Trippin' with Susan Straley

July 9, 2020 Hi there!  I made it safely to Madison, Wisconsin. I am sitting writing this in Kathi's den.  She has a separate window air conditioner for this room so there is less air exchanged with the rest of the home.  I keep having to remind myself to put my mask back on so I don't contaminate her space... just in case. She made me a lovely koozie for my water bottle.  Last I wrote I was at a campground with Wifi in Goodfield, near Peoria, Illinois. As I was packing up I saw this lovely bug on my van. As you can see my van got covered in dust at the Timberline campground.  There is a drought going on and a lot of four wheeled carts speeding down the gravel drives. First I drove the back roads to Janesville, WI.  My son Jeremy and his wife Mel live there.  They showed me around the yard where Jeremy has been working to clean out fallen limbs and Mel has been weeding the flower beds. Because Jeremy is sensitive to heat and it was over 90 degrees, they i

July 6, 2020 Still I am still in Goodfield, Illinois and just finished a great ride with Peggy and Denny T. and their bike buddy Dirk.  We went over rolling hills and past corn and soybean fields. Dirk said the corn is starting to curl, they are experiencing a drought here.  Wow, seven inches of rain and flooding in Vienna, Illinois and a drought here.  He said if it doesn't rain in the next week or so the farmers would have to cut the corn for silage .  We entered the cute town of Eureka.  We roamed some streets and ended up at this memorial on the campus of the college.  Denny said his dad attended this college too.  We saw one building that was marked 1894.  I think the old iron peice in the picture below which is built right into the brick wall, was holding on a downspout.  Now a new downspout sits right next to it. We went by the corner where Denny and Peggy had their big tandem accident.  She broke her hip and her back and her collar bone.  Den

July 4, 2020 Hey!   I just remembered that I forgot to tell you something. When I was driving from Florida (visiting Joan G.) to Mississippi (to visit Jean H.), I was starting to look for a gas station.   It wasn’t time yet, but if I found a nice one that looked clean and big enough to maneuver my rig, I might pull over.   I am heading up Hwy 84 in Alabama.   It is hilly and lined with forests mostly.   I don’t know I am on Hwy 84, I am not paying attention.   The Googlemap App tells me to turn and I turn, I trust it (most the time) to take me where I want to go.    I am listening to a delightful audiobook, How the Penguins Saved Veronica . Coming up is a smallish-but-nice gas station on the left at an intersection.   As I zoom by it hits me.   I wonder if I should turn around.   It was ho w the side road angles, how there is a long incline in front of me.   Could it be? I look at the shoulder.   There is probably a two-foot shoulder with 1/3 of it taken u