Modoc, SC to Rantoul, IL

 

Tuesday 6/17/2014

Prairie Pines Campground

Rantoul, Il

We successfully left the Volunteer Village at J. Strom Thurmond Lake on Monday, 6/2/2014.  Some of our fellow volunteers, including George and Laurie, Ruth, Jim, John, and Rufus, came out to see us off.

We’re all packed up and ready to go!

Our first day of travel took us through Atlanta.  Taking the advice of our volunteer friend Jim, we stayed on I-20 West all the way through Atlanta and then took exit 51B for I-285 North around the northwest side of town.  It worked out great with very little traffic (compared to the northeast side of town) and no slow-downs until we got to Marietta, which is actually northwest of Atlanta, and after all of its traffic issues.  Our stopping point for the first night was Harvest Moon RV Park, Adairsville, GA.  We had a nice, level pull-through site with full hookups including cable.  A very nice amenity at this park is FREE laundry.  We took advantage of that and did three loads!

    

Tuesday, 6/3, we travelled up to Clarksville RV Park and Campground, Clarksville, TN.

    

Once again, we had a nice pull-through site with full hookups, but no cable this time.  However, we could get all the major networks with our antenna.  It’s a nice park, but there’s a scrap metal yard across the street and it’s a bit noisy during the day.  You can see the scrap yard behind this nicely placed sign near the exit of the park.

Our third day of travel, Wednesday, 6/4,  found us landing at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge near Carbondale, IL.  Some volunteer friends from Thurmond Lake are volunteering at Crab Orchard Campground for the fifth year in a row.  Dennis and Mary saved us a nice pull-through full hookup site right next to them.

    

Just in front of our site was a beautiful view of Crab Orchard Lake.

The four of us went out to dinner at nearby Giant City Lodge located in Giant City State Park.

    

The inside of the lodge is beautiful!

    

    

The dining room, one of three, was huge.

They get quite busy on weekends and holidays, but this particular night there was no waiting.  We all chose the chicken dinner served family style.  All the food was delicious!  Unfortunately I was so focused on the food I forgot to take pictures.  After dinner we headed back to the campground and played cards.  It was really nice seeing Dennis and Mary again.  Hopefully we’ll see them again this spring.

Thursday, 6/5, was our fourth and final day of travel for a couple of weeks.  We’re staying at Prairie Pines Campground in Rantoul, IL, north of Champaign.  Our friends Jim and Linda stay here every summer.  Unfortunately Linda is dealing with some health issues and they’re still down in Florida, but they’re planning to head up this way in July.  We really hope we can stop back here and visit them.  We have a nice, full hookup, pull-through site under some nice shade trees.  We’re able to get our DirecTv signal and networks with our antenna, but the WIFI here is very weak forcing us to use our Verizon data plan.

    

Friday, 6/6, was our 33rd wedding anniversary!

We went to Red Lobster in Champaign for lunch.  Again, I forgot to take pictures!  I guess I’m out of practice.


On Monday, 6/9, we drove up to Kankakee River State Park to visit some more volunteer friends from Thurmond Lake.  Rich and Jacquie are camp hosting at Kankakee for the summer before they head back south.  We had a real nice visit, went out for lunch, and then played cards.  It was a great afternoon catching up with our friends.  Once again, we were having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures!  These pics were taken the day they left Lake Thurmond to head north.

    

We’re staying here for a couple of weeks so that I can attend some of the local short track dirt racing events in the area.

On Thursday, 6/19, we’ll be packing up and heading out for a new destination.  It will be a fun week of more races, and spending time with some friends we haven’t seen in over a year!