorcist Files also made this:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC8P_1_h13Z4xkgdoNSz12bg

 

Oh that's interesting. I'll have to check out the podcast/channel you mentioned. It sounds like Bethea resonates with me, so I'm looking forward to listening to his work during my upcoming travel.

If I were an influencer, We'd all be in trouble! But since I'm not, I may try to create a video while traveling, just for fun. Who knows, maybe it'll even see the light of day, but I doubt it since I have zero production equipment and would be just trying to talk to the camera...see if I can "get past" that.

I do plan on blogging about my experiences on my website. Right now, I have a "nub" set up as a proof of concept and learning ground. If I want to do more, I need to hire a designer to polish it up. Thankfully, with the rise of affordable design services like Fiverr, this is easier than ever. PM me if you want the URL. I'm not ready to release it to the public yet.

As we approach the halfway point of summer, I'm starting to wind down my activities. Not because I don't want to, but mostly because I have no vacation time! Before being furloughed, I had a decent amount of time off, but now it's been limited. My new IT job starts on the 23rd, and I only get 2 weeks of vacation there. So CICO and a few weekend excurious will probably be the extend of it.

I'm excited for my upcoming trip, which will take me to three places I've never been: Youngstown Ohio, Knobles area in eastern PA, and then back through Mansfield Prison (famous for Shawshank Redemption) and Kidron Ohio (home of Lehamans Hardware).

This should be an 11-day adventure.

I stopped at Mansfield prison last year, but unfortunately, they were closed. The new prison guards behind it weren't too pleased with us when we ventured somewhere we shouldn't have been and got asked to leave "politely." I'll have time to stop this time. If they're open.

But the next couple of days are filled with family matters, visiting ailing friends, and doing that thing that must be done sometime. I just hope that if/when I find myself in similar situations, someone stops and visits with me.

 

Speaking of..."Odd Tourons"...(not you Tour)...
Tourons

 

Checking in from the last day of the 2nd leg of our trip.

Huge Thank You to Chris @ the mothership for getting us leveled up to fly right!

Upon heading north out of Necedah we ran into numerous road closures adding about 50+ miles to the day’s journey. Man has there been a lot of rain there! Flooded (Drowned) crop fields that are super saturated.

Taking some sideways roads and cutting cross lots we happened upon a nice looking campsite, until we read the fine print. We decided it was not to be and continued towards Lake Superior.

“Looks like a nice campsite” (guess I should read the fine print ). Somewhere North of Necedah and South of Marshfield

Watching a particularly fierce series of storms that we were going to cross paths with, we opted to take a pitstop and “slide” between storms. Worked mostly, did wash the bugs, road grit and sand off the tv and camper.

We pulled into a quiet little campground along the Brule River a little later than we wanted, but the twilight has been longer as we get closer to the Great Lakes.

Overlooking the a big lake they call Gitchigamii

Heading to the Fish Hatchery

After a couple peaceful days mooching around and doing pretty close to nothing at all we saddled up and headed to our northern most stop in the US, Superior National Forest, before continuing into Ontario Canada in a couple days.

Prepping sautéed squash while the fries bake in the oven.

To slow down, free one’s mind and cleanse the soul with nature, is time we crave when looking towards our next road trip.

North of Ely

Always watching Always waiting Dad, please turn on the Thermacell

The mosquitoes are the worst predawn to about an hour after sunup and again about an hour before sunset, which is after 9pm local, we have (2) rechargeable Thermacells we keep in rotation plus our screen house to stave them off during those hours we are not sleeping. Otherwise our current campsite sits such that the prevailing SW winds coming across the lake and blows up through our camp to keep the little nasties at bay.

fair weather and following seas