Bo Wood Campground

Our next stop south in Illinois was a Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake Shelbyville. 

COE campgrounds are interesting to me. We are usually the smallest rig in these campgrounds. Bathrooms are exceptionally clean.  Campsites all had concrete pads, 50 amp electrical service, identical fire rings, and a hooked pole for hanging trash. It was almost like the place was run by the military. Wait, it was run by the U.S Army. 

For my friends who enjoy boondocking, this represented the other end of the camping continuum. There wasn’t much hiking here so we enjoyed the lake views, sampled Illinois Amish country, and had some great stuffed pizza at a jaw-dropping low price.

The Stag beer in my hand, a second Stag, two large glasses of wine for Julia, the pizza and generous tip were less than thirty dollars. The pizzeria, Rosariti’s, near Sullivan, shared space with a gas station. Five stars—if ambiance is excluded from the rating. 

Stag was originally a local brew to Illinois. It is now owned by Pabst and has a similar flavor profile—best served very cold.

Scamping at Starved Rock State Park

I've lived in Wisconsin for over fifty years now.  During that time, I've been trained/conditioned to belittle the flatlanders who live to our south in the State of Illinois. Every summer weekend, a long procession of folks from Illinois drive up to Wisconsin for outdoor recreation.  The idea of someone from the Badger state heading south to Illinois for outdoor recreation just seems upside down. 

Nevertheless, one day in the early spring, I was reading a magazine article about Starved Rock State Park, and the photos were amazing.  In fact, the scenery reminded me of things I'm used to seeing around here at Devil's Lake, the Wisconsin Dells, and Gibraltar Rock.  

Starved Rock is just south of Interstate 80 and only about an hour from the southwest edge of the Chicago metropolitan area.  That means less than three hours from my house in Wisconsin.  So as tourists from Illinois headed up to the Dells in late April, Julia and I headed south into Illinois on a Monday morning.  

In April, you could make camping reservations at Illinois State Parks three days in advance of camping.  I could tell that there were going to be open campsites.  When we arrived, there was a helpful map at the campground entrance detailing which sites were available for the next 1 or 2 days.  We made a list of likely spots and quickly found one to our liking.  

The day was still young, so we were off to the trails.  The first thing we noticed is that this is a very heavily utilized park--even on a weekday afternoon in April.  Many families, young children and dogs were on the trail.  Thankfully, all of the other dogs were leashed. That makes all of the difference in the world where my dog Callie is concerned.  She still doesn't like other dogs, but the situation is at least safe and controllable.  If she is overly aggressive, I just scoop her up into my arms and walk by the other party.  She doesn't like it, but she puts up with it. 

The further that we hiked away from the main parking lots and lodge, the fewer people we saw.  That was okay because we were here to see nature.  And there was a lot to see.

 

We stayed two days and nights  There was plenty of time to relax at the campsite.

And in town.  We spent a pleasant late afternoon at the Lone Buffalo brewpub in Ottawa, Illinois.

With such great natural beauty and good beer, we wondered why we had not previously ventured into northern Illinois for camping.  We decided to press our luck and continued south.

Catch-Up

For the last several months, I haven't been posting in real-time. 

The first reason for that is security.  I've blogged before about one of my neighbors who had some trouble with the law.  As far as I can tell, he is on some kind of work-release program and not allowed to drive.  I don't think he is living in the house, but I'm not completely sure.   When we were in Texas, another neighbor called to let me know that the outlaw's adult sons were parked in my front yard for a couple of days and had walked up to their Dad's house. 

Nothing was stolen or damaged, but it did give me pause to question whether or not I should be "live blogging" my whereabouts/plans when no one is at home.  

The second reason is that our family has been going through some tough times, and I haven't felt like writing during those times. I've mentioned that Gene, Julia's dad, has really struggled for the past couple of years post-stroke.  After a number of weeks in hospice, Gene passed away on April 1st.  We were advised that it would probably happen before that, but my brother-in-law Scott predicted that his Dad would hold out for April Fool's Day, and he was right.  

Justin made it through the semester and is now fully vaccinated. There were some hiccups along the way.  One of Justin's caregivers had to leave suddenly when his father died from Covid.  There wasn't enough back-up to make things work so Justin ended up unexpectedly at home for awhile.  At least, we weren't in Texas when that happened. 

We have been sneaking in trips when we can, including a two week Scamp adventure to southern Illinois and Iowa, which I will be blogging about in future weeks.  The summer is up in the air, but we hope that more trips will be possible from time to time.  

Justin will be home for a couple of weeks and then is heading back for summer school to try to catch up a little after a reduced-credit semester.  He turns 21 this week, and there may be a masked, socially-distanced, limited shindig of some kind.  Justin doesn't really like alcohol, and overindulgence is a really bad idea for someone dependent upon a power wheelchair,  but he said he would like to try a very spicy Bloody Mary. 

Scamping in Iowa

 In early April, we retrieved the Scamp from the pole barn and headed for Dubuque, Iowa. Open campgrounds are not widely available this time of year in the Upper Midwest, but we found a couple good ones about thirty minutes south of Dubuque not far from the shores of the Mississippi River near the town of Bellevue.

Our first campground was the county-operated Spruce Creek, and it was a steal at $22/ night and a choice of waterfront sites. In fact, we could choose any of the campsites here because we were the only ones camping. It wasn’t too hard to find the perfect spot.

One of the reasons that no one else was camping is that the flush toilets and shower house were not open yet. There were pit toilets and the Scamp’s bathroom, so we didn’t mind. We passed several days hiking area trails and watching the barges go up and down the river. The town of Bellevue has locks to facilitate the barges. There is nothing better for the lazy man than to watch the locks in operation. 

Bellevue State Park has a campground and many trails. With a few days of rain in the forecast, we eventually moved to that campground, which did have open hot showers and was a couple of dollars cheaper than the county park. Our campsite didn’t have the river at our steps, but the views were incredible.

We prepared nearly all of our meals at the campsite, but we did make it out one night to a local eatery. The food and drink were good.

However, even though we are both fully vaccinated, the restaurant seemed too crowded. Pre-pandemic, it was easier to overlook a coughing fit at a nearby table. But, man, it just doesn’t feel right yet. I will take my chances outdoors.  To beat the crowds, camping for a week in April along the Mississippi River in Iowa is highly recommended.