Log June 30th - July 2nd

Hi everyone..haven't been able to get to Wifi for a few days, so 3 days of log. Sitting outside the Humboldt supermarket where they have free wifi!
Sorry, the pictures are in the wrong order, will get back into the swing of things soon!

Meg

Tuesday June 30^th

Woke at 8, with the smell of bacon cooking for breakfast. Evelyn had told us of a good camera store in Fort Wayne, Sunny Shicks, so that was our first stop to try and sort out my lens. outside it didn’t look very inviting, a big narrow 2 storied brick building, with no windows, and a small front door. But what a find, the store hadn’t changed a lot in 80 years, but was full of top quality Canon and Nikon gear, tripods and lighting systems…a toyworld for me. The 4 guys were all so helpful, and they thought their service guy could get the broken filter off, but he wasn’t in, so we left it with them.

Then onto the AAA ( American Automobile Association) and picked up maps and information for all the states we intended visiting during our 3 month stay. 3 bags of info at no charge, as we are members of the AA in NZ.

Back to Marge’s for lunch, and a phone call from the camera store…all fixed…couldn’t believe it. I was so lucky to find such a place, and also that the camera hadn’t had more damage after its fall. Marge and I went back into town while Ian had a snooze. Cost of the repair…just $20 and a new filter!

Relaxed for the afternoon waiting hoping to hear that Ruakiwi was ready to be collected, but no news, finally Marge rang at 5.30, to hear that they were going to test drive it in the morning to make sure that the brakes were alright.

I was very quickly developing a head cold so quite happy to have a quiet evening, ended up watching a rerun of “The man from Laramie”.

Wednesday July 1^st Genesoa, IL

Quite a day, and still really blocked up with my cold. We have ordered a new mattress from the Born Free factory in Humboldt, Iowa, and need to get there before tomorrow afternoon as they are shut on Friday for the July 4^th weekend holiday. It was about 500 miles, so decided to take the freeways, and just drive for 2 days. Very pleased to get the call at 9 that the van was ready, and there were no problems, so loaded all our bags into Marge’s car and drove to Decatur to pick her up. Transferred our gear, and set Jilly for Humboldt and we were on our way. It wasn’t a sad farewell to Marge as we will see her again in February.

We were feeling quite pleased with ourselves as we headed West, and after about 1 ½ hours, I suddenly remembered that my camera bag and another were still in the back sear of Marge’s car. Oh boy, and we didn’t have a cell phone geared up. Our new Sprint phone was in the bags we had left behind, but luckily my Verizon phone was in my handbag. We called into a restaurant and the guy very kindly let us use his phone to ring Marge…she hadn’t realised that they were still there. Said we would head back to Fort Wayne and rendezvous, but firstly needed to get the phone connected. As luck would have it, there was a Verizon store close by, and within minutes we were all organised.

So back tracked for ¾ hour and after a few wrong turnings,and lots of phone calls managed to find Marge. So it was back on the road again, now 1.30 and only just leaving Fort Wayne!!!

We hit the freeway and just drove. Stopped at Walmart at Plymouth and while I stocked up the van, Ian managed almost an hours sleep. The freeways were pretty busy and complicated around the outskirts of Chicago, but Jilly didn’t let us down.A few more rest stops along the way, and we finally stopped at a Walmart in Genesoa, on the western side of Illonois. Checked out with the store and they were very happy for us to park the night. Both of us were feeling shattered, combination of jetlag and my very heavy head cold, we had a sandwich and went to bed. Heard trucks coming and going during the night, but slept really well.

Thursday July 2^nd

Made a coffee, to drink on the road and we were off driving again by 7 am. Jilly tells us we will be in Humboldt by 12.15, without stops. We continued along the I80, one of the major East/West routes across the states, can’t go over the number of 18 wheelers on the road, it is just a continual stream. This is the first time that we have spent much time on freeways.

Crossed the Mississippi River going into Iowa, it is very wide and has that lazy look to it. The Iowa countryside is flat to rolling, and is cropped with corn and soy for as far as you can see, broken up by clusters of trees around the homesteads and barns.

Had a few breaks and a quick stop at a roadside café for lunch, and we continued on arriving at Humboldt at 1.30.

The customer service at Born Free left a little to be desired, but we bought the new mattress, and they took our old one away. Biggest surprise was to meet Susan and Wayne Berry from Queenstown outside the factory. We had made email contact with them last year through the Born Free club. As they spend 3 months of the year travelling through the states, they were a great help with advice over numerous matters, and we thoroughly enjoyed reading their travel diary. So meeting them in person was great, and they were able to direct us to a wonderful campsite, just out of Humboldt on a county park…and at $10 a night was a real bonus.

Think we will stay put for a few days and recharge the batteries. The weather has turned really hot, with clear blue skies, it really feels like we are on holiday again,