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Published: August 19th 2008
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From our “fancy” campsite at the gas station in Kellogg, IA we headed for Illinois. We had had enough of IA and needed a change of pace. We had been having some really long days so we decided in the early afternoon that we would stop early today and find a place to just “chill”. You know you are at a breaking point when you are eating lunch at Arby’s…a sure way to send you to the nearest gastroenterologist. We found a gem of a place in Utica, IL. Hickory Hill Campground…it had a nice swimming pool, shaded RV site, cheap laundry and a store that sold the makings for smores’…we were in business and it was only 3:30pm. I even took a NAP! How sweet life is! Everyone got to relax and do something they had wanted to do…even if it was doing NOTHING!
The next morning we made our way to Chicago, IL. Chris had found Oak Park which had the Frank Lloyd Wright houses so we decided that would be a nice spot to check out. It took a long time to meander our way to Oak Park but what a beautiful place to visit. We did
Van Wert, OH
Yummy home cooked food! not do a tour but we did walk the streets and see some beautiful homes. We then headed for downtown Chicago to find the original Pizzeria Uno! Chris had driven in earlier in the day so I got the fun part of driving straight into the dragon’s mouth. We made it in, found Uno’s, had to circle around because where in the world do you park a 25 foot RV in Chicago? I have to admit that I was ready to conceit defeat because we really needed an end parking space to make this work. We circled around one more time and a block from Uno’s I spotted an end spot, unbelievable. The people that were parked in the spot behind it happened to be there adding more money (and they were both truck drivers) so they moved back as I backed the monster in, we put money in the meter and headed for some chow. This could only happen once in a lifetime! Uno’s was neat. It was really small and required 45 minutes for the pizza to be made because it is made from scratch. It was torture waiting because we were very hungry but it was well
worth the wait…for most of us Nick wasn’t too psyched with the cheese pizza but the rest of us were being satiated. Out of Chicago and off to Indiana. We had a campsite in Hannah, IN half way around a fish pond away from the rest of the campground. It is important to note that this was the first time we started to see golf carts cruising the sites. There was even a golf cart parade at 9 pm that night. Good times!
Today was a college visit day! We back tracked a little to get our daily fix of Starbuck’s and then we headed for the Valparaiso bookstore for a NCAA T-shirt. Next stop…South Bend, IN and Notre Dame. We spent some time walking around Notre Dame which was absolutely gorgeous. Everyone really liked visiting Notre Dame. Chris really wanted to steal Charlie Weiss and put him in the RV but we never got sight of him. Chris will just have to wait a little longer for his dream of Charlie returning to the Patriots. Our next mission to find an eating establishment written about in our Road Food book that was located in Huntington, IN. It was called Nick’s Kitchen…I’m sure you can guess at who was most excited about this stop and the most disappointed when we found out it closed for the day at 2pm and it was now 6pm. One of the main reasons for the stop was the enticement of pie! Devin has been on a pie mission for the past few weeks and we thought this place with its homemade butterscotch pie might be able to add a feather under his cap…not today! You should know that the book said it was open for BL and Dinner so this was an unexpected set back. All of you political junkies should note that there is a Dan Quayle museum in Huntington, IN…add that to your next vacation! Good thing we had a 2nd option available…continue on to Van Wert, OH. In Van Wert we had read about a restaurant called Balyeat’s that has been open since the early 1900’s. Driving down mainstreet you can’t miss the neon sign that is all lit up and we were in luck because it was open. You feel like you are eating at home at Balyeat’s. I had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans with homemade biscuits. I topped the meal off with banana cream pie, yummy. The waitress was older and gave us a lot of history of the place. The owner has worked there since he was twelve and has owned it since the 60’s. He was such a cute little guy. The lady’s aunt, who’s in her 80’s makes the biscuits and pies fresh each morning and there are many regulars that frequent the fresh food. Devin and I particularly liked Balyeat’s…a slice of America!
We camped in Van Wert at the Huggy Bear Campground. WOW did we enter the twilight zone. EVERYONE drives a golf cart and they do it all the time…checking out who is in, who is new, who are the crazy people in the rented RV? They put us at an end sight (the corner of Gummy Lane and Teddy Bear Lane) so we were in a fishbowl for all to see. It was silly….it got to the point that Chris was videotaping them driving around our RV. This was a memorable, funny place.
A late start…11am..the latest ever! We were heading towards Cleveland but staying right outside. So we had a leisurely day as we drove and decided along the way to stop at Kent State to see the memorial for the students killed May 1970 while protesting the Vietnam War. It was a very reflective moment for all.
We then decided that we needed to find a campground and food. We decided on a KOA in Streetsboro, OH and ate a mish mash of food out of the RV. The boys had a nice time sliding down the 10 foot slide in the pond. I cannot tell you how many ducks there were in the pond but they both braved it in and had a swim. Family ice cream…Kettle Crunch…caramel ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips crushed in it…yum. To bed early so that everyone can rise and shine and go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!!!!!
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