June 13

June 13, 2007

The first morning away from home was pretty laid back. Some of us slept in, but the crazier half went running. We all cleaned up a little in the Wal-Mart bathrooms (very nice by the way) and planned out the day.
Showers were top on the list of priorities. There was a lake nearby and a place called “Indiana Beach.” We wanted to take a dip and wash off there, but it turns out that the beach was inside some amusement park that we didn’t want to pay to get into. We traveled further up the river that fed into the lake, to take a bath. It was all private property and illegal to go into. We chose not to break any laws, and hit the road to make up for lost time.
On the road we stopped for a picture by the Illinois state border. The road was all cornfields to either side for miles. We parked just down the road from the “Welcome to Illinois” sign and walked. Six guys without shirts, with video cameras rolling, must have looked pretty suspicious because we got a lot of strange looks. One truck passed us going at least 60mph, made a hard stop, turned around, and offered us all a ride. We told him we were going to California in an RV just around the corner from where we were standing. He was a little jealous as he turned his truck and trailer around.
Just down the road we hit an overpass that crossed a small river. A perfect place to take a bath. We all hopped in suits grabbed some soap and took off to the Ol’ swimmin’ hole. The banks were just muk, but I think we made out a little cleaner than when we went in.
The rest of the day was spent on the road. The Bago, now named Helen, was giving us a little trouble. It died on us a couple times but “time heals all wounds” as the new motto goes. We are well on our way to Cali. The attitude of all the guys is good. We thought if we make it through the first few days, we can make it all the way. We’ve made it through the first two, we’re waiting to see what comes.


From Subway it’s the Winnebago Guys signing out,
Mclean, Illinois
About 320 miles (estimate) from home