Some pics
I had the opportunity to visit Memorial University in Newfoundland as a part of an accreditation visit, they pay normal travel expenses, the visit takes a day, and an 8000 mile drive
I've always been into road trips and I was probably going to drive as far as Chicago anyway so a few more weeks and my daughter and I get to see some different territory. Of course I took my three dogs along for the ride. I posted about the truck and camper in the FWC Forum so this will be a few pictures and the highlights.
Home is Las Cruces, NM hot and dry. My initial destination was the Chicago area to visit friends and family. I wasn't in any hurry and had an idea of a route but nothing absolute. It may be a surprise to some but there are some interesting sites in the Texas panhandle. We had stayed at Copper Breaks before but this time we opted for Caprock Canyon State Park.
Wasn't too hot given it was Texas in August. Decent campsite, A Buffalo herd, and some nice trails along the canyon edge.
Next day was getting across Oklahoma which was a lot of interstate and some rain but just before Missouri we headed North into SE Kansas and Crawford State Park. We were heading towards Labor Day when campgrounds get filled in advance in the Midwest. This was Wednesday and there weren't many people there but all the electric sites were reserved and had trailers sitting there. Our site was described as "primitive" but not the primitive we are used to out West, just no electric or sewer!
We were backed up to the lake and had lots of room, a good thing with three dogs.
Next day we took the back roads across Missouri including a stretch on the Lewis and Clark trail
And from there into Western Illinois. We stayed at Siloam Springs State Park, nice forest and lake with some rain and hardly anyone around.
From there a short trip into the West suburbs of Chicago on a Friday of a holiday weekend
I planned to get there before the biggest rush but an hour South on I55 my right rear caught a nasty piece of metal and I had to pull to the side.
The usual jack isn't worth much so I pulled out the farm jack and planned to do a quick change but the viscous winds exaggerated by the trucks and buses wizzing by a few feet away made the farm jack pretty unstable so I remembered I had a road service plan I had never used. Made the call and not too long later help arrived with a big lift and the spare was slapped on. The tires are pretty new and had a road hazard plan so I called them and they located a tire dealer just a mile up the road. I am running Firestone 285/75/16s E rated, not a tire you expect to find in rural Pontiac, Illinois. But this place was a Firestone dealer, he initially didn't imagine he had my size, everyone agreed the hole was too big for a safe extended use patch but lo and behold they had an exact match
Not too long and I was back on the road, cost me $100 but for a service call and a new $200 tire I wasn't complaining. Traffic sucked but kept moving and I got to where I had to go. "Camped" in the driveway in the burbs with the dogs. Fell asleep to the sounds of I294 and a few planes approaching O'Hare.
More later.
