Here I am, sitting in my new trailer down in Kentucky at my parents place. Ahhhhh….our first camping trip with the new trailer and the new tow vehicle! It is really quite nice. We love the Rockwood trailer and have been working the kinks out on this first trip.
Before I get into our experiences on our first trip of the year I do need to say to those of you in Southern Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky I feel really bad that you have been dealing with the flooding. While preparing for our trip, I had stayed totally introverted into my own activities and not on worldly news. I hadn’t realized that you were dealing with this disastrous flooding. My only concern was getting away from Northern Illinois and out of what has seemed to be the longest winter ever! The first traces of what you have been dealing with showed its ugly head in central Illinois where as we made our trek south, we were amazed by the number of trees that were ripped down by strong winds. Then we started seeing the effects of the heavy rains you had been dealing with by seeing every flood plain under water. When we arrived at my parents place outside Murray Kentucky, I was amazed at how soggy the ground was! All one had to do was walk on the grass and their feet would be soaking wet! To all of you, my thoughts and prayers are with you.
I would like to say that I have been relaxing, but the truth is that I have been really busy with chores and maintenance for my parents. They save the tasks up for my visits and I do my best to get them done. I am not complaining as I really don’t mind doing these things.
My wife and I took time on Friday to go into Murray Kentucky to look around and do a bit of shopping. While on our way, we saw something neither one of have ever seen firsthand! As we were driving, we noticed an unmarked police car coming from the other direction speed into the turn-around. As I passed, I watched in the rear view mirror as the officer opened his trunk and started throwing stuff on the ground until he grabbed something and ran across the road and threw a spike strip onto the highway! I couldn’t believe it and we were very concerned in being way too close to something bad. We were, of course, tempted to stay and watch, but obviously decided that was a bad idea and so we stayed on course to Murray. We saw at least eight or nine squad cars racing towards the direction we came from and then finally came an ambulance. We found out this morning what had happened. It was some idiot who was trying to outrun the police and finally wrecked…flipping his truck. My wife and mother told me that they saw something about it on the Paducah NBC news. That was exciting, but admittedly….too close for comfort!
I was so glad to be in the South; especially since it reached 74 degrees yesterday while back home we were watching news about more snow. My wife checked with her parents and we lucked out on the snow which is great news because I have no desire to shovel anymore!My son built a model rocket today and we launched that. When I was a kid, I used to build and launch model rockets. It reminded me of how fun that is. If you are looking for something that a family can do together, model rocketry is really quite good for all! I highly recommend it! Plus it’s a great thing to make the kids run after the rocket when it floats down and someone needs to retrieve it.I brought my cool Christmas present with me to play with. Yes I said play! I asked for and got a 1/16 scale radio control German Tiger Tank! It is one of the best toys I have every owned! If it sounds like I haven’t grown up….well….at nearly 43…..I can say that you are correct! I have always told my kid to never give up his childhood and his desire to buy toys! It is probably not great advice for some as I know some of the women will say that we guys are all children anyway! I can accept that!Today is Easter and we will be heading to LBL which is the Land Between the lakes. Also known as the Kentucky Lakes. My parents live just 15 minutes from the lakes and so we will be going there to see the buffalo and bison. If you have not visited here you must put it on your list of places to visit!We will be departing early Monday morning for home. This is a short trip but again it will have allowed us to shake the kinks out of our trailer, tow vehicle and….well…us!Happy Easter and Happy Camping…..see you next Sunday!