The Goshen Rally---Day 4

We spent Sunday lazing around Don & Vicki's house in Arkansas. It rained off and on most of the day so was a good day to do nothing. Don and I did get the windshield wiper problem fixed, even if it is a temporary thing. We used cable tie wraps to secure the wiper blades to the arms. I'll look at doing something permanent when we get home.

We left Greer's Ferry on Monday morning and headed north. It was still overcast but we did not have any rain. Around Branson, Missouri, it started to clear off and soon after getting onto Interstate 44 we had sunshine. We drove in sunshine the rest of the day. Original plan was to stop in Sullivan, Missouri, to re-fuel and then spend the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It was only 4:00pm when we got to Sullivan so we decided to press on, even though we knew that would put us into St Louis during their evening rush hour. As it turned out the traffic was relatively light in our direction and we got through there rather quickly. We wound up stopping at Vandalia, Illinois, for the night. A large Wal-Mart parking area set aside for trucks and RV's. There were several RV's spending the night there along with a bunch of trucks.

We left out of Vandalia around 8:30 this morning and headed across Illinois. East on I-44 to Effingham and then north on I-57. About 50 miles south of Chicago we got off the Interstate and headed east on a two lane highway. No sooner than we got moving on that road we came up behind a long line of vehicles that were trapped behind a very slow moving truck with the base of one of the huge windmills that are sprouting up all over the country. This was such a wide load that no one could pass it. Finally, after about 20 miles we came to a section of four lane highway and we all got around. We went into Indiana and picked up I-65 north to I-80. Up until this point the weather had been beautiful but at I-80 it became overcast and we hit light pockets of rain.

We arrived at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen around 4:30pm (EST). There is another rally going on this week so we are not able to park in the regular rally area. We are out in the overflow section with only electric and water hookups. The other rally ends Thursday and they will be pulling out on Friday so we should be able to move over to the full hookup sites then. The other club officer's will start arriving tomorrow. We'll spend this week working with the other club officer's getting everything ready for the rally plus do some sightseeing in the area. (Once the rally gets under way I seldom have time to get off the fairgrounds.) They have had some rain here and the ground is pretty soft. When I put the jacks down to level the coach the right rear jack buried several inches in the ground and was stuck. We had to start up the coach and rock it a little to break the jack free so it would come back up. Fortunately, I carry some boards just for this purpose. Put the boards under the jacks and we are relatively level.