2010-03-27 Beaver Dam to Paducah

As we headed from Beaver Dam State Park into southern Illinois, I reviewed our options for the night’s stay. We had been to Fort Massac State Park at the base of Illinois and knew that it was an option. It was $20 for a weekend night, electric only, back-in sites. The sites at Fort Massac haven’t been upgraded in some time (an doubtfully will be with Illinois poor financial state). With the steady rain we were a bit concerned about the amount of mud we’d have to deal with in the state park. It just so happened that there was a park, Duck Creek, at I-24, exit 11, once in to Kentucky that was $23 with Good Sam’s but was full hookups, wifi , a dog run, and pull-thru sites. We decided to drive the additional 15 minutes and spend the extra $3. Doing this without www.rvparkreviews.com to check is always a bit worrisome for us but for one night’s stay we decided to take the chance.

It had been rainy and windy the entire trip and Ken just wanted to pull in somewhere and stop with as little hassle as possible.

Duck Creek was definitely the right choice. It is an older park with no ‘it’ factor, but with very friendly and helpful owners and very easy on/off access for an overnight stop. The dogs loved having the fenced dog park to run in since its very seldom they get to be outside without a leash. They were like little kids racing each other from end to end, and just generally frolicking. I’m hoping since this seems to be a frequent route for us that we’ll happen through here again at a time when the owner is having one of his park jam sessions which apparently are almost every night during better weather. He both plays and carves beautiful dulcimers. I love to listen to them and have even toyed with the idea of picking up playing as a hobby. Really wanted to learn piano but they’re not as easy to carry in the RV!!

As far as Ditka was concerned this park was heaven. Besides the dog park, a feisty cat put on a show for him on the front dash of the motorhome next to us. It was hard to get him to leave that front row seat he had.

Duck Creek had free cable but once again Ken had problems getting it to work. He’s pretty certain there is something mis-wired in the coach since we’ve never been able to use a private park’s cable. It really made no difference since we could get network channels and both of us were spending quite a bit of time on the internet.

In fact, in doing his online finance work, Ken found that Discover had mis-applied a payment on my account to his account and I now showed a $40 late fee. We pride ourselves in always having paid of credit cards in the month of the charge and never having paid late fees or finance charges so this really got him going. He went back and pulled up the online bank documentation showing the check had cleared and that it was marked for the correct account. It was a Sunday night but with both of us on the phone and internet it was resolved, the moneys re-applied correctly and the late fee removed all in about 15 minutes. Good to be able to prove we have the tools to monitor, research and correct these things from the road.

We cooked salmon croquettes, Velveeta shells and cheese, and canned green beans for dinner since we hadn’t restocked our fresh meats and veggies. I know that doesn’t exactly sound like a Weightwatchers meal but we use olive oil vs butter for cooking the salmon, and 2% shells and cheese so I stayed on program, not having eaten much but fruits and a sandwich on the road all day.

I was also able to get in a Nordic Track session to help offset the minor excesses!! In January I was able to get 6 activity points for 33 minutes on a ski machine. As I lose weight, the amount of time needed to get 6 points goes up so I now have to do 37 minutes –kind of a negative motivation!! Also, in January I was allowed 24 points for food per day. Now I’m down to 22 so I get to eat less and have to exercise more the better I do on the program….doesn’t quite seem fair even if it does make sense!

We usually try to keep about 3 days of fresh meal items on hand but try to keep several boxed and canned meal items on hand also so that we don’t have to hit the grocery store if it’s inconvenient. It also takes away the excuse that there’s nothing to cook so we have to go out!!
It didn’t turn out to be the best night for sleeping since a strong spring storm with heavy rain, lots of lightning and thunder passed over about 1a.m. Sox went in to a panic as usual with storms and insisted on pacing between Ken and I on the bed, sitting on our heads.

Monday, we enjoyed a lazy start up, since it was still raining and we knew the weather was moving in front of us. By the time we got back on the road at 11am the rain and winds were gone which was good since Ken was driving on less than a good night’s sleep.

There was a large gas station next to the RV park with reasonably priced diesel, $2.89, so we filled up before getting on the road.

Tomorrow, I’ll post the promised blog on how I’m using my Kindle for internet access on this trip.

Hugs, C