Argyle Lake State Park July 18 and 19

This is the friendliest park we had been to since Memorial weekend at Shabbona State Park! The hosts were great, and the other campers were fun and good people.

I went early on Friday to be sure we got a good site with 50 amp and lots of shade. The forecast was calling for a hot weekend. I found site 73 to my liking. As part of my setup I usually put up our EIU Panther flag in the front of the RV. It works to obstruct the view of the interior of the coach from the casual glance and shows our football loyalty. Soon after I put the flag up I noticed the gentleman across from me look at the flag and it was not long before he put up his Illini flag.

As many of you know EIU plays the Illini on the second week of the season.

Jim, Karen and family were parked across from us and are staunch Illinois Football fans. Even so I was able to overlook that fault and it wasn't long before we were chatting and I was being introduced to the other campers in the area. In fact when Cindy arrived around 6pm the first thing she noticed was that I was talking with a group of three ladies.

As you can see the campground is spacious and well shaded. There is plenty open space between campers creating a large park like setting. If you want a secluded camp site there are a limited few on the outer edges of the campground.

Saturday morning the Friends of Argyle Lake were offering a guided canoe outting to see the sites around the 93 acre lake. I had talked to the guide on Friday to see if we could tag along in our own boat, which she said would be great since it would leave more canoes available. We got there early to inflate the boat and had time for some pictures while the guide went over the safety rules for the people riding in the canoes.

The best part of the tour was the herons and this tributary of the LeMoine River that drains into Argyle Lake.

The canoes rode to low in the water to go into this "river." So we had it to ourselves.

Very narrow with lots of cattails. And very quiet! Since Cindy was in the front of the boat, I let her be our guide and paddle us in and then back out again. She did a very nice job!

Got these pictures of this heron after we decided to go on our own while the rest of the group went on towards the dam.

In the middle of the afternoon Jason and Michelle arrived to tent camp. Michelle is in the recovery stages of cancer and has to be careful about what she exposes herself to. Previous to her illness they did a lot of skiing, camping, and other outdoor activities. This camping trip was a way for her to try to get back some of her old life without much risk since we had the RV if she needed a cool comfortable place to rest. Thankfully she did not need the comforts of the RV nor did she use them as that would have been "cheating."

We have been RVing for a year and a half now and have never done s'mores! At times we had brought the fixin's with us, but never got around to actually making them. So it was a nice surprise when Michelle decided that we were all going to have s'mores before we called it a day.

Sunday Morning was pleasant. We sat and drank coffee while visiting with Jim and Karen and Michelle and Jason. Before they left Karen surprised us with green beans, potatoes, a sweet onion, and two tomatoes. Cindy added some polish sausage to the potatoes, green beans, and onion and we had a tasty dinner when we got home.

Ken F.